Fall is officially here!

Have you had frost where you live? We had a little bit of frost last week. Then this week we had a hard-killing frost of -5C. Once you get that hard of a frost it’s time to start thinking about garden cleanup!

When should you start garden cleanup?

Vegetable Gardens

Cleaning your garden out is all about timing. I started cleaning up parts of the garden as early as August. When I had finished picking all my peas, I tore out the vines and tossed them on the compost pile.

I like to do this early since the vines haven’t had a chance to become hard twisted sticks on my pea fence. If I let them get too dry they are really hard to pull off the fence.

Then later in August, my beans were finishing as well. While I was picking the last of the beans I was pulling the plants as I went. I continue throughout the vegetable garden pulling plants out as I take out the last of the crop.

If you grow corn in your garden, as you take the cobs off for eating, remove the stalks from the ground and place them in your compost pile. The stalks take a long time to break down and are best removed from the active garden. I will leave the roots in the ground to break down over winter.

Flower Gardens

But what about your flower beds? Too early and you lose out on the beauty. The best way to help with your flower beds is to stay active in the garden with your clippers.

During the peak growing season, as flowers finish blooming, cut off the spent blooms. This allows the plant to continue to create texture in the garden, but not have that part dead look.

Once you’ve had that hard-killing frost, it’s time to get into those beds and start pulling plants out. Plants like zinnias, cosmos and marigolds are often the first plants to be hit hard with frost.

Either pull them out by the roots or cut the stems off right at the ground if they’re too hard to pull out. Leave any perennial plants that haven’t been touched by frost.

By the end of September to early October, you can start to remove all plant material.

What should I remove?

Annual Plants

After you’ve had that hard frost, remove anything that doesn’t look great anymore. Plants hit with frost have a crunchy and wilted look to them. Have you ever frozen spinach? The leaves look like that. So take out any annual plants. Things like sunflowers, petunias and marigolds.

I choose to take the annual plants out completely. If you can’t pull out the roots of the sunflowers, you can either leave them till spring or grab a shovel and dig them out. I find my sunflower roots are super strong. I choose to let them break down a bit over the winter and remove them in the spring.

Perennial Plants

When it comes to perennial plants, I have 3 methods I use.

Cut down to the ground
If you have had any disease go through your plants, make sure to remove all affected leaf matter. This is important as a disease will remain on the leaf litter and then re-infect your plants in the spring.
Peonies are a great example of this. If you had a super wet spring and got Botrytis, better known as Gray Mold, you need to remove all that leaf matter.
Cut down perennials to 12” tall
Almost all of your perennials will fall into this category. It helps reduce the work for the spring, but also allows the plants to catch snow during the winter.
We live in the chinook zone, so I take as much advantage of snow collection as possible
Leave them alone till spring
I will leave any plant standing that shows winter interest. So I’ll leave my Karl Forester grass alone. I think it’s pretty blowing in the winter wind. If you have any other ornamental grasses in the garden, try leaving them!

Potting Soil

If your deck pots also were hit with frost, nows is the time to dump them out as well. Cut off the plants and toss those in the compost and then dump out your pots into your flower beds. Your beds will love the added organic material and your pots can be cleaned up and put into storage for the winter.

The only time I might keep my potting soil in a pot over winter is if I was going to the soil as a base for creating a winter greens arrangement.

Aren’t they going to grow back?

If you are cutting down your perennial plants after a hard frost they shouldn’t start to regrow. If they do grow a bit, don’t stress as perennials are hardy and will survive!

If you cut back your perennial plants too early, like in mid-August, they will start to regrow. This is why it’s best to wait till after a hard frost.

What do I do with all the waste?

Compost it!
Creating a compost pile is a great way to get rid of all the plants you’re going to pull out. If you have a big garden like me, that pile is going to be big at first. Don’t let it scare you. By spring that pile will be less than 1/2 its size. Let nature do its thing!
Take it to your community garden waste site
If you live in town and have a small yard a huge compost pile isn’t always an option. Contact your local town office and ask if they have a yard waste program. Often the dump will have a green waste pile as well.

Work a little at a time

Working slowly through your garden is a great way to still enjoy the beauty of your garden, but not overwhelm yourself.

Taking out the annuals that were hit the hardest with frost is your first layer. Then as the days get cooler, work your way through the garden until all of a sudden it’s all cleaned up!

Don’t be afraid to start earlier than you think. It’s much nicer to do garden cleanup when the temperature is above zero and we don’t have to wear our winter gear.

What if it snows and I didn’t get anything done?

Don’t fret! The garden will wait for you till next spring. Put your feet up, grab a cup of coffee or tea and just think about all the beauty you created this year.

A gardener’s work is never done. We just work at it in seasons!

Don’t forget to water!

Once we clean up the garden it’s easy to think we’re done for the season. But it’s important to water those perennials. They’re still living and making sure they have lots of water going into the winter is important.

The water will help give those plants the resources they need to carry through the winter. It’s also a creative way to help prevent winter kill on the roots.

So make sure to give your garden a good drink once or twice before the ground is frozen solid!

Happy Gardening!

Heidi

Easy Tips on How to Clean up your Garden for Fall