SORT SOGGY PERENNIALS!

LEAVING perennials to stand through autumn and into winter is good practice. The seeds provide food to birds such as goldfinches and harbour small invertebrates, which feed wrens, bluetits and robins. By now, however, many perennials have become a soggy mess. Cutting these to ground level will admit more daylight to the ground, where winter bulbs are already stirring. The vegetation you cut away will compost quickly, especially if you cut all stems to short lengths. I pile them in the wheelbarrow and attack the load with hedging shears. Soon the wheelbarrow contents are easy to handle chopped perennials and are halfway to becoming garden compost.