For no good reason at all, there is still an annual debate about when you should clean up your garden. Well debate no more, because as far as I’m concerned, the answer is that you should do what’s best for you. But there are some compelling reasons to sit tight until spring to clean up your garden.
Allium ‘Millennium’ holds up all winter with golden yellow, hollow stems, that are friendly to overwintering insects.
1.SUPPORT YOUR GARDEN’S ECOSYSTEM
Letting plants stand for winter provides a host of benefits for the critters that you share your garden with (whether you realize they are there or not). Birds forage from seedheads, mammals find shelter, and insects hole up in nooks and crannies, or hollow stems. A thriving ecosystem is a boon for any garden, not to mention the environment in general.
Those same alliums look even better with bit of frosting-like snow.
2. BEAUTIFUL WINTER INTEREST
“Dead” plants can be beautiful. Shades of yellow and brown that catch the sun just so accent textures that rise above dull, dormant lawns or snow. Snow sits on seed heads like adorable little caps. OK, maybe that’s all a little romantic, but if you’ve ever toiled through a long, bleak winter, you know that anything that makes the gray outdoors a little bit more interesting is a good thing. Your plants are up for the job.
Ornamental grasses like this Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ offer all the benefits of other plants left to stand over winter, with the addition of movement.
3. YOUR PLANTS WILL THANK YOU
Snow is an excellent insulator, and anytime there is a big shift in temperatures in winter, plants fare much better with a blanket of snow protecting them from those extremes. Standing plant material helps snow collect around the crown of a plant—the most delicate part—and adds extra protection on the root zone. And when temperatures start warming, that snow melts and provides a nice drink for plants.
Early snowfall? Take it as one more sign to hold off until spring to clean up the garden.
4. IT’S EASIER
Embrace your inner lazy gardener and take the easy way out by cleaning up in spring. There’s less plant material to clean up in spring as some has been dealt with by animals or simple already broken down into a state that doesn’t need cleaning up. The plant material that is left tends to be light, crispy and brittle so it can over simply be broken off and should it need to be moved, it’s much lighter than it was in spring. You can leave the wheelbarrow parked behind the garage if you employ the “chop and drop” method in which you simply chop the standing material up into pieces and let it lie where it lands.
From a functional standpoint, it’s a perfect mulch, returning nutrients right back to where they came from, covering the soil around plants and quick to break down. It lacks a bit in the aesthetics department, but since it breaks down quickly it doesn’t take long for the garden to look perfectly tidy again, especially as new foliage covers the worst bits.
There’s no law that says you have to choose the same strategy for your entire garden. I like to do a pretty thorough cleanup on any parts of the garden that immediately border a walkway or patio that will need to be shoveled when the snow flies. If there are plants that have flopped over in an unappealing fashion, I don’t feel bad given them the chop in fall.
So plant some bulbs, pick some apples or carve some pumpkins. Enjoy autumn without stressing over having to clean up the garden.
Anything with diseased foliage/stems gets removed and anything really messy or unsightly. Things that add some structural interest stay – like coneflowers, black-eyed susans, grasses (as long as they are upright), hibiscus, tall phlox.
I prefer spring cleanup simply because I am highly motivated in March to get back into my garden. Cold, wet Novembers have me happy to stay inside and curl up with a good book.
This is something I need to do…relax & let it be. My OCD kicks in & I feel like everything needs to be clean & tidy lol.
I enjoy your thoughts perhaps because we share similar views. Do what we want with thoughtfulness to the soil the little bugs that need a warm cozy space and time and esthetics. It’s a garden every year my life guides what i do and do not do. Lol enjoy your garden this fall !
Great advice Erin. I’ve been doing this for a couple of years now and my back definitely thanks me for it! I grow an organic garden in Perthville NSW Australia (about 3 hours west of Sydney) in what equates to a US hardiness zone of 8a. We get down to -10degC in Winter and have Summer temperatures up to 42 degC (but a dry heat). We often have drought or floods, rabbits and Roos, so what did I decide to do? Plant an English country/cottage garden! Loads of perennials, roses, clematis, dahlias and penstemons. I need my head read! But, that’s what makes us gardeners I suppose. All the best,Amanda. (PS- we’re in mid-Spring here, so I’m busy watching your Spring Videos!).
Totally agree! This fall I’ve run by so many yard waste barrels with perfectly beautiful blooms and plumes that have already been “cleaned up” from gardens. Like Laura from “How’s It Growing?” (and you, evidently), I’m in the camp of “use it til you lose it!” Carry on (or don’t)!
I love your style. For the first time I will actively leave plants in the garden until spring. Because I have large Oregon White Oak trees on this small property the abundance of leaves is already attracting many critters – mostly birds who hop all over the place, skittering through the leaves. Apparently they approve of my leaving the leaves. Thank you for your post.
Cheers from Janet, zone 8b, Clark County, Washington State.
I completely agree with you. I use the chop and drop method all season long when deadheading etc. and especially in the fall and spring. I generally let things do their thing naturally. I’m not super tidy by any means and I like the natural approach to life in general as well as in my garden. Our garden is relatively new and we are learning all the time and having a large time doing it, but we don’t have a lot of winter interest yet. We are working on it though.
Thanks for all your inspiration and knowledge you share. You are the bomb diggity as far as my hubs and I are concerned.
I love your channels on YT and Instagram.
Love from NW Oklahoma,
Angela