Pros & Cons of Fall vs. Spring Garden Cleanup! ✂️
Pros & Cons of Fall vs. Spring Garden Cleanup! ✂️
Transcript
00:00 Let's up just enough for us to get out and do a little bit of perennial cleanup this afternoon
00:04 I don't know if it will but that's what I want to talk about today
00:07 I have a list in front of me titled should I clean out my garden in fall or spring huge topic of conversation?
00:14 I feel like in the gardening world and I see so many different
00:16 methods coming up here and there and different opinions
00:19 I thought we would go through both the pros and cons of
00:22 Cleaning out in the fall versus cleaning out in the spring and right from the gate
00:26 I will say that we take kind of a hybrid approach and an evolving approach
00:30 I don't like to put myself in one camp
00:32 You know 100% because I feel like trying out different things can be helpful sometimes
00:36 So if I miss a point or a thought that you might have please put it in the comment section down below so we can
00:42 Talk about it. So we're gonna start with our cleaning up in the fall list
00:46 I have five pros listed. The first one is that cleaning up in the fall might fit your schedule better
00:51 I put that as the first one because I did for years
00:54 I cleaned out everything in the fall because I worked down at the Garden Center full-time
00:57 Like full-time plus we worked a lot of hours and I just simply did not have time in the spring and I know a lot
01:03 Of professionals in the growing industry do a lot of their clean out in the fall as well for that very reason
01:08 and that was back in the days when our area was
01:11 Listed as a zone 5 we've been since moved to a zone 6, but my plants did great. I cut back lavender
01:18 I cut back everything in the fall and it just was great
01:20 Which leads me to point number two when you clean out in the fall you have more time in the spring
01:25 That just makes sense. You have time to watch your garden, you know wake up
01:29 It also I feel like it saves energy for planting as opposed to having to clean out
01:35 You don't have to stare at the mess for the whole winter long and a lot of the spring months
01:39 I see a like a meme surface on Facebook every year and I'm sure we'll see it here in a couple of months where it says
01:44 Do not clean out in your flower beds until it's at least 50 degrees consistently if we waited for that some years
01:50 We'd have to wait in the May to clean out our flower beds
01:52 So, you know
01:53 You just kind of have to balance what works for you number three on the list is that?
01:57 Cleaning up in the fall will eliminate a lot of bad insects that you might overwinter in debris
02:03 If you've had a particular problem with you know thrips
02:07 Which was our problem this last year whitefly aphids spider mites mealybugs all those things if you don't clean up your stuff in the fall
02:14 They'll just kind of like eggs or you know
02:16 Some life stage of the bug will overwinter and kind of hibernate in the debris and then wake up in the spring
02:22 The flip side is if you eliminate, you know overwintering some of these bad insects
02:26 You're also eliminating debris that good insects beneficial insects can overwinter in as well
02:31 So again something to think about but for our like our experiences last year
02:35 We left everything through the whole fall and winter and I don't think I've ever done 100% like leaving everything alone
02:40 And we had such a tremendously bad threat problem this year that we ended up we didn't spray
02:46 But we used biological controls
02:47 We released a predatory mite in order to help combat the thrips and it didn't 100% get resolved this year
02:53 But it's something you have to think about you know, do you leave your debris so that those beneficials will live?
03:00 But then the next year you've got all these bad insects, too
03:03 So then you're gonna have to spray or you're gonna have to do biological controls or you're gonna have to possibly address something
03:08 That was kind of point number four. I melded those two together
03:10 So point number four was eliminates the need for a lot of insecticide spraying the following season
03:15 Because you won't have that huge boom population of bad insects
03:19 The fifth one is it eliminates and reduces potential fungal diseases?
03:23 So if you have a particular problem with you know certain things especially like powdery mildew when you eliminate
03:29 You know places for those spores to overwinter then you just reduce the amount that you see it the next year now
03:35 Let's talk about the cons to cleaning up in fall
03:37 The first con is that you're going to be exposing soil when you get rid of the tops of plants and leaves
03:42 You know the soils all of a sudden exposed if you have a lot of winter moisture
03:47 Or if you have sloping land and things like that, you could be causing potential soil erosion and/or runoff
03:54 Which is not great for your soil our particular spot
03:57 It's okay for because we don't usually deal with a tremendous amount of moisture
04:01 We do get snow and rain and things like that, but not to the point where things are floating away
04:06 We also have a very flat property. So things just kind of tend to stay so that could be something that just depends on your
04:12 Particular area and climate the second one we've already talked about is that it may eliminate some beneficials because you're getting rid of some of their habitat
04:20 But then again you have to think about the bad ones that you're also
04:23 Overwintering in there that you have to spray that might kill the beneficials as well
04:26 The next season third con is that it might be a potential risk to your plants when you're eliminating kind of that nice warm bed
04:33 That's over your plants either either the tops of the plants that are protecting the crown or leaves that have fallen around
04:39 It's just that's an extra layer of insulation to keep your plants protected. So if you have any severe weather or long dry
04:45 Windy periods your plants may be better off with something over the top of them. I have not really seen a huge difference
04:52 Cleaned out or not with my plants here and the fourth con if you are cleaning out your garden
04:56 You're gonna be eliminating some some winter interest and there are some plants and this is kind of where we take the hybrid approach where that
05:03 Just look beautiful in the wintertime to see them
05:05 echinacea, aryngium
05:08 Ornamental grasses that are smaller those things that hold their structure in the wintertime
05:12 We leave those alone because they add so much for those of us
05:15 Especially in the north who have you know for distinct seasons and we have a long winter where it's like cold and dreary and brown
05:22 You want your garden to still look beautiful?
05:25 So if you clean everything out then you're gonna be eliminating some interest now one little thing
05:30 I do want to mention about cleaning up in the fall is you do want to be careful about the stuff you are cleaning
05:34 Up anything that blooms or performs on old wood don't touch that in the fall because you're gonna be eliminating blooms
05:41 Or whatever berries for the next season. So that's my list for fall now my list for spring
05:47 Now this is a little bit of a shorter list the pros of cleaning up in the spring is one
05:53 It might fit your schedule better
05:54 Maybe you're busier in the fall and spring just works better for you then more power to you
05:58 Second pro is that it's less potential risk to your plants. You're leaving that nice warm bed over them throughout the winter months
06:05 They're kind of all tucked in that's a good feeling as well
06:07 And the third pro is that the beneficials are safer through the winter months
06:11 So, you know, I did see an increased number of beneficials this year. We had bumblebees like crazy
06:17 We had honeybees and butterflies and all kinds of things this season and I do attribute that to leaving a lot of our
06:25 Stuff alone in the fall, but then again, we had the massive thrip issue which negated our ability to give away any flowers
06:32 This season because I didn't want to give away buggy flowers. I didn't want to spray
06:37 It's just something we're trying to balance and figure out the best approach and then the one con that I have listed for cleaning up
06:43 In the spring we've already talked about and it's overwintering the bad insects because you left them alone all winter
06:48 Might necessitate the need to spray them or use biological controls
06:53 Biological controls like the predatory mites that we released this last year are awesome and I plan to do it again next year
06:59 I'm hoping to get away from sprays as much as possible
07:01 I'm going to start earlier with biological controls as more of a preventative than waiting till the problem was really big
07:10 But they aren't as quick. They're not as quick as spraying
07:13 But I feel like even in the end we had them applied via drone which you don't have to do that
07:17 You can hand sprinkle them around your garden. I feel like the cost of biologicals
07:22 is cheaper in the end then you know buying the chemical product the
07:26 Backpack sprayer or the pump sprayer to get it done and then the time it takes and you usually have to do it on a weekly
07:31 Basis for several weeks to get on top of a problem
07:34 It still might be quicker than using biologicals. But again, there's all those pros and cons there either way whatever approach you take
07:42 You should consider cutting back your hostess peonies and large ornamental grasses
07:46 Those are three no matter which method we are going with we always try to
07:51 Tackle in the fall, which is what I'm hoping to do today hostess and peonies in particular
07:56 They winter over things like slugs and snails and diseases like powdery mildew
08:00 Particularly bad so you eliminate the tops of those you're gonna eliminate a lot of your problem
08:05 And then the large ornamental grasses unless you have them staked up they tend to be
08:10 Unable to handle a lot of winter moisture or heavy snow loads and then they end up flopping over and looking like a huge
08:16 Giant mess and then they're harder to clean up in the spring the next year and that one
08:20 You know, it's kind of just up to you. There are some totem pole grasses. The panic comes out in our South Garden
08:26 I'm gonna leave they're not staked up, but they're pretty strong
08:28 Structurally, so unless we get really heavy snow, I think they might be okay, but you know, it's one of those things
08:35 I'm okay cleaning it out in the spring if I need to so that's pretty much it for my list
08:39 I just wanted to go over those pros and cons and just talk about it because I don't think that there's any one right way
08:44 I think you have to fit you have to find something rather that fits your life your schedule
08:50 What makes you feel good about your garden space? It should be a pleasant process
08:54 And we should love to be out in our gardens
08:57 And however, we need to make that happen
08:59 And however, we feel best about our space feel like you should do it that way all that said again
09:04 If you have any thoughts or comments about this subject, I would love to hear them down in the comment section down below
09:09 We might be able to make a further video about this or we'll talk about it in the recap. I'm sure
09:13 Because I'm sure I'm gonna think about some more things after I'm done today. So let's
09:20 Wait just a little while longer see if this rain lets up and we're gonna get out and I'll just show you how I cut
09:25 Back my peonies and hostas and grasses. It's pretty simple, but we'll do it. Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble
09:30 The rain never did let up the other day. So we are out here now
09:34 I was just gonna show you an example of each one of those perennials
09:37 We talked about that you should cut back every fall starting with hostas. These are the Miss America hostas
09:42 We planted earlier this season. You can see they've kind of turned into a pile of mush already
09:46 And this is just something that we want to take care of now. So I've got my pruners right here
09:52 We just come in and cut the whole plant back just an inch or two above the soil surface
09:57 Here's what it looks like in the end and this is the praile that we want to discard
10:12 Before we move on to peonies
10:14 I think we're gonna go ahead and take care of all the rest of the hostas at least in this area
10:18 Since we're right here. These are all freshly planted this year. They did great but time to get them cut back
10:24 [Music]
10:26 [Music]
10:28 [Music]
10:30 (upbeat music)
10:33 (upbeat music)
11:00 - Okay, we've got all the hostas cut back in this area.
11:03 There are a few perennials
11:04 that we're gonna be leaving alone.
11:05 I thought I would show those to you.
11:07 We have the acarus ogon,
11:09 which is a beautiful, small ornamental grass.
11:12 So the small ones just don't create as much of a mess
11:15 after the winter,
11:16 so they're a really great one to leave for winter interest.
11:19 And we can clean them up in the spring.
11:21 Same with the heucheras right here
11:22 and the heucherellas that are just beyond it,
11:24 right there at the curve.
11:26 They're just a really nice one
11:27 because they are a semi-evergreen.
11:29 I wanna say they're like in the range of zone four through
11:31 nine or five through nine, something like that.
11:34 On the higher end of that zone range,
11:35 they'll stay more evergreen through the whole winter.
11:38 And they do hold for us decently when we have a mild winter.
11:42 But for those of us on the lower end of that zone range,
11:44 sometimes, most of the time,
11:45 we have to cut them back come spring
11:47 because they look a little bit raggedy,
11:48 but they do last for quite a long time.
11:50 I mean, you can see right here in November
11:51 how nice they're looking.
11:53 Oh, oh, oh, hey,
11:55 that was looking so sweet there for a minute.
11:58 Boys, I just love the color and texture
12:00 and just this little spot,
12:01 I can't wait to continue on developing this area.
12:04 And just behind this space,
12:06 there's another flower bed I thought I would show you
12:08 because this is a perfect candidate
12:10 to be cleaned up completely in the fall
12:12 because you can see how much growth there is.
12:15 Well, right now it's looking pretty good
12:17 and we might leave it just for a little while longer.
12:19 It's a perfect, perfect area for insects to overwinter
12:24 because it's such a thick jumble.
12:26 I mean, we've got some mallow in here,
12:29 there's salvia and veronica,
12:32 there's some Jupiter's beard roses,
12:34 there's a perennial, like a spider mum in here.
12:37 Let's see.
12:38 Really pretty white one,
12:42 but it can be those extra thick areas
12:44 where things will want to winter over.
12:46 Okay, so now that we're done with this section here,
12:48 we're gonna run out and I'll show you the peonies.
12:51 Out here in the South garden,
12:52 I've got a few peonies and some ornamental grass
12:54 that needs to come down.
12:55 And Erin is mowing up leaves,
12:57 that's what's going on over there.
12:58 But here is one of the peonies.
12:59 This is one of those that we transplanted
13:01 from the back garden, kind of where the pond is.
13:04 And I thought for sure, especially this one,
13:06 I'd killed it because it was huge when I transplanted it
13:10 and it shocked and flopped over,
13:12 but it came back beautifully
13:13 and we're just gonna kind of do the same thing with this
13:15 as we did with the hostas.
13:16 We're just gonna take all the stems down
13:19 just above ground level there.
13:22 And that way it just takes care of any issues.
13:26 Kind of like that.
13:28 We just have a few more of those to cut back.
13:30 There's two more back here.
13:31 And I wanna say both of those are the coral charm
13:34 or is it Hawaiian coral?
13:36 That might be two separate varieties, either way.
13:38 It's a coral variety, it's beautiful.
13:40 And then I've got an edo variety right here,
13:42 which blooms a beautiful, huge, light yellow bloom.
13:46 Same thing, we're just gonna come in here
13:49 and cut these stems back.
13:50 (leaves rustling)
13:53 And the last thing we talked about were ornamental grasses,
14:03 which we haven't had any kind of severe enough weather
14:06 to make any of our grasses look bad
14:08 or like they need to come out at this point.
14:11 But I know that there are a few that will need to come out.
14:14 So it's kind of a preventative thing at this point.
14:16 So for example, we have a lemon squeeze pennisetum
14:20 right here.
14:21 This one just naturally has a lower growth habit.
14:23 It's denser.
14:25 I think in the wintertime, if we do get a heavy snow load,
14:28 it will probably weigh it down in the center.
14:30 But it's one of those that I'm gonna leave alone.
14:33 We'll see what happens.
14:35 But if we move down this way,
14:37 we can see a panicum and this one's a patchy rose.
14:41 And this one already started to fall.
14:43 You can see it's kind of like flopping down
14:45 on the backside here when we had a heavier rain later this,
14:50 well, it was maybe early fall.
14:52 So I know that this one just doesn't have
14:54 as strong of a growth habit
14:55 and it's gonna wanna flop over
14:57 and it will become sort of a mess.
14:59 So we'll take care of that one today.
15:00 And let's take a look at the totem pole panicums
15:03 because those are my tallest grass that we have,
15:06 but they are a very upright, strong growing grass.
15:10 Look at these.
15:11 They are just a phenomenal grass.
15:13 I highly recommend this one.
15:14 They just grow so well for us.
15:17 We have a grouping of three here.
15:18 There's a grouping of three there.
15:20 We've got one over on the other side.
15:22 There's a few other grasses in here too
15:24 that I think I'm gonna leave.
15:25 The Niagara Falls panicum right there
15:29 is a fairly new grass.
15:31 Looks so pretty.
15:32 But anyway, this is one that I'm gonna leave up as well
15:34 because unless we get a super heavy downpour,
15:38 they usually stay pretty nice.
15:40 You can see like they're just a stiffer grass.
15:44 So grasses are one of those things
15:46 that if you have a mild winter with not very much snow,
15:49 you could leave all of them up
15:50 and they would be absolutely beautiful.
15:52 But if you have a wet, soggy, snow-filled winter,
15:56 it can become a mess.
15:57 So it's something that just over the years,
15:58 you kind of decide which grasses to leave
16:01 and which ones aren't as big of a pain
16:02 to clean up in the spring.
16:04 I see some perennial geraniums that need to go though.
16:06 Oh my word.
16:07 It's like a mat of brown right here.
16:10 We need to clean that up for sure.
16:12 So what I'm gonna do is finish cleaning up
16:14 the peonies, we'll clean up a couple grasses,
16:17 the geraniums here, oh, they look bad.
16:19 And then we'll leave you with some nice views
16:21 of Erin cleaning up leaves on the grass
16:23 because that's always satisfying.
16:25 So I hope this video was helpful.
16:27 I know, especially for those of you
16:29 who are just getting started in your gardens,
16:31 it can be an overwhelming thing to try to decide
16:34 what is best for your space.
16:35 There's so many different methods
16:37 and different opinions out there.
16:39 And we're all trying to make the best decision
16:41 for our gardens.
16:42 And really for our own schedules and our own lives,
16:44 like it needs to fit in in order for it
16:46 to be a harmonious thing.
16:48 So my approach through the years has been
16:50 to try to keep a somewhat open mind about the whole thing
16:54 and be open to let my process evolve.
16:57 I mean, we're always learning new things
16:59 and I'm willing to try new things out.
17:00 And I think that's a good space to be in
17:03 because one thing, one size doesn't fit all.
17:05 Every area is a little bit different.
17:07 We all have a different approach to it.
17:09 So yeah, I just thought it would be a fun thing
17:13 to just kind of open up a conversation about it.
17:16 Would love to hear your opinions down below.
17:19 In the meantime, let's get after the rest of this work.
17:22 See you guys in the next video.
17:23 (upbeat music)
17:26 (upbeat music continues)
17:29 (upbeat music continues)
17:33 (upbeat music continues)
17:36 (upbeat music continues)
17:39 (upbeat music continues)
17:43 (upbeat music continues)
17:46 (upbeat music continues)
17:50 (upbeat music continues)
17:53 (upbeat music continues)
17:56 (upbeat music continues)
18:00 (upbeat music continues)
18:03 (upbeat music continues)
18:12 (upbeat music continues)
18:18 (upbeat music continues)
18:28 (upbeat music continues)
18:31 (upbeat music continues)
18:44 (upbeat music continues)
18:57 (upbeat music continues)
19:01 (upbeat music continues)
19:13 (upbeat music continues)
19:26 (upbeat music continues)
19:29 (upbeat music continues)
19:49 (upbeat music continues)
19:53 (upbeat music continues)
20:07 (upbeat music continues)
20:10 [MUSIC]