Re: garden fall clean up
- To:
- Subject: Re: garden fall clean up
- From: M* T*
- Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 02:56:15 -0400
> From: Dee Ann Scheller <dee.ann.scheller@juno.com>
> Date: Thursday, October 05, 2000 8:48 PM
>
> How many of you are doing the fall clean up and how many waiting
until
> spring?
--------------
Never do fall clean up....waste of time as have to go around in
spring and clean up winter's mess, so do it all at the same time.
Also have this theory that the dead foliage on perennials helps
protect the crowns from frost, plus a lot of plants maintain very
interesting form for quite some time, even after they are dead.
Think in very wet climates it might be well to remove dead foliage
from plants who are subject to diseases like powdery mildew and
Botrytis. I never cut down plants still in full growth.
If something gets on my nerves, will yank it and I remove fallen
leaves threatening to smother overwintering green leaf rosettes, but
that is it. Spend most of fall gardening time hysterically cleaning
up and moving in non-hardy stuff in pots plus gazillions of pots of
seedlings and other things that require frost protection and clearing
up leaves - never ending task - off drive, paths, patios and decks
and what passes for grass - leave them on all beds and borders until
spring when I remove the excess and leave the rest for mulch. I do
cut off peony foliage and dispose of it to reduce Botrytis attacks.
I wait until frost has blackened Canna foliage before cutting and
digging.
You can tell I am not a tidy minded gardener:-)
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
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