GROUND WORK
It’s time to clean up gardens for winter
It feels like winter already, and I haven’t even finished — er, make that started — cleaning up my garden for its seasonal slumber.
The sky is not going to fall if I’m late; it won’t even fall if I don’t get to it at all, which is always a possibility.
But doing a few chores will benefit the plants and animals that reside in my beds. Others are best left undone.
To rake or not to rake leaves is a dilemma gardeners ponder. Small leaves or those that have been ground up make great mulches because they easily decompose to enrich the soil and they tend to keep winter weeds in check.
Big tough leaves, especially from oak trees, rarely decompose over a single winter. When wet, the heavy leaves will also snuff the life out of the finely textured plants that find themselves struggling to survive underneath them.
And then there’s a messy factor.
“Unshredded leaves don’t stay in place. They blow away,” said Chris Cosby, senior manager of gardens at the Memphis Botanic Garden.
That’s why employees at the Botanic Garden shred leaves using either overthe-shoulder devices that vacuum and shred small amounts of leaves or heavier machinery designed to process mountains of leaves and other garden debris.
(I think I’ll put an overthe-shoulder leaf vac on my holiday wish list.)
Where possible, Kristin Lamberson allows leaf litter to stay on the ground.
“It’s like a layer of insulation that allows beneficial insects to live through the winter and provide food for the birds,” said Lamberson, who is an interpretive garden specialist at Strawberry Plains Audubon Center in Holly Springs, Mississippi. “Salamanders also love it.”
But when that blanket of leaves gets too deep, you may find yourself also providing shelter for hungry voles that feast on plants.
“Last year, the voles had a heyday eating plants under deep leaf litter,” she said. “So I’m raking up a lot of it in those areas and also where we want seeds falling from plants reach the soil to germinate.”
Many perennials are looking sad right now. Leaves are brown or black, and so are the remains of flowers and seed heads.
Cosby and Lamberson are not quick to cut back these unattractive plants even after our recent hard frost.
“It’s a good idea to leave any plant with berries or seed heads until late winter because they are great food sources for the birds,” Cosby said. Examples include purple coneflowers, asters, sunflowers, black-eyed Susans, goldenrods and beautyberries.
“I don’t cut back most plants until I see new growth in the spring,” Lamberson said. “Not only are they food and cover for birds; leaving them in place reminds me of what is planted there.
“My own front yard is alive with birds all winter.”
Cosby and Lamberson both appreciate the subtle shades of brown, tan, peach and light yellow of the plants and leaves in the winter.
“You just have to take the time to look at the garden to see the beauty,” Lamberson said.
Here are some other fall clean-up tips from the experts at Rodale Inc., publisher of Organic Gardening magazine and books on the related subjects:
Remove and bag any vegetables such as tomatoes and potatoes that have experienced diseases like blight. Do not put them in the compost, and be sure to rotate your crops every year.
Leave cabbages, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, radishes and arugula in the ground. These plants attract pesky wireworms, but as the plants decompose in the spring, they release cyanide compounds that kill off the worms, Rodale reports.
Also remove foliage from roses and peonies that show the effects of fungal disease. Put leaves in a bag in the garbage, not the compost.
If you have a place for it, build a nest for critters to hide in by piling up brush, limb prunings and other garden debris.
Find an out-of-the way place to pile up leaves, too, so they can decompose into a nutrient-rich compost known as leaf mold. It may not sound appetizing to us but plants love it.
If you haven’t planted cover crops on your vegetable beds, at least cover the ground with leaves or mulch. Bare soil is prone to erosion and nutrient loss.
After you do a few of these chores, reward yourself by enjoying a cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate along with a good seed catalog, garden book or gardening website.
A reclining chair makes it even better.
CAmelliAs in DAnger
Camellias that were blooming or ready to bloom took a hit from the freeze.
One of my two bushes had several open flowers and many more buds showing color.
Another, which typically blooms in January or February, has tight buds that may or may not be killed by the frost. Tight buds always have a better chance of survival.
The late-blooming variety did not flower at all last year due to our abnormally cold weather, and I really missed its red-orange flowers and prominent yellow stamens in the winter landscape. Fingers are crossed for blooms this season.