Garden Clean-up Do’s and Don’ts
Fall chores and looking forward to next year
Frost has arrived signaling the end of the growing season and time for garden clean-up. There are two schools of thought about fall chores. One calls for a thorough cleaning of the whole landscape, while the other says leave it all until spring.
I am usually ready for the season to be over by October, so clean-up waits until spring. I do remove diseased or insect-infested plants and their surrounding mulch to eliminate or at least reduce their recurrence the following year. Squash bugs, tomato hornworms, cucumber beetles, grasshoppers, and powdery mildew are a few things that can be reduced through cultural practices that include fall clean up.
One year, though, in a burst of energy, I cut everything back to the ground and dutifully composted the healthy plant material. I weed-whacked the grasses, too. The yard looked unusually and beautifully tidy. But after the first major snowfall, there was nothing to look at but a vast expanse of blinding white! I never did that again! Visual winter interest is as important as the beautiful flowers and greenery of summer.
Wildlife
There are many other reasons to leave garden ‘debris’ alone. Just as insect pests overwinter in it, so do beneficial insects and pollinators. Native…
