Winter usually looks bare

Most gardens peak in summer and go flat by December. At Jonathan Scott and Zooey Deschanel's place, the cold months look just as considered as the warm ones.

Park House sets the stage

Their 1938 Georgian Revival sits on just over an acre in Brentwood, with sycamores, red brick paths and white wood siding. Gerard Colcord designed it.

Planted for all four seasons

The couple chose plants that hold up past summer, using evergreen shrubs to keep shape in the garden through the coldest stretch of the year.

Structure is the whole trick

When perennials die back, clipped evergreens keep the bones visible. They define paths, borders and separate areas of the yard when there is little color left.

“The most reliable way to approach winter landscape design is to focus on the evergreens that make up the physical frame of the garden”

Spheres along the brick

Evergreen balls sit beneath the trees along their brick walkways. Garden editor Tenielle Jordison reads them as classic boxwood or a hardy box alternative.

Frost makes them better

Those shapes hold their form all winter and look their best in frost, dew, or low afternoon light, exactly when the rest of the garden has given up.

“They hold their form through the winter months and can look especially beautiful in frost, dew, or low winter light.”

Pick the right shrub

American boxwood clips into neat hedges, wintergreen boxwood suits pots and topiary, Japanese boxwood is fast and forgiving, and skip laurel screens a patio.

Works without the acre

Pot dwarf boxwood spheres to frame a small patio, or run a low evergreen border along a narrow path. Get the frame right and seasonal planting does the rest.