Cleveland County Master Gardener Association
  • Home
  • About
    • Master Gardener Program
    • Video about Cleveland County MG
    • Constitution
    • Memo of Understanding
  • Events
    • Garden Party 2022
    • Garden Party 2020
    • Garden Party 2019
    • Garden Party 2018
    • Garden Party 2017
    • Photo Gallery 2022 >
      • Garden Party 2022
      • Home Tours June 2022
    • Photo Gallery 2019 >
      • State Conference 2019
    • Photo Gallery 2018 >
      • Demo Garden
      • Garden Tours 2018
      • State Conference 2018
    • Photo Gallery 2017 >
      • Regional MG State Conference June 2017
      • Waterwise Class
      • Will Rogers Tour June 1, 2017
  • Member News
    • Recorded meetings/seminars 2021
    • Summer MG Training Series 2020
    • Member Virtual Garden Tours
    • Members on YouTube
    • We want your input!
    • Desk Volunteer Calendar
    • Desk Guide
    • Newsletters >
      • 2023
      • 2022
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
      • 2016
    • MG Powerpoint Presenstations Available
    • Garden Tools/Helps
    • Time Sheets
    • Links from MG Meetings >
      • Okies for Monarchs
    • Volunteer Online Reporting
  • Education
    • Dishing the Garden Dirt: The CCMGA Blog
    • Junior Master Gardener Program
    • Recorded meetings/webinars 2020
    • Upcoming Classes
    • Demo Garden
    • Class Calendar
    • Video about Cleveland County MG
    • Okla. Gardening Show featuring OUR demo garden
    • Garden Based Learning
    • Horticulture Tips >
      • 2022
      • 2019
    • Cleveland County Extension Newsletters >
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
    • Forestry and Natural Resources Webinars
    • Soil Testing
    • FAQs
    • Helpful Websites
    • Fact Sheets
  • Contact

Is It Time To Clean Up Your Yard?

11/22/2022

0 Comments

 

by Judy Kautz, OSU Extension Master Gardener

We’ve had our first freeze and now we have a decision to make.  As gardeners, we like to keep our yards cleaned up and cleared of debris, especially after our first frost and, especially after plants have turned brown and shriveled.  But, is it better to wait until spring to clean up the yard or do it now?
​
There are a number of good reasons to let the debris remain until spring.  First, if you have perennials that are evergreen, do not cut them; leaving them adds extra nutrition they get through their leaves.  Also, plants like sedum, even though their blooms are spent, offer winter interest to your garden, especially if we have a dusting of snow.  Winter grasses can look lovely after a heavy morning frost.
Picture
Ornamental grasses are best left through the winter as they provide interest in the garden.
Foliage left on your plants also provides natural protection from the winter cold; stems and crowns of plants can catch blowing leaves, which can add more insulation.  Additionally, plants with hollow stems like salvia, are unusual; if the stems are cut, winter moisture can make its way to the crown, damaging the plant or even killing it.

If you want to save time and energy, wait until spring to remove withered leaves on plants like daylilies.  It is much easier to apply a gentle tug to remove leaves instead of using pruners!  However, iris plants do benefit from giving their leaves a trim in the fall; simply cut the leaves in a fan shape, leaving about 4-6 inches on the leaves.
​
If you are a bird or wildlife lover, then leaving spent plants through the winter provides great benefit to these creatures.  Birds love the seeds from Black-eyed Susans, coneflowers and ornamental grasses.  The finches, particularly, have enjoyed the buffet in my yard provided by the standing phlox seed heads this year.  Grasses and plant debris also offer shelter to birds and small critters as the weather turns colder.
Picture
Finches love to feast on the seedheads of the black-eyed Susan in winter.
Now that we’ve talked about why you should wait until spring to tend your spent perennials, there are still some very good reasons to do some fall clean-up.  Disease prevention is the best reason; be sure to discard rather than compost any plant material suspected of being infested by disease or insect pests.  Plants like bearded iris can harbor iris borers and fungal disease if they are not pruned up before winter.
​
If you want to remove leaves, make quick work of a yard full of leaves with a sturdy piece of cardboard. Using it like a snow shovel, push a wide swath of new fallen leaves into piles. Do a fast pass across the lawn every day or two before leaves pack down or get rained on to keep them all together until you have a chance to move them to the compost pile.
Picture
Cardboard used like a shovel works great to gather up leaves in your yard until you can get them to compost pile.
If you don’t want plants that self-sow like coneflower, blanket flower, black-eyed Susan, or globe thistle to reseed, be sure to cut them back in the fall before their seed heads mature.  Keep in mind, however, that these very same plants have seeds that attract birds to your yard.  If you enjoy bird watching in your yard in the winter, save this task until spring!

Unattractive foliage is probably one of the most compelling reasons to clean up your plant debris in the fall.  Who wants to look at black or slimy leaves after a frost?  There are some plants that are particularly bad for this:  ligularia and Japanese anemones are some of the worst offenders, so prune up or remove this type of foliage.
​
For a gardener, there is always something that can be done in your yard; all our landscapes need some work in the fall and in the spring, because a gardener’s work is never done!
0 Comments

    Welcome to Dishing the Garden Dirt!
    ​
    The CCMGA Blog

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022

    Categories

    All
    Annuals
    Ants
    Apple
    Autumn
    Basil
    Bees
    Beneficial Insects
    Bird Feeders
    Butterfly
    Cactus
    Caterpillar
    Christmas Cactus
    Clean Up
    Clematis
    Companion Planting
    Containers
    Cool Season
    Crapemyrtles
    Curb Appeal
    Decor
    Dill
    Dried Flowers
    Drought Tolerant
    Drying Herbs
    Fall
    Fall Color
    Fall Gardening
    Floral Arrangements
    Flowers
    Freezing Herbs
    Fruit Trees
    Garlic
    Good Bugs
    Harvests
    Hedge
    Hellebore
    Herbs
    Hibiscus
    Holiday
    Holly
    Houseplant
    Hummingbirds
    Insects
    Irrigation
    Lavender
    Low Maintenance
    Memorial Day
    Mint
    Ornamental Grasses
    Peach
    Peony
    Perennial
    Pest Management
    Pollinator
    Pollinators
    Preservation
    Privacy
    Pumpkin
    Raised Beds
    Rosemary
    Rose Of Sharon
    Roses
    Sage
    Shade
    Shrubs
    Soil Testing
    Spiders
    Spring
    Squash
    Storing Vegetables
    Summer
    Sunflower
    Thyme
    Transplants
    Tree
    Tree Pest
    Vegetable
    Vegetables
    Water Conservation
    Watering
    Weather
    Webworm
    Winter
    Winter Vegetable
    Xeriscape
    Zucchini

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
    • Master Gardener Program
    • Video about Cleveland County MG
    • Constitution
    • Memo of Understanding
  • Events
    • Garden Party 2022
    • Garden Party 2020
    • Garden Party 2019
    • Garden Party 2018
    • Garden Party 2017
    • Photo Gallery 2022 >
      • Garden Party 2022
      • Home Tours June 2022
    • Photo Gallery 2019 >
      • State Conference 2019
    • Photo Gallery 2018 >
      • Demo Garden
      • Garden Tours 2018
      • State Conference 2018
    • Photo Gallery 2017 >
      • Regional MG State Conference June 2017
      • Waterwise Class
      • Will Rogers Tour June 1, 2017
  • Member News
    • Recorded meetings/seminars 2021
    • Summer MG Training Series 2020
    • Member Virtual Garden Tours
    • Members on YouTube
    • We want your input!
    • Desk Volunteer Calendar
    • Desk Guide
    • Newsletters >
      • 2023
      • 2022
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
      • 2016
    • MG Powerpoint Presenstations Available
    • Garden Tools/Helps
    • Time Sheets
    • Links from MG Meetings >
      • Okies for Monarchs
    • Volunteer Online Reporting
  • Education
    • Dishing the Garden Dirt: The CCMGA Blog
    • Junior Master Gardener Program
    • Recorded meetings/webinars 2020
    • Upcoming Classes
    • Demo Garden
    • Class Calendar
    • Video about Cleveland County MG
    • Okla. Gardening Show featuring OUR demo garden
    • Garden Based Learning
    • Horticulture Tips >
      • 2022
      • 2019
    • Cleveland County Extension Newsletters >
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
    • Forestry and Natural Resources Webinars
    • Soil Testing
    • FAQs
    • Helpful Websites
    • Fact Sheets
  • Contact