The Fall Garden: To Clean or Not to Clean

Faded plants left standing all winter can play a critical role in the overwintering of beneficial insects, as well as birds and mammals. These plants may contain seed or fruit , or offer hiding places during the off-season. Image: Margaret Roach

When to clean up the garden in the fall?

The best time to start your fall garden preparation is after the first few freezing nights have killed back much of the flowers and foliage on the plants. Freezing temperatures are a trigger for perennials that it’s time to begin the process of going dormant for the winter. But don't start cutting back your plants too early, it could trigger new growth on the plants, and you don’t want to do that in the fall.

Fall flower bed cleanup chores you can skip

• Leave the foliage on your plants – Dead plant material is a wonderful place for beneficial insects to hibernate during the winter.  Litter is a critical habitat for various insects and other anthropods, like bumblebees that provide pollination services. Cleaning flower beds of all the plant material in the fall means you could be destroying all of those good bugs. 

• Leave some flowers in your garden – Flowers like coneflowers and sunflowers have seeds that feed the birds and other wildlife through the winter. Many types of flowers also add wonderful winter interest to the garden. So you can continue to enjoy your gardens even when they’re covered by snow.

• Don’t cut everything back – Cut back earliest spring perennials, like peonies, spring bulbs and irises. Also deadhead plants like rudbeckias, columbine and liatris to avoid spreading seeds all over the garden. Foliage left on marginally hardy plants such as tender ferns helps ensure overwintering of plant crowns.
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• Leave the leaves in your flower beds – Leaves are good for the garden and feed the soil as they break down. They’ll break down quickly, and you can mulch right over them in the spring. Don't let fallen leaves accumulate and mat down over your desirable turf. After the heat of summer, grass is actively growing in the fall. Leaves smother the grass and prevent photosynthesis which is the plants ability to produce food. Consider using fallen leaves as winter mulch around tender plants or add them to your compost pile to use as mulch next spring and summer.

Clean the Vegetable Garden!

Keeping your vegetable garden healthy means cleaning it out in the fall. Thorough cleanup, pulling plants and discarding them can reduce overwintering opportunities for common diseases and pests. Do not add this debris to your compost as this could spread disease to other parts of your garden.

Then, promote soil health by keeping the surface of your garden covered. Mulch with grass clippings or leaves that you’ve moved off the lawn.