It’s a time for many gardeners when, despite our best efforts and wildest hopes, everything is winding down. During the coming weekends – the only time I have to work outside – I’ll be pretty much forcing myself to get the bulbs into the ground and into their pots, move whatever’s got to be moved inside and, in general, make sure that there’s nothing left in the garden that would be ruined by a Buffalo winter, unless I want it to be.
And there’s plenty that I leave to those winter ravages. I find that spring clean-up is a much simpler affair than fall clean-up once everything has been beaten down or even dissolved by rough weather.
But then there are those who make a much more elaborate ritual out of “putting the garden to bed.” From all sides, I hear “cut it back!” One gardener was even wondering if hellebore could be cut back to the ground. Why?
Not sure what the motivation is here. Is it the longing for a clean slate? The hope that everything will look better if it can be rewound to point zero? Or is it just the need to do something, anything in a garden that seems to be turning its back?
The truth is that I’d rather not do anything in the house or garden where “clean up” is the main goal. But at least in the house there is some satisfaction in looking at shining surfaces and rugs without crumbs on them.
A garden where everything’s been cut back just looks kind of bare and desolate.
Though I do enjoy looking at a patch of bare ground where I know I’ve just inserted a few hundred spring bulbs.
Here’s one great thing I found out that’s saved me a lot of lifting and dragging: I now have a group of pots – many of which contain lilium – that I’ve been leaving outside with a simple weighted tarp over them for the past 3 years or better. If this works in Buffalo, it should work anywhere. In the spring, many stay in this corner and get planted with interesting summer annuals that will help disguise the lily stalks.
Leaves will be collected and bagged (not by me) and put out for the city’s compost collection.
The fact is that I want to enjoy the garden with as little effort on my part as possible – fall clean-up offers me the worst of both worlds.
So I ignore all those to-do lists. I think more gardeners would be happier if they did the same.
Autumn tree image courtesy of driveway to Kathy Guest garden.
I think that the “putting the garden to bed” crowd are offended by the look of perennials that break down into unruly stems and seed pods. They jump to distribute a pureed and processed version of dark brown mulch.
But we need to consider birds, bugs and other critters who are part of the ecosystem and active when we gardeners are not.
The vegetable garden still gets “put to bed”. Well, the annual veggies. I leave the asparagus till spring, golden yellow fronds pretty as ornamental grass. The raspberries stay till I can see what’s dead and what’s not. Gotta cut the strawberries off. Top all with compost and shredded leaves.
When I leave the flower beds alone, it is more difficult to spread compost, 5 gal. Bucket by hand.
But anything is better than housework!
Like Tibs, I do put the raised vegetable garden to bed each fall. I usually cover them with a layer of mulched up leaves from mowing up the leaves off the lawn. But I leave the flower borders alone until spring. It’s amazing what “winter” will clean up for you.
I used to put the garden to bed in my younger years. In fall, everything was cut back, raked up, and put in the trash, fearful of harboring disease and bad bugs. Now in my 50s, I’ve become wiser and realized the benefits of waiting until spring, when the volume of plant material to clean up is a fraction of what it used to be in the fall. I love watching small flocks of goldfinches, hearing their little chirps while they work over a patch of dried echinacea to pick out seeds. Toads now call my yard “home.” It makes me happy knowing that the beneficials have a place to sleep for the winter. Snow looks beautiful on grasses and perennials. When summer rolls around, the benefits are still apparent when the “good bugs” take care of the “bad bugs” without my assistance. The more I let nature do its thing, the better it becomes.
for many years I did nothing in the way of clean up, didn’t even cut the peony foliage down, then a couple years ago I talked to a daylily grower/breeder and she said she cut all the plants back in the fall, so I thought it might be the reason my dayliles appear to have some kind of blight. I can’t honestly say that fall cleanup has made any difference. I do harvest seeds however.
Now that I have old age & a bad heart to contend with, garden clean up will have to wait until spring.
I completely agree; Celebrate the cycle of life and wait for spring!
It is pretty windy here in N Wales and although I intend to shift leaves I never get round to it! But by spring there is little remaining on the grass. My biggest trees are sycamore and horse chestnut and although these leaves are large they are not leathery so rot down fast.
I find such joy in spring clean-up when I uncover shoots of green.
One size doesn’t have to fit all. You do you. I selectively clean up my yard and beds. I’m hoping to edge this fall, when I wasn’t able to get to it this summer. I’ve already started to bag up the veggie plants. I’ll put a thick layer of leaves from the maple on the veggie garden to make the worms and soil happy. I cut down the peony foliage in fall to discourage disease, and pave the way for the new growth in spring. I guess, look at your time – if your too busy in spring to do the work, maybe best to do it in the fall, and vice versa. Again, you do you. Happy Fall / Spring clean-up, either way!
I do not understand the new trend to leave everything in the garden until early soring (Feb/March) and the cut down or mow down and leave in place to decompose. They must now live where I do. Last fall I had to leave in late sept and did not return until May. The seedlings were everywhere by the thousands. We have very few birds in winter ( prairie zone 4 no cardinals, one blue Kat, no chickadees , etc) and I’ve never seen any eat seeds of any of my echinacea, liatris, hosta, etc. this year I deadheaded everything and cut back most to reduce work in the spring and reduce seedlings. Many prairie plants (natives and related) are pioneer species, evolved to seed in any space not occupied. I’d rather pile it on the compost and let in rot there until seeds have decayed and it’s saft to apply to the beds.
Today I saw a landscaping crew cutting back hydrangea to the ground, even though the plants were still green. My ‘Limelight’ hydrangea is turning from pinkish to copperish right now, quite lovely to behold. We are two weeks past our frost date, with no frost in sight – another argument for putting off fall cleanup until spring.