Winter Garden Preparation, Part Two: Buttoning Up Beds & Borders …

Many gardeners like to “put the garden to bed” by cutting back all perennials after a few hard frosts, raking up the debris and mulching borders with chopped leaves, bark or evergreen boughs. Such tidiness has an undeniable appeal —particularly in formal landscapes— but there are as many ways to garden as there are gardeners. Some choose a more naturalistic approach to maintenance, leaving everything in the landscape standing ‘as-is’ throughout the winter, opting instead for a big clean up in early spring. Gardens filled with cold-hardy perennials and low-maintenance shrubs can easily survive and thrive without extra attention, and in these cases, fall clean-up is a matter of personal preference. In my years as a professional gardener, I tended high-maintenance, low-maintenance, formal and naturalistic gardens as well as everything in between.

I prefer to leave ornamental grass standing throughout the winter, however this year’s early snowstorm knocked back a few specimens. No matter, they look just as beautiful displayed in urns, scattered about my studio

Here at home, my personal approach to winter preparations is somewhere in the middle. I’ve planted mostly native and cold-hardy plants with season-spanning interest in my garden, so I leave the vast majority of my perennials standing throughout the winter months. Texture plays an important role in my garden designs, and I love watching frost, snow and ice crystals sparkling on remnant seed pods, tufts and tassels. In addition, many of the wildflowers in my garden —including Rudbeckia, Echinacea and Coreopsis— provide food for over-wintering birds, so I avoid cutting them back for this reason as well. But there are some plants — like hosta— that look best cut all the way back. An extra blanket of protection is useful to prevent frost-heaving of recently planted perennials, and though I’ve never been a big fan of heavy bark mulch in my perennial borders, I do apply a thick layer of well-rotted compost and chopped leaves to my garden every fall. And of course there are certain parts of my landscape —particularly the Secret Garden, which contains a number of delicate trees and marginally hardy plants— that require quite a bit more pre-winter prep. In those spaces, tree trunks are wrapped with wire cylinders, and tender plants are mulched with compost and evergreen boughs for a long winter’s nap …

The front entry garden remains as-is throughout the winter months

Situated at the edge of a stonewall, this Japanese maple is a prime target for gnawing rodents living next door. Every fall, I carefully wrap the trunks of vulnerable trees and shrubs in wire mesh cylinders. I made mine from leftover metal lath (used in construction of my studio), but fine chicken wire also works well. The base of the cylinder is slightly wider than the top, and the height should be at least 2′. Read more about how to create tree protectors in my previous post —click here.

Winter is a long season here in Vermont, and I look forward to spotting tiny birds visiting my frosty garden. I leave many perennials standing, both for their textural beauty, and importance to wildlife

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