I need to see something green when I look out the window, even at this time of year. Nature doesn't provide that around here, so I had to plant a few evergreen things myself.

Luckily there are a few things that stay green all winter and tolerate my neglect and poor soil. I took these pictures in my yard today.

Yucca is a great example of a tough, drought-tolerant, evergreen plant.

I showed you yew, euonymous (hey—three different ways to spell the sound of "u"!)  and laurel in my holiday decorations entry.


















A couple of other shrubs that stay green all winter are kerria (below, left) and arborvitae (below, right, with laurel). I planted the kerria where I can see it from the kitchen. The newer branches stay green all winter, so it would look better now if I kept up with the pruning. The arborvitae is an "emerald green."



A few perennials are green all winter, too. I would have taken a picture of the germander and lavender if they didn't still have the dead flowers from last summer on them. Here are creeping myrtle and flax (with a spruce in the background). I'm saving my winter iris and hellebore to show when they bloom, but they are green now, too.



As ratty as my yard looks in these pictures, right about now I'm glad I chose these plants so I have a few green spots to get me through to spring.