Mulch floor
Stability is important in the garden all year but becomes the most obvious and important in the winter. The first area and the simplest to stabilize for the winter garden is the ground or floor of the design. If you use mulch, it should be the same type throughout your garden. Pick a type and grade of mulch and keep it.

Garden hard features
The second is the consistency of style with your design and the "hard" features you choose, like patios, decks, fences, furniture, sculptures, or containers. Many gardeners store the mobile items in the garage or basement for the winter, protecting them from the harsh winter weather. If you can invest in a few pieces that can be left outdoors for the winter, they will bring beauty to the garden even if they are covered with snow. I store most of my containers and a small fountain for the winter but choose furniture that I could leave out, allowing it to age and weather in my garden.

Adding evergreens
The third area is the most difficult for many: selecting and placing plants that are evergreen in your garden. Select the most important areas for wintergreen color in your garden; the challenging part is finding the right plant for that spot. Many evergreens, especially the conifers, are quite large and even if your garden is 1/4 an acre or more you don't have room for many.
A conifer is simply defined as a group of plants that bear cones. The plants are usually large and most are evergreen. There are a few that are deciduous such as Larix, larch, and Taxodium, baldcypress.

Go dwarf
A fabulous group of conifers called the dwarf conifers can provide us with great greens, tremendous blues, and even yellow to brighten our winter garden. Pine, spruce, juniper, and chamaecyparis are the most popular conifers that are available in dwarf species. The main advantages to these dwarf species are their size, extremely slow rate of growth, and most are virtually maintenance-free.
What you will find is that they are small and expensive compared to what you are accustomed to purchasing in the garden centers. If you get "sticker shock" like I did when I bought my first dwarf conifer, close your eyes and think how many years it took to get the size it is now. Then imagine it in your garden and how beautiful and slow-growing it will be. Simply pick the perfect spot, plant it, and enjoy its simple beauty each winter, no fuss or pruning required.

Some cautions
There are two areas of caution when buying dwarf conifers: the pace of growth is slow, and some may still grow quite large over time. Even plants that are considered dwarf continue to grow over time. The pace is much slower than you are used to, so try not to be disappointed if they grow only 2 to 3 inches a year. A little research is good when selecting a dwarf conifer. Eventually many will still reach heights of 6 to 7 feet and can be twice as wide, depending on variety, so consider your research an investment in both time and money. I may not be living in my house in 30 years, but I bet someone will and I want them to enjoy the garden I have developed.

Dwarf varieties
There are lots of dwarf conifers to choose from, but here are some in my garden. I have two dwarf conifers mingled in with my perennial collection in my back yard and one in the front. Picea abies 'Montgomery,' a dwarf blue Colorado spruce, Picea abies 'Maxwellii,' a dwarf Norway spruce, and Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Nana Gracillis,' a dwarf hinoki false-cypress. For most of the year they go un-noticed, completely surrounded by the colors of summer. Each year as winter approaches and the perennial flowers have disappeared for the year, the strong and stable dwarf conifers begin their work.