My own garden tidy up is based on the weather and what has started to look bad. Don't dump anything but leave it as a mulch and in piles to form compost at parts of the garden where it won't look out of place and may give any wildlife about the place a bit of shelter as well. Had to trim back a few shrubs this year that had got too big so got lots of mulch/compost piles/wildlife shelters in different places. The one spot of bare ground near the rhubarb and rose bushes has already got a good layer of mulch/old horse bedding. Can't describe myself as a tidy gardener and like to see material that has passed away go back to the soil as close to where it was growing as possible without it being an eye sore.
I’m with Edhelka - I don’t really care what the garden does in winter because I won’t be out there. The gardener does keep it tidy which is nice. The lawn is mown when it is dry enough, leaves are all raked, manky stuff is cut down, slightly tender plants are left protected and the terraces are jet washed. Compost and leaf mould is liberally spread over exposed soil.
Surrounded by miles of hedgerows and field boundaries which grow and decompose as nature intends, wildlife has plenty on offer in terms of food and shelter. My altered habitat in the shape of the garden provides more pluses than minuses.
I move things now and prune roses later in winter. I like the time when things die back, and I can see the bones of what I have. It's refresingly empty - I can really see what's there, as there is less visual distraction. I can see all the old wind blown pots, stuck under the hedges. I try to use the time to move all the bits that I have been meaning to all year. I just love pulling out the old sunflowers and cosmos. It's so heartening. I let the leaves fall (I have no lawn) and then in the spring sweep them under the hedges to make cover for critters like resident toads.
One thing I'm learning this year, primarily from visiting the garden at The Hepworth Wakefield, is how good winter stems and seedheads can look. I'm going to give more consideration to how plants will look in autumn and winter from now on. Not just autumn and winter either; when I visited in August there were a lot of Salvias (Amethyst and Caradonna) that had 'gone over'... I normally cut mine back in the hope of a second flush, but they looked great as dried out flower heads, doing a similar job to ornamental grasses. Seems to work best when you have large groups of the same plant. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHqVTILgVbv/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
Wind and rain flatten most things in my garden and I find that slugs multiply in the soggy mess, so I clear up and mulch where I can. However, I think you are SO wrong about winter gardens and flowers! I have many winter flowering shrubs with strong scent and they cheer me up and remind me of better times in even the worst weather. A stroll round the garden in a bit of winter sun is one of the greatest joys in life.
Same here @Posy. The lovely ideal of frosted seedheads doesn't happen here, even thought we can have frosts starting in October, or earlier. Most plants are annihilated by wind and rain before they get a chance to look sparkly. I also have plants and shrubs which are attractive for winter, as it lasts a long time. I think if you have Botrytis in J. anemone seedheads @margaret005 , that's not a good sign, That's usually from plants too close together and poor airflow, so you may need to address that. Quite unusual I'd have thought in those. I often have to remove broken or damaged stems because of weather, and I do remove any dying foliage which looks pretty dreadful, especially if it's very visible, and of there are bulbs in the same spot. The pasqueflowers, for example, had a tidy up yesterday. Otherwise, autumn/winter is used for moving any plants that need it, or pruning. Leaves are also gathered where necessary - ie if they've gathered on paths or steps which could then be slippy, especially once we have ice and snow.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I have to honest and say I cut back nearly everything this year while in the past we've left the whole garden over winter. We found that the level of work in spring to sort all the beds was very difficult when the springs have been so wet and we made a whole lot of mess too. We also lost quite a few plants that got lost under the collapsed foliage.
Our meadow is our main concession to wildlife we don't mow it till September and it definitely brings lots of insects into the garden. We also cover all the paths and areas under trees with tree surgeons mulch which the blackbirds especially love to throw about, we regularly have up to 10 pairs of blackbirds in the garden and some resident hedgehogs.
I move the worst of the leaves (I have woodland at the end of my "formal" garden, so I get carpeted with oak and ash leaves to an unbeatable level), and clear out the hosta leaves as they tend to turn to soggy, slimy mush coating everything. Otherwise, apart from incidental tidying when I'm lifting one or two tender things or (later) pruning stuff, it all gets left until spring.
Lazy gardening at its best. Like BenCotto, I have hedgerows and fields, so I leave nature to sort itself out.
Oh wow ok so many ideas! So I guess it’s best to just remove anything that is covering a crown? Other than that not a lot gets cut down as most of it stays greenish until spring. @Fairygirl the odd thing is, is that there’s quite a bit of air flow around the plant so I’m not sure?
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Surrounded by miles of hedgerows and field boundaries which grow and decompose as nature intends, wildlife has plenty on offer in terms of food and shelter. My altered habitat in the shape of the garden provides more pluses than minuses.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CHqVTILgVbv/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
I think if you have Botrytis in J. anemone seedheads @margaret005 , that's not a good sign, That's usually from plants too close together and poor airflow, so you may need to address that. Quite unusual I'd have thought in those.
I often have to remove broken or damaged stems because of weather, and I do remove any dying foliage which looks pretty dreadful, especially if it's very visible, and of there are bulbs in the same spot. The pasqueflowers, for example, had a tidy up yesterday.
Otherwise, autumn/winter is used for moving any plants that need it, or pruning. Leaves are also gathered where necessary - ie if they've gathered on paths or steps which could then be slippy, especially once we have ice and snow.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Our meadow is our main concession to wildlife we don't mow it till September and it definitely brings lots of insects into the garden. We also cover all the paths and areas under trees with tree surgeons mulch which the blackbirds especially love to throw about, we regularly have up to 10 pairs of blackbirds in the garden and some resident hedgehogs.
Lazy gardening at its best. Like BenCotto, I have hedgerows and fields, so I leave nature to sort itself out.