I like things as tidy as possible. Sorry, that's just me. I'm starting to cut things back and prefer to do it in bits and pieces since I hate any kind of mad rush to get things done. Last year I didn't do the thorough fall cleanup and regretted it with my entire being when spring came. What a mess! When spring comes there is so much else to do. I want to plant, move things around, plant new plants. I don't want to do what I should have done months ago. However, the main reason I like to get this work done early is to get everything into the compost bins as soon as possible and begin the decomposition process. My entire garden is recycled this way. Nothing gets thrown away. The sooner I start that process, the sooner it is ready to spread back over the garden as a nice, rich, moisture holding topdressing. And no, this doesn't take any money either. Kevin

My perennials have never looked better with the exception of the eons old candytuft in one border. And the weirdest thing is I never cut it back last Fall - in fact I never cut it back. I just think the snow lay too much and too long on some things. I ended up trimming it tho and there is new growth already. The shrubs had the roughest time, and not just the boxwood. I wish I would have had the foresight to not hard prune the privet hedge back in the summer. My courtyard lost it's wind screen I'm certain. Should have waited until Feb. like I did with the tall privet hedge along the road in 2012. But geeze, there was snow and below temps this Feb! no way could I have gone out and done all that work.

Beans are all done. Plants mostly pulled and fed to goats. Tomatoes and peppers still producing. They're way late this year. Toms will probably end up having to ripen indoors. Still pulling a few zucchini, some kale and chard and have a few more onions in the ground. We may get frost this week. I've been working with gleaners and have 200+ lbs. of apples to press into cider, make pie filling and more sauce. I picked 60 lb. of Mirabelle Plums yesterday and have to decide what to do with them. Tiny but tasty little things. They're ripe NOW unfortunately. Oh....and I start school full time on Monday. No problem! Yeah. Right. I love this time of year, but I'm glad when it's finally over and there isn't any fresh produce demanding my attention. Soon....very soon.... However, my favorite local farm has their closing sale on November 1st. I always go stock up on winter squash and whatever else I am short. They slash prices for 2 days, then are closed until spring. Ya gotta be there early! Most of the stuff I buy doesn't require any or at least not immediate processing. Thank goodness! Deanna

Timely article. Like some others I normally wait for spring to clean up but only in some areas. My front bed, i like to do some to neaten it up. I leave a back area away from the house, intact for the winter. I still trim by hand with pruners or heavy duty scissors. I dislike hedge trimmers I've used due to the condition of the branch after the cut. They always seem to make a mess. And how do you sharpen those too? At least with the electric saw, you just replace the blade. I got rid of hedges so I wouldn't have to use them. [g] We still have Taxus and Hollies, but I prefer to do those by hand. Maybe I should try using the electric saw on them now. We do have a small reciprocating electric saw tha we seem to use as a last resort when pruning shrubs. I haven't tried that on perennials or grasses. Like Babs, we find vibration and weight an issue after long periods of time using it. I have golden thyme growing as a ground cover around the ends of my raised veggie beds and it is a real chore to get that trimmed back in the spring. It has become a large patch and it is carefree once it is trimmed for the season. It blooms and is great for pollinators, it is tough and you can walk on it and treat it like grass. A few weeks ago I had the brainstorm to mow it with the mower. Why didn't I think of that long ago? [g] It worked very well. It did cut it back to bare branches in some places which is not a problem. I set the mower on the lowest setting. It was not pleasing to look at for a couple of weeks, but it's growing well again. So next year, I will wait until the season is just about over to do it, or I could wait for the spring to do it too. I did still have to take the scissors to the edges that meet the wooden beds where the mower couldn't get that close. It was much quicker and easier and I think it does just as good a job.