Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Let It Be






Be smart, indulge yourself and click the vid, you know you want to!

Autumn is upon us and although I'm hardly Mother Mary I do have some words of wisdom on the subject of your garden and what is to be done with it at this time of year. Many gardeners feel compelled to clean up their garden and make everything look neat and tidy. Well don't, get a grip and Let It Be!
Sure you can remove the fallen leaves from your paths as they get slippery when wet as we certainly don't want you to break your neck. But put those leaves in your borders or in big plastic bags to make leaf mold. Do not throw them away or even worse blow them away with that most stupid and totally unnecessary of garden gadgets the leaf blower. Just get yourself a broom which is far less noisy, cheap, doesn't waste fuel and a spot of brushing away the leaves will give you a free work out too.
Any branches that will blow about in the wind and would perhaps poke out your eye in the process, well give those a good trim. Remove pots that are not frost proof and put them somewhere save, this also applies to plants that cannot stand frost. Put out food and water for the birds and that's pretty much all you have to do in your garden.
Do not start a scorched earth policy in your garden. Most plants do not require to be cut back to the ground so Let It Be. All those fallen leaves in your borders? Ditto!
If you do have an autumn clean in your garden you will also be cleaning away hiding places for beneficial insects that overwinter in the garden debris. You'll be chucking out pure black gold aka leaf mold that will feed your plants next year. You'll also be removing food for the birds and places for hedgehogs, toads and many other garden friends to hibernate in.
Fallen leaves provide many plants and bulbs with a nice warm blanket when its cold outside, bitterly cold. Remove said blanket and you'll have a good chance of losing more plants and bulbs than when you had just Let It Be.
If your fingers are itching to clean something up, go give your kitchen cupboards a good clean, they could probably do with one. And, which is even better, give mine a good scrub while you're at it. But your garden? Let It Be!
Because next spring you will most certainly need your garden friends to help you get rid of many pests and diseases but if you've destroyed many or most of them, well ....... you do the maths.
And there's another good reason to Let It Be. Do you think that the above garden would have looked half as good if some overzealous person had cut the grasses and plants down to the ground? Frankly, tidy is overrated!
Do you really want to rob yourself of pure winter magic as shown in the pic above? Of course not, so Let It Be.
But Mother Ma.... er YE I hear you mumble, don't you never ever clean up the garden then? Well yes, come Spring you will brush away the leaves in your border which will be fun, not a chore as the brushing is very much like unwrapping presents. You will come upon so many unexpected treasures that you will be grinning from ear to ear for most of the time spent giving your garden a light Spring clean.
Come Spring there Will Be No Garden Sorrows as you garden friends will be ready, willing and able to give you a hand. Or a wing, or a tentacle, or a beak as the case may be.

These whispered words of wisdom were brought to you by the Beatles and yours truly.

copyright 2009 Y.E.W. Heuzen

30 comments:

Karen - An Artist's Garden said...

Good advice Yolanda Elizabet (Although I cannot say that my fingers itch enough to clean out the kitchen cupboards ;) )

Lovely images of the grasses too
K

easygardener said...

I agree with Karen about the kitchen cupboards - but I might dust my books instead :-)
I like the umbrella thingies - funny yet slightly creepy - but at least they don't move.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Yolanda girl ! .. That is pretty much the way of Canadian gardeners .. we know a thick blanket of snow will arrive soon enough to make things "look" neat ? LOL
I do agree with Karen and EG about the NEED to feel that way inside my home a little more ? ;-)
Love the "Let it Be" theme,perfect!

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I am already on the same page as you are about letting it be YE. You have some lovely images here and good advise.

Gail said...

That is exactly how I garden here...and wish I could convince others in the neighborhood. They think tidy gardens are a must. I shall bookmark this post and send it to them! I so agree with you leaf blowers are worthless and noisy~~the droning noise makes me nuts. gail

Anonymous said...

Great post and 'words of wisdom', indeed. :-)

Green thumb said...

I have been following these words of wisdom since long. It is just that earlier I suspected myself of being lazy but now i know that I was always being so intelligent by letting it be:-)

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

That is my philosophy for the plants for fall. If only I could say the same for the Cottonwood leaves. But those stupid things have to be shredded before I can put them back in the garden.

Diana said...

Ah - "Tidy is Overrated" Yolanda - this is going to be my new motto! Imagine how relaxed we would be in the garden if we let it be and stressed less about weeds and pruning. What sage words in your beautiful post today.

Anonymous said...

Very creatively written, Yolanda! I'm of the opinion that as long as the pathways are relatively clear and the lawn isn't in terrible need of mowing, the garden is fine. The leaves really are fabulous insulation. Words of wisdom, for sure!

Helen said...

By the end of summer I have usually run out steam. So for years now I leave the garden as it is, not much clean up at all. In the winter, it's a treat to watch the birds and squirrels find seeds that they can eat. So total agreement from me, Yolanda.

Unknown said...

Beautiful photos. Makes me want some pie!

Mary Delle LeBeau said...

Good advice. Sometimes I tend to go the other way and leave messes for too long. But when I get to cleaning up, off I go. I'm doing a bit of a clean-up now, but not leaves on the garden. It's good mulch and I love to see what emerges from there in the spring. Sometimes plants I haven't seen in years.

Flighty said...

Lovely post and photos!
Although I do clear and dig over some areas I leave much of the plot as is though to late winter or early spring. xx

Karla Kotelett said...

Hallo Yolanda, sehr schön,dein let it be!
Mama hat ein Bild für dich mitgebracht, sie ist nur noch nicht mit dem Sortieren durch.

Karla

Matron said...

Excellent advice! You will be surprised at what just composts away into the soil over Winter. The worms and the funghi in the soil do the hard work.

Garden Cats + Crafts said...

Hallo liebe Yolanda, das sind ja schon seeehr herbstliche Bilder. Aber auch sehr schön.
das sind ja traumhafte Kreationen, die Du da geschaffen hast.
Habe heute nur eine kurze Meldung an Dich:
ich habe meine Blogs gelöscht. Habe aber beide zusammengeführt unter der folgenden neuen URL:
http://gardencatsandcrafts.blogspot.com.
Ich hoffe, dass Du mich auch hier weiter besuchst.
Liebe Grüße,
Birgit

Hannele på Hisingen said...

I love your fotos :)

kram

Carol said...

Yolanda this is a beautiful post! Simple truths... so well put. Kudos to you for putting the idiotic leaf blowers in their place. Lovely photos too... I especially love the first... beautiful colors! I am listening to 'Let it Be' ... thank you.

Frances said...

So true, Mother Ma, YE! Can't get that song out of my head now, which is not a bad thing at all. But we have to admit to using an electric blower/vac to suck up the leaves on the decks and paths. It chops them up and then we spread them on the beds. Pure magic what it does for the soil. The leaves on the beds stay put to break down and provide the much needed cover for critters and plants alike. All good words of wisdom, my friend. :-)
Frances

garden girl said...

Words of wisdom indeed Yolanda, and a favorite song by a favorite band as well! I couldn't agree more - let it be in the fall and do the clean-up in the spring.

Like Frances, we do use the leaf blower on the patio and walks - years of gardening have taken their toll on this aging gardener's shoulders, elbows, and wrist tendons. I don't like cortisone shots and wrist braces, so I compromise on the leaf blower for the hard surfaces.

Barbee' said...

I like your philosophy and the idea of unwrapping spring gifts. Lovely post!

HappyMouffetard said...

Wise words accompanied by great photos, Yolanda.

Andrea's Garden said...

Great advice, Yolanda. I don't cut down a lot, because many perennials will just look so nice during the winter when covered with frost and the garden needs some structure in winter as well. Take care and enjoy the fall season, Andrea

Glo said...

I think your blog entry, "Let it Be", has given us all a sense of relief as we can let go of the thought of getting things done, and just let nature take her course! Sound advice, as has been mentioned above. Whenever I have left things alone, I'm surprised to see green shoots popping out in spring of things I thought had died ~ so thanks for the reminder ~ and here's to the enjoyment of watching August change colours and winter sending things off to dormancy land ... :)

Kat Wolfdancer said...

YOU'VE been TAGGED! and it's all because of posts like this one. Not only do I love the song, I adore the message.

http://wolfdancercreek.blogspot.com/2009/10/ive-been-tagged.html

Happy Gardening to all the Blissful!

>^,,^<

Brett said...

Free competition time again, those wonderful people at blurb have given me 3 voucher worth £30 each to give away, to help promote their latest book competition in which you could win $3,000. The book competition ends on the 22/10 so to give the winners of the vouchers time to do their books this give away ends on Friday 9th.

To enter you just need to follow one of my blogs and tell me your funniest pet, travel or family related story. If you already have a post on your blog just link to that in the comment and I will read it there.

Why have I chosen those categories well they just happen to be the themes of the books for Blurbs competition, Pets, Travel or Families, so get your thinking caps on as this competition for the £30 vouchers ends Friday.

http://365to42.blogspot.com/

Richtsje said...

Wat een geweldige blog weer! Die bladerbakken met pluutjes zijn helemaal top. Wil ik ook in mijn tuin!
Ik verklap maar niet dat manlief een bladblazer heeft gekocht. Gelukkig staat die alleen op stand 'zuigen', zodat ik de bladeren kan verzamelen en of in de borders verspreid, of in een zak stop (met handjevol aarde en wat gaatjes) voor het voorjaar... Een beetje storm helpt ook, alles ligt dan mooi op een prutje om op te scheppen ;-)

Ik moet nog steeds wel errug wennen aan herfst trouwens!

Sorcerer said...

wow!!! amazing blog.. lots of interesting information

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