Share your fall cleanup shortcuts!

10 years ago

Soon it will be time to sharpen the shears (even though I never actually do sharpen my shears) and tackle the fall cleanup. Some plants are easy while others are just a giant PITA. Some are best done in the fall, others left until spring. I'd like to hear what timesaving measures work for folks, as I'm always keen to work as smart as I can with big tasks like this.

Here's a few shortcuts I've found:
Oriental poppies - in midsummer when they get horrid looking, I don't cut them back, I just put a shovel at their base and pop out the whole plant in one swift move. The plant reappears from the taproot and I've never had this actually kill a plant. They are overzealous as it is and this saves tons of time.

Daylilies - if I wait until spring rather than fall, the foliage pulls away from the crown. I just yank it off and no cutting is needed. Sweet!

Hardy geraniums - some of these can be cleaned up by yanking away the stems from the crown.

Saliva - if I wait until spring I can break off the stems rather than cutting them. It's much faster this way.

I have some rangy areas with yarrow, lambs ears and other 'meh' plants that I think I'm going to just cut back with the weedwhacker.

Here's plants that are a PITA and make me want to reach for the shovel instead of the pruners:

Catmint Six Hills Giant - takes forever to cut down. Karl Foester grass is also a tough one to cut down. One of mine is almost 3 feet across and that's a lot of snip, snip, snip... snip, snip.... am I done yet? (I've heard about the chainsaw method but I don't own and chainsaw and don't want to.)

Siberian iris - I let these stand over the winter because they are really pretty through November. But by spring they are a floppy mess and the tough leaves are difficult to cut through.

Blue oat grass - I read that you are not supposed to cut them but rather to comb through them and pull out the dead leaves in the spring. But after a few years the plant gets crowded in the crown and actually needs to be cut back. I did that this spring and the plants seemed to like it. But I'm not sure how often to do this. Anyone know?

What other cleanup tips and conundrums do you have?

Featured Answer

GreatPlains1

10 years ago

Karin, Here we sit under the heat dome and you are talking about fall in Montana which must be beautiful. I am waiting, dreaming and wishing....... 10 stifling days left, or so they promise on the News. Fall is my favorite time of the year for both color and weather. Everything is subtle color with tall grasses swaying and long sunlight rays shining through the seed heads and dried forbs creating contrast.

My biggest dread with fall cleanup is picking the mess up and disposal. I can cut plants back as quick as a jack rabbit because I find that part fun, but then there's all those big piles to deal with. Add leaves to the picture and its one big mass to deal with.

I space out the trimming jobs over winter, we are pretty warm here with lots of 60 and 70 degree days and I never need an excuse to get out there, or maybe this just gives me something to do out there. It works out to where I am not overwhelmed all at one time and its done by spring.

I was in the right place at the right time once when a guy was tossing a lot of those really big nursery tree planting pots and I asked him if I could have several. We loaded up the truck and brought them home. These come out each fall and I fill them up with dried plant material, that helps a lot with trips to the trash and amount of mess.

I always have a lot of native wildflower seed and really hate to toss them, seems like such a waste. I deadhead everything into grocery bags and I store them, crunching them into "pillow" bags, rolling the tops shut. Later I take them to an ugly waste spot or somewhere that looks like it could use some color and diversity and I spread them around. That is more like making extra work than saving work but it gives me a lot of pleasure to do that. I like driving back later the next year to see if anything came up. It does and that really makes my day.

The cool season grasses sometimes seem to benefit from an occasional trim. I always waffle on a few, to trim or not to trim. The warm ones I leave all winter for interest and trim them in spring. That is a JOB.

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Fri, Sep 6, 13 at 14:03

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