Winter can certainly wreck havoc on a garden, especially an edible landscape. However, the best-designed gardens always have interesting bones that are revealed in winter. A perfect example is the new 12-acre Heartland Harvest Garden, an expansion of Powell Gardens, located in Kingsville, MO about thirty miles east of Kansas City. I recently visited the garden on a cold, icy day, and even without snow cover it was beautiful. The bones of the garden were exposed, laid out in geometric patterns with arbors and trellises that added to its winter interest. It is a young garden, only a few years old and as the trees, shrubs and vines mature it will a garden to visit again and again. There is much to learn from its orchard, vineyard, and vegetable gardens.

From atop the silo, next to the Missouri barn interpretive resource center, the Quilt Garden’s patterns are still visible. Thankfully the foliage was left to ripen over the winter months making it a garden for all seasons. Each of four three-quarter acre squares are planted in traditional “Old Missouri” and Kansas Star” quilt patterns.

An apple sculpture sits at the entrance to the garden.

The gates by the vineyard are decorated with grape leaves.

The pruners perched on the post of the vineyard gate is a humorous touch.

The 45-foot silo is a viewing tower for visitors to see the garden.