Hi Midnight,

Welcome to RMG!

Any of the dead stems and foliage you don't cut down will be there all summer, so if you don't want the dead stuff showing, they should be cut down.

Is that the south side of the house? Did you water at all over winter?

When to cut them down is up to you, but if you wait till the new growth gets more than a couple inches high, it's hard to cut the dead stuff down without cutting the new growth too. And how far to cut them down depends, again, on how much dead stuff you want left in there. There are as many different opinions on when and how far to cut perennials down as there are people! I like things neat looking so I cut them down "all the way," as in, about an inch above the ground. And with only a few exceptions (like grasses), I cut mine down in fall or over winter when we have a HOT winter like this one!

If you look closely at the base of your plants, are you seeing any new growth starting yet? With the warm weather, you should be seeing something by now! If you do, I recommend cutting them down soon before the new growth gets very big. (If you're not seeing some signs of growth by now, and you haven't watered all winter, I highly recommend you water them DEEPLY. That means not just going over them with a hand-held hose and watering the top couple inches. I mean to either water them for and hour or so with a pretty fine spray sprinkler (if water starts running off the soil, do it in 15 minute stretches), or laying the hose in the center of each plant on a trickle and leaving it run at each plant for about a half an hour. The soil needs to be watered deeply enough that it's moist/wet BELOW the deepest roots. I can't tell for sure what they are. but from what I see it looks like stuff that can be cut down "all the way" if you decide to do that. (When they start to grow, if you post closeup pictures, we can probably tell you what you have!)

I'm not sure, but I think the one behind the big rock on the right side may be a lavender---sniff it! If it is--and if you enjoy quietly sitting out there "doing things," I recommend going thru it and cutting out each old flower stem, cutting them back a little further than just to the base of the stem, and cutting just above where you see new growth. If the old foliage is crispy--again, can't tell for sure from the pic--cut it back further to get rid of the dead foliage and to let it break lower down and fill back in with fresh, new foliage. How far you cut back lavender depends on the look you like! Some people like to leave them grow into big, woody looking plants. I keep mine cut down most of the way after each bloom, so when it blooms again it's a nice, compact plant that's covered with flowers! If that's not lavender, do you have any idea what it is? Is there any tag at the base or anything?

Here's an example of how I cut mine down in my main perennial bed in my backyard. I'll just post thumbnails, but you can click to make them bigger!

February 24 with the switch grass and blue fescue not cut down yet.

And the same area--from a little bit further back--on May 12.

And here's a pic of some of the lavenders blooming in July. They reseed all over the place, and the smaller ones are the newest seedlings. The bigger ones were cut down to 2-3" the last time they bloomed. I never let them get to the "woody" stage! One or two of the oldest ones usually die each year when they get cut down, and they might not if I didn't cut them back quite so far, but there are always fresh new ones to take their place, so I don't have a problem with that at all!

Your grass--I assume it's 'Karl Foerster'--is looking really great!

If I raised more questions than I answered, let me know!

Happy Spring,
Skybird

Thank you for the great response! I just bought the house in January, and I haven't watered yet. It's the North side of the house though, so there was a lot of snow & snow melt around the plants. After looking at your lavender pics, I think you are spot on about the plants by the big rock. They definitely look like your pics. I am not seeing any new growth yet, so I think I will be out this weekend trimming everything back and then doing a really good water job!

If you've had snow pack around them you may not need to water all that much.

Skybird rocks!

I am not a xeriscape expert, but so far all my plants I put in 4 years ago have been fairly dummy proof (thankfully). I usually do all trimming in Feb/March.

The couple bushes I have I don't cut back (If I break an upper branch and it is soft inside I leave it alone). Sometimes I rough up the bushes a bit to drop the last of the dead leaves but that is it.

Everything else I pretty much cut down to the ground or to where the green starts. I have a few ground cover plants that seem to stay green to within 6-12 inchs of the longest vines, so on those I just clean up the dried 'crispy' stuff.

I have some of the same grasses you have there, usually they stay green in the center about a foot up, so I usually just trim it back to the green....not sure if that is correct, but it has worked thus far and I am excited to do a few transplants this year.

I live down in Castle Rock and finally got my lazy bum out to trim everything a couple days ago. Most of my plants had about 1/4-1/2 inch of green growth underneath, so I trimmed all the dead stuff as close to the ground as I could and cleaned them up. All my ground covers I trimmed up roughly where there was a lot of crispy stuff, and for a lot of it I just roughed them up to take the top layer of dead leaves off and it looked great underneath.

Seriously, I have absolutely no green on my thumbs and some terrible soil, but I love my xeriscape plants. Outside of a bit of trimming a couple times a year and maybe a couple good soaks in the spring, even I have managed to keep it all alive! Enjoy your new home and front yard!