Lexington, KY - Fall garden cleanup can be such a pain, right? Leaves everywhere. Plants to cut back. An overarching urge to make everything look tidy, to wrap things up and declare a visible end to the gardening season.
I have a suggestion for you: do less. Be a little less tidy. There is beauty and usefulness in a garden gone to seed. Even though you are finished gardening when the cold weather hits, your garden's work is not done yet.
At this time of year many people ask me, "When should I cut back my ornamental grasses and perennials?" My response: hold off with those garden shears. Unless they are diseased, leave them standing in the garden until spring arrives.
Many butterflies and insects spend the winter on those dried out plant stalks. Remove them -- especially if they are native plants -- and you throw away some of next year's bounty of beneficial insects. Furthermore, the seed heads of many plants are a natural buffet for wildlife.
Small branches and twigs can stay in the garden, too. A stick or brush pile in an out of the way place will offer welcoming winter cover for wildlife. Logs also provide good hiding places.
Now, consider leaf litter. Nature wastes nothing, including those fallen leaves that we seem intent upon viewing as garbage that must be disposed of. Leaf litter is part of the cycle of life and we destroy wildlife habitat when we remove these fallen leaves.
Many butterflies, whether in egg, pupal or adult form, find shelter in leaf litter where they wait to emerge in the spring. A vast army of tiny decomposers and scavengers -- so called beneficial insects -- also live here, working away to turn leaves into soil. Spiders, an essential agent in keeping pest insect populations in balance, find a home in deeper leaf litter. You'll also find lady bugs, toads and other predators of pest insects. In the spring, leaf litter is prime hunting ground for birds in search of a tasty meal.
But there is more to consider in the "to rake or not to rake" decision. Leaf litter does need to be reduced in some parts of the garden.
You can't let leaves lie sodden and heavy on your lawn for very long before the material smothers the grass and invites disease. And a heavy layer of leaves can cause some perennials to rot.
Also, some garden plants are quite susceptible to problems like fungal disease and insect damage. All of these issues can overwinter in the warmth and protection of leaf litter. Snails and slugs also like to lay their eggs in fallen leaves.
What to do? Between letting the leaves remain where they fall and raking up every last one of them, there is a useful middle ground.
Carefully remove leaves that are on top of any plants, including any matted clumps that have settled on shrubs. Rake the leaves from around any plant that have had pest or disease problems, or that you know are susceptible to such problems. Also, remove leaves from around plants that are vulnerable to snail or slug damage.
Many shrubs, woodland plants and trees do well with a thick mulch of leaves --
after all, no one rakes in the woods. It makes sense that the trees would recycle the nutrients in their leaves back into the soil. You can use a mulching lawn mower to cut up and bag your leaves for you. These shredded leaves can then be spread under trees and around shrubs. You could also pile leaves on your vegetable garden plot. Or they can be piled in an inconspicuous spot to rot into leaf mold. By next spring you can use this leaf mold as mulch.
(Note: Oak leaves contain chemicals that make them break down slower; better to shred them with your mulching mower then let them rot in a compost pile for a year or two before spreading them on your gardens.)
After spreading what leaves you can, you may well still have more than you can use, especially if you have a smaller property. The middle ground solution is to be aware of the importance of leaf litter as wildlife habitat and leave as much as possible on your gardens.
Don't forget to clean out your bird houses. Remove old nesting material and scrub the house with a solution of one part bleach to nine parts water. Rinse extremely well and allow to dry completely in full sun before closing it up. Put it back in place for the use of non-migratory birds as shelter during the winter. The birdhouse will need to be properly cleaned again in the spring.
Rethinking your fall cleanup chores is a step in the right direction toward beautiful gardens that are also wildlife habitats.