So many gardeners are outside at this time of year lovingly raking up leaves for the compost, and cutting down the dead stalks of the perennials to about two inches, to help keep the mulch, that they have to spread on the garden next, in place so the pesky wind doesn’t blow it away. I used to be one of those gardeners.
What To Do*
The longer I garden the more I realize that nature, given time, looks after itself. Nowadays I let the fallen leaves on the garden stay in place. They make great mulch and it’s free. I leave the stalks and dead leaves of the perennials intact. It does no harm to the plant and even acts as a sort of self mulch.
I also used to spend hours pulling dead annual plants out of the vegetable garden labouriously shaking off the soil and piling it all on the compost making sure I picked up every last leaf and bit of stalk. Now I go in with a pair of clippers, chop everything off at soil level and only pile the particularly stalky items like broccoli, or leafy things like squash or pea vines, onto the compost. The rest I leave on the garden to decompose right there.
Why It Works
Even if snow cover is unreliable the garden stays safe because this far up north, in zones two and three the ground stays frozen for half the year. Annoying critters like pets cannot dig in the frozen soil, all insects are either dead or hibernating and ditto for microbes. In spring it is an easy matter to peel back the layer of matted leaves, pull of dead stalks from the perennial crowns and pile the partly composted stuff into the wheelbarrow to wheel it off to the compost.
Further Reflection
Unless I’m feeling particularly energetic, or anxious to have a clean garden/ well groomed look I don’t feel the need to bother removing the dead leaves and stalks after the snow melts.
One April we took off on a road trip to California leaving the garden to it own devices for a month. When we left the garden was still full of dead leaves and stalks. nothing had started to grow. I was surprised when we got back home to see that the perennials had grown up, pushing out leaves and stalks right through the dead leaves so that almost all traces of my neglect* had disappeared beneath a new spring tide of green.
You are just so darned lucky to have frozen ground where the annoying voles cannot wreak havoc on your garden. I've lost many a plant or tree to those varmits and sometimes miss the frozen ground in the north.
ReplyDeleteWe freeze enough not to have the critter problem either. I leave perennials up through winter too in hopes of catching snow. We don't have constant snow cover and things can dry out bad without some type of mulch. I do cut down the "wild area" and pile the things I trim there. In the spring it's a happy compost site with new plants sprouting.
ReplyDeleteWe had a fall with limited ability to clean up the garden one year. It showed us that mother nature has her own plan. I leave the leaves too. Mostly, I put away the pots that will break of the plant supports so they're ready for next year's new plan.
Melanie, You've made some changes to your blog since last I was by. Looks good. I'm with you when it comes to leaves. The only difference is that a couple of years ago I bought a leaf shredder, which speeds up the decomposition of my maple leaves (otherwise, they mat into icy felt in the spring). Happy gardening!
ReplyDeleteHelen- Thanks. Aleaf shedder would be cool I have lots of fibrous stuff that takes forever or never manages to compost down.
ReplyDeleteWe don't really get frozen around here, just a few days at a time, but I totally agree with your idea. Some gardeners may claim that disease and pests overwinter in the leftovers...but I'm not one of them. They have still been there in the spring, if I clean thoroughly or not.
ReplyDeleteBesides being able to leave a food source for the birds means they can forage for food, in an environment that doesn't usually leave them enough.
I don't mind the architectural look of dead plants, it's the bare earth that bothers me so much.
Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams
You raise some really good points here Melanie. I too have forgotten, or simply haven't gotten to cutting down perennials in spring only to have them push up on their own anyway with the old stalk simply falling away. This year I simply haven't had time to clear out the vegetable garden so it will wait until spring when I want to plant. I'm not sure what it will look like but it can't be all bad.
ReplyDelete