Winter garden view - any suggestions?

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Primrose
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Once my long side garden border where I grow climbing beans, tomatoes and salad crops has been cleared for the winter I'll find myself staring out at six bare dark green-stained empty fence panels and mostly bare earth during the long winter months.

I'd rather like something temporary and inexpensive to liven up the area during this dreary period but apart from a big banner exclaiming what I think of politicians right now, I'm devoid of ideas! .

Seriously though, does anybody have any thoughts for something which might provide some interest and lighten the spirits when I look out of the window? Or do you think the bareness of winter is part of the natural cycle of nature which we should just live with?
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Diane
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I know how you feel - but what about a dogwood in a pot, or Arbutus or Witch Hazel, underplanted with winter pansies - or a large pot with a trellis framework of Hamamelis. Also sarcococca scent is wonderful. And what about fairy lights to brighten the gloom? We've got a little solar powered robin which makes us smile. You could always tuck the pots away in a corner during the summer if they take up too much room. Oh - and what about winter heathers? With snowdrops peeping out.
'Preserve wildlife - pickle a rat'
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Primrose
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Thanks Diane. I'm really thinking about daytime views because curtains/blinds are drawn at night to keep out the cold.

Some tall pots might break up the view a little but the dilemma is that I garden virtually single handed and if filled with soil or compost I would find pots too heavy to move.

The edge of the border does have snowdrops and miniature daffodils planted in it . It,s really the big areas of bare fence I find rather depressing but as its devoted to being a vegetable growing border planting anything else permanently in it would reduce my growing and crop rotation options.
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Diane
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How about decorating the fence with something, put in a few hooks and hang an attractive ornament on them, little mirrors, pretty teapots hung by their handles and filled with bird food? A sort of "pimp my fence" idea.
'Preserve wildlife - pickle a rat'
Westi
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Some bird feeders on stakes or from hooks in the fence itself. It would not hide the fence but the visitors would distract you from the view. I find the little solar lights twinkling on the patio are lovely & they come on so early in the winter gloom you really appreciate them & I have a collection of cheap jugs I find at tabletop sales on hooks & some cheapie rattan hearts & other little things given to me which just give memories.

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Not to everyone's taste & mostly hidden in the summer foliage of the pots but something to distract from bare wood.
Westi
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