I’ve always had mixed emotions about spring clean-ups. While being extremely cathartic, albeit slightly painful and time consuming, I was always a little confused as to why I was cutting back and removing some wonderfully almost composted down leaves and debris and then paying for and putting down mulch, which of course, was what I had just removed. I was, therefore, thrilled that while attending an industry seminar last year, Christine and I had a chance to speak with the extremely knowledgeable and helpful plantsman Roy Diblik, of Northwind Perennial Farm. Among other things, he’s done work for the Lurie Garden in Millenium Park, the Shedd Aquarium and many plantings in Fontana, Wisconsin. Knowing that budget is always a concern, the number of manhours spent cutting back and removing debris was mind boggling. That’s when he explained the concept of plants living in their own debris. In a nutshell, mimicking nature. In gardens with just perennials it’s possible simply run a lawn mower over the beds several times, preferably in late February or early March, and leaving the debris on the ground as mulch. It leaves a different look, admittedly, one that takes some getting used to. Less tidy than some people like. Roy has learned to plant spring blooming bulbs in those beds to help divert attention.
The question then became, is this concept possible in homeowner gardens where there is a mix of both woodies and perennials? We decided to try it in my gardens and the long and short of it is yes! Not only is it possible, it was quicker, easier and much more cost effective. The beds that we chose normally take about 12-16 manhours for my spring clean-up. This season it took Victor an hour and a half and as you can see from the photos he used a mechanical hedge trimmer, working his way from top to bottom to chop the plants into small pieces. All in all, a great time was had by all! In the future, this will be my go-to cleanup process whenever possible!
This is a great post written several years ago by my friend and former business partner, Connie Tracy, who still has us do her clean-up this way!