When Should You Begin Yours Spring Garden Cleanup

4 Reasons Not to Rush the Spring Garden Cleanup

There are many positives to staying out of the garden, especially for wildlife

Benjamin Vogt

March 10, 2020

Houzz Contributor. I'm a big advocate for bringing the tallgrass prairie into our urban lives -- only 1% remains, making it more threatened than the Amazon rainforest yet also as effective at sequestering CO2. I own Monarch Gardens LLC, a prairie garden design firm based in Nebraska and working with clients across the Midwest. I also speak nationally on native plants, sustainable design, and landscape ethics while hosting online classes. I'm the author of A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future. In the coming years we want to restore a 40+ acre prairie and host an artist residency program.

For some of us, spring can't come soon enough. But no matter where we are, snowy or not, the spring itch is fully upon us — and I'm here to urge you to think twice about scratching. Why shouldn't you clean up the garden just yet?

1. Snow Could Return

Depending on where you live, it very well might snow again — and snow a good deal. Leaving plants up will help them gather snow around themselves, which insulates the root zone. Snows are often followed by a day or two of bitter cold, and even the cold-tolerant plants will want a blanket if that happens.

In addition, many plants have hollow stems. When water gets down toward the bottom of a stem or stalk, it may freeze at the center of the plant and cause injury or death. There's no reason to cut off the sealed cover of a stem at this point.

Photo by Dick Mansfield

2. Stuff is Sleeping Out There

Speaking of hollow stems, many insects, such as native bees, have spent the winter maturing in the comfy confines of stems; they were laid as eggs in the summer or fall, then they emerged and are now resting adults ready to come out when the heat returns in mid- to late spring. Exposing them to fluctuating weather conditions may do great harm.

And what else is sleeping? Butterflies and moths and spiders and other native bees may be in the soil or just below the leaf litter. Many species overwinter as adults and take shelter in the natural detritus of the garden — you don't want to walk on them.

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3. You'll Help Bird Families

Hopefully you mulch your garden with whatever you cut down; I can't tell you how many times I've seen birds coming to my garden to pick up little sticks or stems I've trimmed off to carry them to a nest they're making. I even leave my ornamental grasses up well into May — since most are warm-season grasses, they don't even begin to get going until June anyway, and those wispy blades are perfect nesting material.

4. You'll Preserve the Soil Structure

You never want to work soil when it's wet, especially clay soil, and you surely don't want to be stepping on it, which would just compact it further. Simply put, stay out of the beds until you absolutely have to get in there. Yes, you'll see green stuff coming up, and you might even panic as it reaches 6 or 12 inches tall — but don't panic, trust me. Nature doesn't hurry, which works out well in woods and prairies, so take your cues from the natural gardens beyond the fence line and ignore your spring fever.