randy goodwin used to mow the whole bed ..

and then one virus plant.. led to him .... I THINK ... having to remove 4 feet of soil and all his hosta and start over ...

i would not do it

ken

Most of the time I just leave the fall leaves and small debris on the beds and clean them up in the spring. With almost an acre (about 2/3rds of it in trees and plants) it would be too much of a chore to pick them up, especially at my advanced age and I tend to be a lazy gardener anyway. There are maybe 600 hostas in the various beds.

Besides, I don't want to kill the praying mantis egg cases, butterfly larva, cocoons and other beneficials that overwinter in the leaf debris.

We do rake the leaves off all the paths, driveway, patio, etc and shred those, putting them on the beds as mulch. We have a big shredder-chipper to do that. There are shrubs, Japanese maples and other perennials in with the hostas so mowing the beds is not an option.

I do have a leaf-vac that I use on the moss paths as they can't be raked.

Tall perennials mostly get cut back and tossed on the compost pile. I leave some for the birds and a few if I want, to reseed for next year.

Some of the leaves just get dumped without shredding, back in the woods as mulch. They mostly break down by spring.

Probably not much help here, am I? LOL!

Sandy

I kinda do what Sandy does. I leave all leaves until spring,and rake the paths then,also. Mowing is not an option,since my garden is on the side of a mountain,and no mower could ever get there. I really don't have a lawn to mow at all,just a strip up beside the road that goes by my property. When you live in the woods,there is nothing much to do,but that's the way I like it! Phil

Thanks for your comments!

Ken, I remove the hosta leaves first before mowing, so I would not spread any virus. In the past I mowed the beds just before winter really arrived, about the beginning of December.

Sandy, I am 72 and a little less work is appreciated. I do not have a large chipper/vacuum, only a vacuum/blower which I hang on my shoulder. I did not blow, only vacuumed those leaves on the paths, close to paths and lawn and also on my new dry creek bed. Some of those and the mowed ones from the lawn went into the composts.

Phil, yes I remember pictures of your garden with slopes, can't mow there. That's the proper way to leave leaves in the woods.

Others here on this forum use flat river stones on which they write hosta names. To see those in spring leaves probably have to be removed, but they could get mowed. I think I will not buy more markers this year.
Bernd

Oh no, I thought the virus couldn't be spread when the leaves are all dried up and/or mushy. I used the same pair of scissors Saturday to cut off all the dried flower stalks in my front island without cleaning in between.

I was so careful all summer long, did I blow it?

Gesila

Probably not, Gesilla. But it's still not a good idea to use the same tool on all your Hosta without cleaning it in bleach between each plant, even in the fall. At this time of year I remove all the Hosta leaves by hand, using the yank method. I use the blower/vac to remove leaves from beds, and then put the shredded leaves back as mulch.

Bernd, won't mowing the beds compact your soil. I would just use your blower/vac and do a small amount at a time. If you don't get to every bed before the snow flies, then do it in the spring. No big whoop.

Steve

Gesila, Steve, I also pull the leaves off by hand, actually wearing leather work gloves. Then I discard them into garbage, they do not go into the compost. For not wanting to hurt the plants I pull only leaves out which come out easy, no janking.
In past years I put the mower in the highest wheel setting and simply shred everything. This is a walk-behind mower. I was not concerned about compacting, since the mower only weighs less than half what I weigh, has four wheels, while I have two large boots.

I am still not finished with cleaning the whole yard. It is enjoyable when not overdoing it.
Bernd

Hopefully the pots I have sitting close together on the roofed open patio will not be carrying any virus. I am not planning to pull any leaves, dead or alive, until they get home to Alabama. I'd surely lose the name tags which are hung around the base of the petioles in some cases, and I don't want to try remembering next spring what's what. We'll be home in time to drive through the neighborhood collecting the bags of leaves put out for trash pickup, I especially love the pine straw which I miss now that we cut down our 5 100 foot tall big pines. But sterilizing the clippers or scissors seems a good idea. Does the Lysol spray disinfectant work for a virus outdoors as well as in the bathroom?

Bernd, I have a couple of years on you, and taking things easy is the best way to go. But if you have the determination, you can move mountains a spoonful at a time.

I'm not far behind you, Bernd, I'll be 69 next month.

I have to get the leaves off the moss paths in the fall as wet packed leaves smother and kill moss, so if nothing else gets done, I use my over-the-shoulder blower/vac on them. Can't rake as rake tines tear up the moss. When I clean out my dry creek the leaves have to be hand picked, and there is moss there, too, along the edges. Blowing them out doesn't accomplish a whole lot, as the wind just blows them right back if I don't get them picked up.

My husband decided he wanted to help last spring, and blew all the leaves out and onto the woods beds. They were right back filling the dry creek by the next day. And yes, I did say, "Told you so!" as I hand picked them up so they could be composted.

(We're talking a hundred + trees in the back half acre). But I love the moss, as much as I love my hostas, so it's worth it for me!

Sometimes I really envy people with cozy, tiny back yards!

Maybe by January all the leaves in the yard, gravel paths, patios and driveways will be gone! Maybe! Until the rest of the oak leaves come off in the spring. And I have a neighbor that wouldn't know a hosta from a 57 Chevy, and he never rakes, so guess who gets the leaves from his 7 big oaks........You can see why we invested in a big chipper shredder.

Well, that and the fact that my husband likes his noisy toys, lol!

Sandy

So far I cut back everything in my yard in the fall. Getting to be way too much work as I age, especially with my back. In fact I keep going to more and more flowering shrubs to reduce the work load. I'm hoping someone will post a series of photos of how things look leaving them until spring so I can decide if that is something I can live with next year.

Bernd have you thought about maybe using a flat piece of wood big enough for each bed, or part of an area of a bed with names spaced on it as a map and staking it in the ground at the very back of each bed? It would be out of the way of your mower but the names would be handy for you.
Cher

Bernd, Your situation and mine sound very similar. I have about 165 varieties of hosta, but many fewer duplicates. I've mowed down my perennial beds, but my hosta still haven't "mushed"; I won't mow them until I can pull the leaves. I don't use labels because mine is a historic garden (created by my grandparents in 1929 and listed on the National Register along with my 1778 log cabin); labels look a bit too commercial. I keep both a map on a grid and a database with the grid location marked. Anyway, forcing my 63-year-old-brain to remember the names is a good mental exercise which I do by naming every plant as I walk the garden.

The one additional thing I do for my hosta is put down a systemic fertilizer. The owner of hosta nursery which is my primary supplier told me that he fertilizes in late fall because he's too busy in the spring. Over winter, the fertilizer soaks into the ground; when the hosta awaken, they have a well-fertilized start. Nance

We are all getting "around the bend",as people say,Bernd! I am even older than you at 73,but I am still able to enjoy the joys of gardening. I could do a lot more weeding,and raking leaves around,and in the beds,but that would make gardening'work',and then it wouldn't be fun any more! We all have our limitations,and there are so many leaves out there right now,I don't even want to think about it. I walked out to the garden yesterday,and there are literally billions of leaves out there. There are times that I wish I lived in an area with less trees,but I wouldn't enjoy living in a desert! Just a few more thoughts,and now I will go back into 'hybernation'! Phil

Thanks for your replies! My inspiration is from an old Victory Garden show with this 95 year old lady still maintaining her large succulent garden. But being a guy, average life is shorter. My problem this year is that just prior to Irene I decided to improve drainage in my back yard, my older body did not like that, and now the leaves... Next year might be much better!

Sandy, we once had a house with 20 large oak trees, and we raked all the leaves and dumped them behind a hill. I made a pully contraption to get the leaf bags up that hill to my wife. So I can understand your problems with a larger property. Now with our 1/2 acre we have a fenced in backyard with the fence also keeping neighbors' fallen leaves out. Now mowing and vacuuming will keep the yard clean until spring, so it is time well spent.

Cher, thanks for the suggestion of this board, but there I see the need of preserving the wood against weather..(I am just touching up the paint on windows). But this is a good idea to put a sketch with names close to beds in case of a show. I know where all of my hostas are, have that Excel file and could print that out in case there is ever a need.
I might take photos once all is cleaned up for winter.

Nance, this is interesting living in a 1778 log cabin, you must be finding all kinds of artifacts when digging in the yard. Thanks that doing a data base is also of use for you. And doing mental exercises is great to fight aging. I will continue to refine my Excel map and tables.
It is interesting about what the hosta nursery suggested. I always wondered how long it will take to let a systemic fertilizer reach the roots. This year the systemic action did not seem to have an effect against nematodes, needed to spray and stop them when they appeared at the beginning of August.
Bernd

I use my empty tomato cages when my garden is done for the year. I place one, inverted, over each hosta. Then I rake up the leaves near the plant and simply stuff them into the cages. It is a nice way to store those ugly cages so I don't have to pull them apart in the spring. I use the same cages for my tall lilys, hibiscus and other perenials that die back to the ground. The tomato cages wire rings supports the leaves so they don't compact heavily on the crowns but most of the winter maintains a nice 2 feet of leaf mulch. Once in place I can go back during the dead of winter and easily remove the old hosta leaves that fan out of the cages. It gives me something to do in the garden.

This year I have added quite a few more hosta so I will probably be shy a few or more cages. But at least it is an approach, even if you only have cages for one bed or part of one. It isn't raking. It is scooping. The rest of the fallen leaves I drag out of the bed and use my rider with the deck up 3 inches to chop and blow the leaves to where I want them. If my compost bins are full I have my squash garden to pile them on over the winter and use them as mulch in spring.

Les

Here's what we do sometimes:
Blow all the leaves out of the beds into the middle of the yard. Set the mower on mulch and run it thru a few times. Put the bagger on the mower and collect the finely chopped leaves. Dump the mower bag onto the new beds (ones without any mulch). I guess if you don't use a wood mulch, you could dump the bag right back onto your beds.

I've been vacuuming up the leaves and placing them (shredded) on an area where I'll be starting a new bed next year. From what I've read here, if you have a problem with voles, you should keep the leaves off the hostas until after the ground freezes...correct?

I do have voles, but so far, they've only destroyed a couple of minis I had. I have more problems with squirrels than anything.

Here is some advice in case you get a 'Trigger Finger' from working too hard putting your yard to bed for winter. Do not get surgery as suggested in another forum. I had one for 2 months after I did this drainage work before hurricane Irene. After a month I remembered that 8 years ago I had a Trigger Thumb on the left hand and a guy in my office suggested to wear a brace as he had used, which I did, and it went away. A specialist had said he could do surgery. Read Wikipedia, which says a tendon is swollen and can not easily go through its sheath. So you have to let the finger rest in a brace ($13 at Walmart) and the trigger goes away. This time I had a trigger on my right thumb, I wore a thumb brace on my right hand while doing yard work, and everything is fine now.
Bernd

Bernd, the brace worked for my numb fingers, but it was the wrist brace for me. After about 2 months, I had feeling in my fingers again.

As for remembering, it is the short term memory that fades the quickest so they say, which says a lot for not moving plants around. Me, I forget where I put the grid or plan. :)