Anyway, got a lot done on this stunningly gorgeous Michigan afternoon ;0)

Accumulating Leaves

Pouring rain here all day. Only can look out the window at cleanup remaining. At least now the leaves at the woods edges are wet and should stay put and not blow back in the areas I've already cleaned up.

Hey, it's my yard and I'm happy, darn it!

That is not exactly true. In the colder climates it is generally advised to wait until the ground freezes and then mulch. Doing so prevents the ground from going through the freeze/thaw cycle so that plants don't heave out of the ground. If you live in one of the intermediate zones, then you are sort of in limbo as to whether to wait until the ground freezes to mulch. I personally don't have that issue living further south and spent two Sundays ago getting wheelbarrow loads of mixed grass clippings and leaves and spreading them out several inches thick over my natural areas. By next spring, they will be almost completely composted and providing essential nutrients to the plants.

I garden on *my* timetable - chores get done when I have the time and motivation to do them. Usually, I end up getting clean-up and fall mulching done before the ground freezes and I don't have a problem with it. There have been times when it doesn't get done before the ground freezes, and that's fine, too.

I have only 3 or 4 bags of leaves left to spread, I hope that's enough to get the last stretch of bed finished. I'll probably finish that up on my day off tomorrow just to get it out of my hair, shouldn't take long.

Also got the small pottery and statuary stored in the garage and the garage cleaned/organized. DH has to put the big pieces of pottery in the crawl space, they're too heavy for me (see why I need a man around LOL!).

get it dormant.. keep it dormant..

in the great white north... you should let the plant go totally dormant... and then mulch it.. so it will stay dormant ... and not heave ....

if you mulch heavily ... and cause the plant to NOT go dormant at the right time ... and then the ground freezes.. while the plant is still in lush growth phase.. it can die ....

i learned this lesson the hard way.. when i killed 25 of 100 roses way back when ... went a little to type A on them ... lol ...

now.. that would be the theory ... but that application of said theory.. in your zone.. in your garden has much flexibility .... if you kill a bunch of stuff.. well.. i was right... if you didnt... you timed it.. and applied it.. PERFECTLY.. for your garden.. in your zone ... lotta grey in this black and white answer ....

and back to the link about accumulating leaves ... type A.. type B ..... the point is not what is right or wrong for your garden in your zone .. its about what YOU need to do..

whether or not it is related to WHAT THE PLANT NEEDS .... is a whole other issue .....

its about teaching a total neophyte about the variables.. not dictating to them.. that it is imperative to put their children to bed in fall.. to feed them in spring... etc ...

zone appropriate stock.. should NOT """NEED""" anything .... how you want to deal with them is about YOU... not them ... and if mx FEELS GOOD .. all the power to her... but i havent done a darn thing since the national tour was here in june... and she will be no more successful than i will be ....

have a great day ....

ken

Perhaps that is a key differentiation - ?.

I do mulch after the ground freezes, though, for the most part. I already mulched/cover-cropped my raised annual and vegetable beds, but the perennial beds wait until December for mulch. Not only for the plants, but also because I have a vole problem in certain beds, and I feel the shredded leaves I use for mulch are too inviting. I don't want to make a nice comfortable place for them to nest for the winter, so I hope they run off somewhere else, and once the ground is frozen the mulch goes down.

I do like the *idea* of having things cleaned up, but like I said, I usually have at least one or two beds that don't get done, or pots/containers that get buried in the snow. Last year my bean trellises were buried because I laid them on the ground and then it snowed before I got around to lugging them to the garage. Oh well, it happens. Or it doesn't, lol, depending on how you look at things!

:)
Dee

We don’t have consistent snow cover here, and heaving is common. There is still a lot of green out there, maybe half has gone dormant. We had way too much rain in Oct-Nov. That must be why I was thinking I should wait. I’m concerned about trapping too much moisture.