Sorting Out the Fall Chores
taken off the chore list because they don't need doing now. The great annual cutting back of the perennials is one. In most gardens only a few plants ever have problems - the peonies may suffer from botrytis and phlox or monarda may get mildew, but they usually are a quick trick to cut back and the foliage can be put in a bag and disposed of in the garbage, not the compost. If your perennials were healthy, leave the tops on. The birds will enjoy the seeds and there has been research with some species showing that they winter better if they are not cut back.
Do you prune in the fall? Why? There are no woody plants that should be pruned in fall. Nothing should ever be pruned just because it is time to prune and fall isn't the right time for most pruning jobs anyway. There should always be a reason to prune. Is the plant too tall? Diseased? Has it got dead branches? Does it need to be shaped? These are reasons to prune but none need doing now except where a branch may be in your way or broken. Late winter or earliest spring before bud break is the preferred time to prune most trees and shrubs. The spring bloomers like lilac and rhododendrons are the exceptions. They should be pruned after they bloom, not now.
I can choose to skip the last feeding for the lawn too. Late October is the traditional time for that and I won't be home. But, since I use an organic fertilizer, not a chemical one that is soluble in the soil, I can put it down anytime this winter that I have the time. I can put it in my beds and around my shrubs too. Then, any time the soil is warm enough for the microbes there to be active, they will break it down and make it available to my plants. That will give them a head start when the spring thaw comes.
All in all, I'm learning to be a more practical gardener as well as a more efficient one. Though I love to work in the garden, I do have another life too.
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