Hellebores and daffodils in late winter, with leaves covering them removed. Photo and garden by Marianne Willburn.
I’ve written about the new messaging we gardeners are receiving – that for the sake of wildlife, we shouldn’t clean up our beds and borders in the fall but should “leave the leaves” to help wildlife.
So when IS it okay to remove dead leaves from flower beds?
The consensus seems to be not until “mid-to late spring,” or more specifically when nighttime temps have been 50+ for a week. Cornell Extension says: “Postponing fall cleanup until spring, which spawned another movement called #LeaveTheLeaves, will create safe havens for pollinators to lay their eggs and hibernate within. To allow time for them to emerge from dormancy, wait until after spring temperatures have remained above 50 degrees for an entire week before clearing away last season’s plant debris.
The Xerces Society agrees: “In northern states mid-late April should be the earliest you consider cutting back perennials and clearing garden debris. Keep in mind that some bees don’t emerge until late May, so the longer you can tolerate your ‘messy’ garden the better.”
Or never
And lots of other sources agree. But not entomologist Dr. Doug Tallamy. When asked in an interview by Amy Dutton about the 50° advice he said “There’s absolutely no ecological basis for that general rule… Every species comes out on its own schedule, from early spring to late summer, or even September. So there’s no magic time when you can go out and do whatever you want in your landscape and not disturb what’s there.”
Instead, he promotes leaving leaves in beds and borders, period. But will that keep plants from coming up in the springtime? It depends. He does remove some leaves from his beds, but says that most of his plants “are really good at tolerating normal levels of leaves.” Asked about putting bark mulch on top of the leaves, he argues against using applying any mulch at all. “Leaves have worked well as mulch for thousands of years.”
But what if our gardens are filled not with plants native or adapted to woodlands, but to prairies or other sunny, dry places where deciduous trees are generally absent?
Gardeners have been told to clean-up earlier, for several reasons
My whole life I’ve cleaned up my flower beds early, like in late February or early March (here in Zone 7), a practice that was the standard recommendation for as long as I’ve been gardening. Or am I imagining that? So I hit Google land found plenty of examples, most of them homing in on the gardener’s biggest chore and challenge – weeding.
Weed Control
Some weeds I’m tackling currently. There are lots more.
From Oregon State: “Pull weeds as they pop or desired plants will suffer.”
An Oregon gardener explains the advantages of early clean-up: “No matter what your weather, sometime in March, April, or May is prime time for a spring garden cleanup – and starting as early as you can means less work later on… Taking care of dead branches before trees leaf out, pulling small perennial spring weeds, and covering all the small new annual weeds before they get big (best thing ever!) means more time to enjoy what you love about gardening later on: planting and harvesting your flowers and vegetables, and soaking in the view.”
From Better Homes and Gardens: “The trick is to remove weeds as soon as you see them, since they will only grow bigger and harder to deal with. If you miss them when they’re just seedlings, the next best thing is to get rid of weeds before they flower and go to seed. The good news is that the more you clear out weeds, the healthier and happier your flowering plants will be.”
From Alan Titchmarsh: in Gardener’s World: “Many of the worst garden weeds can quickly take over your garden during the growing season. Weeds start growing earlier in the year than many garden plants, in early spring – so be sure to get on top of them early before they get out of hand…If you ignore them, they’ll spread or set seed, causing bigger problems later on.”
It’s also common advice to avoid stepping into your borders when the soil is wet. From Organic Gardening’s Marie Iannotti: “Wait until the soil is no longer wet enough to form a ball in your hand before walking on it and compacting it. But don’t wait too long to start your clean up. It’s much easier to cut plants back before the old growth gets tangled up in the new growth…Early spring is the time to take action against weeds with some pro-active weeding. Damp soil makes it much easier to pull young weed seedlings. ”
U. Delaware, (and many others) agree we should “Avoid working soils when they are too moist.” I garden in Maryland, where it’s normally drier in winter than in spring.
Humans at Work
This comment from another Garden Professor group member reminds us that gardeners have needs, too. Responding to when to do clean-up, she wrote “Usually in early march before it gets too hot and humid – not for the weeds or insects – but for me.”
Another human factor is the great many chores to be done in the spring. Marie Iannotti’s “12 Essential Spring Cleaning Tasks for the Garden” lists not just clean-up and weeding but also pruning, dividing, transplanting, staking, mulching, edging, and I’ll add plant-buying, too.
Humans and Beauty
At the commercial landscape I’ve adopted, the entrance garden on the left versus a less visible area I’m not cleaning up. Photo taken yesterday.
So there are plenty of practical reasons to do clean-up earlier than later – it’s not solely about appearance. But yes, I DO prefer that the borders in my tiny garden look more like the photo above on the left than on the right. But despite going lawn-free in two gardens and replacing them a biodiverse assortment of plants, I feel shamed by language used to characterize anyone sharing my preference. (Even in my tiny front yard or other high-visibility spots.)
For example, “We get it, it’s tough to turn a blind eye to the ‘messy’ garden, especially when gardening magazines, catalogs, and TV ads provide temptation daily. Each spring we beg gardeners and homeowners to press pause and find other ways to occupy their weekends. Instead of disturbing critical habitat, read a book, do a jigsaw puzzle, do your taxes, tidy up the garage, or clean the gutters. While you may be eager to get outside and play in the garden – there will be time enough to toil in the soil before you know it!”
Ugh. And with no mention of the practical reasons for early clean-up, in that link or any I’ve ever found on the subject.
And I’ve read many criticisms of caring “what the neighbors think,” as though that’s a bad thing. Well, speaking as a townhouse dweller, the closer you live to neighbors, the more important it is to consider them, at least enough to make sure your front yards looks at least cared for, not abandoned. Even the most wildlife-friendly garden designers know to include “signs of care” out of respect for the community – and to avoid trouble with ordinances or HOA rules.
The Information We Need – About the Balancing Act
Before clean-up in Marianne Willburn’s garden.
There are so many factors at play in the clean-up question – what type of leaves they are and how many of them, what plants are being covered by them, the site – in a front yard or in a less visible spot – and so on. Sweeping generalizations like “Leave the Leaves” serve more to admonish or shame gardeners than to help. Heck, even Tallamy acknowledges making exceptions for certain plants. I thank him for that and we need lots more of it – real-world, real-garden stories from people who actually tend borders and beds, especially in highly visible places. (Remember we’re talking about gardens here, not ecological restoration sites!)
Some recent examples:
On Margaret Roach’s podcast Uli Lorimer reveals the factors he considers at the Native Plant Trust, which has lots of leaves to deal with because it’s so wooded. Some plants, like creeping and woodland phlox, need to be uncovered “a little bit” in the springtime. Otherwise, he recommends paying attention to where leaves naturally accumulate, both areas of little swales and trying to plan for plants that don’t mind deep leaf litter. “So if it’s an area that will accumulate maybe 8 or 12 inches of leaves over the winter, we’re going to put things like Solomon’s seal or ferns or something that has strong enough growth that they can push through all of that leaf litter, and they don’t seem to mind.”
Lorimer also tries to find spots “where prevailing wind patterns keep the ground bare and where moss naturally grows, try to help that along and keep those moss patches going and they end up being perfect place to display what botanists like to call belly plants – you know, that you need to get down on your belly to see.” Things like patridgeberry or trailing arbutus – “beautiful, delicate spring charmers that would be utterly lost and smothered if the leaf litter got to be too heavy. ”
And he’s seen the damage caused to plants from too many leaves and resultant leafmold, like the mountain laurels that were in decline when he started working there. “I dug around at the base of the shrubs only to find that they had been buried under 12-14 inches of leafmold. Now we’ve shifted our practices and we rake those and put them somewhere else and the laurels seem to be making a recovery. ”
Lorimer summarizes the dilemma of leaving the leaves thusly: “For some people it looks unkempt or untidy if you don’t do anything and there’s a middle ground where you can still embrace the psychological intentions and techniques and have a garden that looks like you’re caring for it.” Well said, and insult-free!
Other wildlife advocates, like Kathleen Connolly (mentioned here) avoid accusing gardeners of doing it “wrong” and instead tell us what’s “best for wildlife,” which in the case of leaving the leaves is “Do nothing.” But she offers other less purist options for helping wildlife, ones that acknowledge other factors that influence gardening practices.
It’s even helpful when advocates simply state that generalizations don’t always apply. In her New York Times column “How to Do a more Conscious fall Clean-up,” Margaret Roach asks the right question – how to make a responsible plan that acknowledges both ecology and your horticultural goals? Garden designer Peter Bevacqua tells her that “In beds where early blooming minor bulbs like winter aconite (Eranthis), crocus or snowdrops might not be able to push up through heavy leaves, rake those spots in the fall; in the spring, you won’t be able to do any raking until after the bulbs flower…..Around ornamental plants with a reputation for harboring diseases that can survive in fallen debris — think peonies, roses or fruit trees showing signs of trouble — move spore-filled material away from the immediate area.” He goes on: “Only the formal areas get anything resembling an old-style cleanup.”
More detailed information for helping wildlife
Another Garden Professors commenter suggested that “If you know the burrowing depth and seasonal timing of the life cycles of the beneficial insects that could be living in your border, then that may help determine when to do any maintenance. Perhaps the insects in your region dig deeper than you weed? Or overwinter in bark instead of leaf litter?”
And “myth-buster” Robert Pavlis writes: “Insects emerge from their winter hiding places over a wide range of temperatures and over a several month period. The longer you can wait for cleanup, the better it is for all insects,” but “It is not realistic for most gardeners to wait until all insects have emerged. It will be summer before that happens.”
Like Other Balancing Acts We all Perform
I honestly don’t understand the absolute directives and “right” and “wrong” language used in urging delayed (or no) clean-up. Unlike other environment messaging that tells us what’s ideal – what some purists are doing – but typically stops short of calling most people “wrong” for their choices. One example: we know what’s best for the climate is to use no fossil fuels at all, yet it’s rare for people who travel by air to be attacked for it. (Famous people being the exception – some of them.)
But we gardeners, who typically use our yards for more environmental good than the average homeowner, are judged and insulted if we don’t, essentially, turn our gardens into ecological restoration projects. If we don’t just stop gardening.
I have a mess of dead leaves at the base of one of our huge oak trees.. They came from the squirrel nest above. I think there must have been some creature who attacked the nest for baby squirrels.. hawk perhaps? Owl? And Elmer, the squirrel has been digging in one of my big pots on the deck in search of buried treasure. I sprinkled red pepper flakes but Elmer is determined. So I keep cleaning up after his digs. Did spot a pair of doves the other day. Delightful! Spring is arriving in Virginia~
Wow! You knocked it out of the park with this one! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Practical and empowering advice.
I think I should have mentioned that we do let the leaves remain in most of our beds and remove some from some for a variety of reasons. Now we can be more strategic with our newly acquired knowledge.
Well ranted, Susan! You’ve said, and backed up, what I’m sure so many of us are thinking.
I gently rake the leaves OUT of my beds in late fall, spread them out on the grass, and bag mow over them. Then I return them to the beds in much smaller pieces and a lighter layer. In spring when earlier bulbs are expected, I sorta fluff the leaves with a rake (because they do mat, let’s be honest) so the wee bulbs can push thru. It’s a lot of work but it’s been effective for me so far and, I hope, allows for some balance on this hot topic. My scillas, chionodoxa, snowdrops, winter aconites, and snow crocuses thank me with abundant blooms! If the bugs aren’t happy with it, let ‘um nest where I do leave the leaves, but not in my perennial beds. Always enjoy your rants, thank you!
Great job, Susan. It’s all about balance and individuality, not rules that offer no flexibility. Thank you!
Great article, Susan! I think in today’s world (at least in today’s “first world”) you basically can’t do anything without there being a contingent of people who are going to assert — very loudly — that what you are doing is “just wrong!” or “evil!” or “not okay!” Doesn’t matter if it’s what kind of car you drive, where you send your kid to school, what kind of bags you stick your groceries in, or when you clean up your leaves. They aren’t going away, so best to ignore them or tell them to eff off.
It never seems to occur to these people that they’ve defeating their own end by being so judgmental and bossy. No one was ever converted that way.
Very interesting article. I left all the plant debris and leaves on my southeastern Massachusetts garden last fall. It all looks awful ( for example, I have hundred of daylilies, and there are all those dead leaves…) and I suspect there are some buried crocuses although I do have some visible. All winter I’ve been telling myself it is good for the beneficial insects, but wondering if the perennials are being smothered.
Wonderful rant! It also depends on climate: in Maine, where I garden, snowmelt leads to instant bulb growth. If I didn’t do a fall clean-up, I would have an ugly garden. Three things I do to help the insects: most leaves are moved to vegetable gardens in the fall. The leaves become needed mulch and any insects in them have been relocated. I don’t have too many leaves because the wind blows many away. I have wire fencing I place flat on the veg beds to keep the leaves in place. Second, all garden debris removed entirely (plants I cut down, etc) is taken out of site to the edge of the field. It stays on my property but is in the open if animals want to eat, etc. Third, my garden is on a fraction of my rural land. Nature abounds in field and forest. I feel that I can do what I want (and I don’t want to use harmful chemicals) in my formal garden beds.
Susan – superlative job with this rant. I’ve been trying to find answers myself among all the confusing information out there. Brava!
The contrarian view. This comes from Ohioline.osu.edu
“Since slugs require moist soil in which to lay their eggs and cool, moist, sheltered sites to hide in during the day, try to open the garden and landscape to more sun and air penetration. Often, gardens and plants have been over mulched. Mulch should not be applied thicker than 3 inches, and a uniform layer of 1 inch is desirable… Likewise, remove plant debris and leaves from the garden or landscape in the fall.”
Anyone who grows hostas can see that not all critters are beneficial.
I have actually killed 1000 slugs and snails in a single weekend!
Interesting post, thanks, Susan!
You cover a lot of ground (like our two big willow oaks do every fall) so I need to go back and reread it (almost wrote reweed it…). Thanks very much for addressing something many of us are dealing with as spring cleanup gets going in earnest. Forsythia is popping here, time to get to work…
Two quick thoughts from somebody teaching his ‘Landscape for Life’ classes to leave leaves. At least leave more leaves longer and more places. Exceptions and judgment define gardening, true, but that’s the basic idea. Actually, it’s more about how we think about them – leaves as problem vs. leaves as resource.
First, maybe we have all become a bit “tidycrazed.” Marie Kondo comes to mind, even Martha Stewart. What’s good for the sock drawer tho may not translate very well to the garden. If we truly wish to give Nature a larger role in our gardens post-Le Notre and Levittown, we might have to accept that life on Earth is messy at times. (Bless all the gentle rakers of this world, but add power equipment to the mix and things get pretty brutal. Nothing has quite the shriek and suffocating stench of a big ol’ backpack two-stroke leaf blower.)
Second, as with a lot other things in the 2020s, there’s evidence that our conventional practices have done enormous damage to soil and ‘the greater garden’ that provides context for all our individual gardens. In Dave Cook’s wonderful The Piedmont Almanac, he tells of how John Lawson in about 1700 wrote how he could see through 15 feet of clear water to the bottom of the Haw River, and of rich topsoil six feet deeper than it is today. That beautiful soil is gone now. Where did it come from? Leaves. Leaves, and leaves, and a lot of time.
Fear not, Susan, I won’t judge you or anybody else for gardening howsoever you garden. You are right that we who see ourselves as gardeners usually do have more environmentally-friendly yards. But, I’m supposed to turn in my gardener’s union card because I’m scabbing for nasty ol’ Mother Nature by leaving my leaves? Nah, I don’t think so. There’s plenty of room for both gardener desires and natural processes in our gardens. As you rightly say, it’s all a matter of balance.
PSes: I thought of stale seedbeds, where a farmer lets weeds to pop takes them out in the ‘white thread’ stage with a sharp hoe right before planting. You have to think like a weed to control weeds – there are no ‘blanket’ solution to all situations (including untouched blankets of leaves.) Yes, in composting you don’t want piles to get so deep they block air and moisture from entering so that biological activity can decompose the leaves. So, yeah, one could get anaeobic zones, especially in burbs and cities with no critters to mix things up. Hasn’t Garden Prof Linda Chalker-Scott done studies on how mindless deep mulching blocks air exchange with roots and soils? And nobody is mentioning the “b” word – burning. No, I’m not advocating torching our gardens, but that was a part of natural processes in my neck of the woods and many others. So, there’s much to consider. But seeing autumn leaves as useful mulch/soil builder/compost feed stock etc and not as “trash” to be disposed of (or a marker in the garden version of the culture wars) seems to me a beneficial bit of conceptual reprogramming.
I tried. I really tried to wait longer to clean up the heavy layer of oak leaves. But we had warm weather. So I started. The crocus and snowdrops are so much happier. Under those oak leaves were lots of weeds green and plump and poor white underfed daffodil shoots. That’s not fair! The weeds should be smothered too!
I do way less leaf removal than I did in the past. Don’t double dig vegetable beds anymore either.
Firstly, to answer the title question, whether a garden is still a garden if we don’t do a spring tidy: yes it is. The mark of a garden is that a space is cultivated, not in how it’s cultivated.
Secondly there’s a huge problem with this leaving material on the beds business; how much material and what type is very important. Shredded leaves are a much more benign mulch for borders than big, heavy leaves, but whether your leaves need shredding before they’re used as much or whether they can be left depends on how big they are in the first place. It’s also important to stress that you don’t necessarily need to leave all of your stem/leaf litter on the ground when you process your leaves and stems; and inch or so of this organic matter is absolutely fine, not the deep layers that some seem to suggest, and of course if you know that you have sensitive plants in certain places then go easy on the mulch. Deep mulches of anything are often unhelpful.
As with so much in gardening, nuance has been taken away and what is left is so often oversimplified to the point of being useless. Mulches are not a miracle cure in the garden, and there are lots of things to be aware of when making an informed decision about what to do. The use of plant litter on borders is highly beneficial, but this is one of those cases where it’s easy to overdo it. The aim should always be to apply a sensible depth of a fairly friable mulch but then to remove other material to the compost heap (where shredded material should be composted on its own to make, or supplement, potting composts).
Excessively deep layers of organic matter, any organic matter, suppress the soil biome and can easily tilt the balance in favour of unwelcome organisms like molluscs and vine weevil. Sorry to say that this fact has largely escaped the eco-gardening scene, where naive gardeners wrongly assume that four inches of mulch is better than two. Nuance should be the catch-word of modern gardening.
Agree, well said.
It’s a struggle to balance the right time to cut back. On the prairies tree leaves aren’t a huge issue but the argument to leave stems in place until well into Spring does create some issues. Heavy wet clay soil in Spring: you don’t want to be walking on this to cut back old stems. Waiting until temperatures warm: Spring here lasts about 36 hours from winter into summer so everything starts to grow almost overnight. Now you have new growth and old mixing. Tough to clean up. Small bulbs emerge early: dead stems all over the place make it impossible to enjoy the show. I try and compromise by cutting things back to about a foot in height so there’s still stems for protection but not so noticeable as the plant resumes growth. Lots of insects about so they don’t seem to mind.
It occurs to me that creating and maintaining pathways through garden beds that allow for some manicuring of plants throughout the season will help resolve this debate. Tending to the task of clearing both hardscape and more delicate maintenance trails can provide gardeners with productive ways to clear whatever leaves are not well integrated between perennials and shrubs. At the same time, we have offered opportunity for insects and other organisms to develop for the sake of ecologically friendly processes.
As in all things gardening, it depends. Primarily, I think it depends on the goals the gardener has for a particular part of the garden. Fergus Garrett once mentioned “the intelligent use of mulch.” I agree. When a gardener wants to accomplish different effects, then the gardener should use mulch/leaves in ways that will help the planting succeed. I’ve found the most successful solution regarding weeds is to plant more of the plants I want from the get go, while using annuals as filler material until long term plants fill out. The fewer gaps, the less light, the less weed seed germination. I also use fully finished vegetative compost and mulch in new plantings, then less and less as the new plants fill in. I don’t touch anything in the beds until about Valentine’s Day or it becomes necessary to clear a path for smaller spring bulbs. Generally, the Texas wind blows excess leaves away before they can smother anything.
I just can’t get my head round this – and there seem to be so many opinions and things we’re supposed to do and not do. I have never heard of a ‘clean up’ and must admit it doesn’t sound good!
For the record, I cut and leave all herbaceous stuff either in autumn or whenever we get round to it (ornamental grasses not until spring because they look so good).
If the herbaceous material is a bit thin (hostas, surprisingly, or new beds) and we have some wood chippings, we add a one/two inch layer of that as mulch. In more places if I’m feeling generous.
I don’t have many dainty plants. ( some cyclamen) Leaves get left except on the car park or grass, where they can be mown up and added to borders.
And that seems to work very well (in the UK) I’ll let you know when it causes any problems, but it’s been good for over 30 years now.