Should I cut back my perennials before winter or leave them until spring?
That’s a question with no right answer. Happily, that also means there's no wrong answer.
One argument for cutting back your perennials before winter is that decaying matter can harbor pests that will in turn plague your garden next spring when the temperatures warm up again. This is of special concern for anyone wishing to garden spray-free. One of the best ways to keep pest populations under control is to make sure that debris is never left sitting around in the garden, especially in the autumn when the damp and the relative warmth of a debris pile can be especially appealing to pests looking for shelter from the increasing cold.
Another argument for cutting back your perennials each autumn is that it leaves your garden looking much tidier. Leave them standing and by January you’ll be tired of all those brown flags waving at you every time the breeze blows. Unless, of course, we get a winter like the last one and then the only thing you’ll see out your window for four solid months is a seemingly endless sea of white.
On the other hand, leaving your perennials standing through the winter allows snow and leaves to accumulate in the branches, giving the crown and roots an extra layer of protection against all that freezing and thawing, which together do a great deal of damage to plants. Many plants, such as Echinacea, also have seedheads that can provide food for any birds that stick around through the colder months. (Unless you have a garden the size of a city park, the volume of seeds available for those birds amounts to little more than snack food, but at least the seeds will attract birds to your yard and they are more lively than most other things outside that time of year.)
For me, the choice between cutting down my perennials or leaving them standing is a fairly simple one. By the time I finish harvesting the last of my root vegetables and squash, I don’t have enough energy left to give a hoot about what's going on in the flower garden. Each year, I think I will somehow magically find some hidden reserve of energy that will power me through all the little chores that need to be done to properly put my garden to bed and each year that magic fails arrive. So, I leave the flower gardens as they are and attack them with enthusiasm when spring once again rolls around.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me at vanessa@gardenmuse.ca.
Originally published in the Creston Valley Advance.
