Not tidying garden

I still have a lot of colour in my garden and that will continue to be the case until well into December. I won’t be cutting much back until early spring. There will be plenty of shelter and seed heads, berries and rose hips for the wildlife. It’ll be a pain come next spring I know!

I give different parts of the garden a proper going over in different years. It makes the work manageable and keep plenty of food and shelter for the wildlife

Leave it as long as you can. Many insects and small animals will use the shelter to survive bad weather. I have to admit it drives me mad by February but grit your teeth if you can. Nature will thank you.

I can’t manage the whole of my garden in Spring if I don’t do some of the work in the Autumn, it’s just too much work and the weeds run away with me so I can’t catch up. I compromise by pruning the shrubs, the roses and weeding properly by the beginning of November, but not chopping back the perennials until the Spring.

I think weeding is fine. The main thing seems to be leaving stems and seedheads in situ and some piles of leaves and small sticks. I have a small pile of rotting wood and sticks etc against the back fence. Mind you, I’m not a tidy gardener - too lazy 😂

I have any area about 25 foot square that I have left uncultivated for the last 25+ years. It is a natural mess (in the best meaning of the word. the rest of the graden is shrubbery or Fruit & vegetables. I have very few flowers or seed heads, wild are apart, so I will be getting the tidying done as usual.

I’m desperately trying to finish up the section I started on and get all my plants in. Plenty of wild areas elsewhere in my garden although all the shrubs do need a prune back - something my gardener loves to do, almost too much😂

2 years ago I tried leaving it all till spring time but because I grow all fruit and veg from seed and run an allotment I chased my tail all spring/ summer long.
I now do most of the tidying and leave a little for wildlife .

I leave as much as I can to cut down in spring - frost covered perennials look lovely and give another dimension to the garden in winter - but I'm thinning invasive plants such as marjoram and self-heal at the moment although leaving a few for next year because the bees love them.

I've been following the expert all year without realising it.

There’s a gap between where the shed ends and a brick wall start. Every year since the shed was put up, it’s been the Robin family home until it’s kids have left.

We love our garden, grounds, as fall turn to winter - the colours are magnificent. We paint some grasses, cones, branches, arrange big pots - including trimmings - we'll tidy in the spring.

I will cut my grass if the weather permits because the mower collects the fallen leaves. If they are left, they rot and cause bare patches. There are plenty of leaves for wildlife in the borders.

I’ve had the rotting wood pile since my grandkids were little and interested in everything that crept and crawled!
I’m gonna leave all wet leaves til spring ….good for soil anyway…..and gonna do as I’m asked , and leave garden. That’s my reasoning ….but mostly because my sciatica is killing me at the moment!

I say I’m leaving it for wildlife but in all honesty it’s for my benefit. After a busy summer I need to have a rest until I hopefully have a new burst of energy in spring.

Yard waste and paint.

You use the terms fall and yard waste Norah
Are you American by origin or have spent much time there?

I can understand fall (leaves? 🍁🍂) but when Meghan Markle referred to the gardens of Lambeth Palace as a “back yard” I was gobsmacked!

RosiesMaw

You use the terms fall and yard waste Norah
Are you American by origin or have spent much time there?

I can understand fall (leaves? 🍁🍂) but when Meghan Markle referred to the gardens of Lambeth Palace as a “back yard” I was gobsmacked!

We've spent time in America, my brother worked in NYC.

We've traditional gardens, but we also have the grounds apart from gardens. Fields/ yards all round - yard waste, limbs, trimmings, cones.

I'm not sure about Meghan's gardens?

Mostly tidied up here but I do put a thick layer of mulch down in at least half of the garden. That provides shelter for lots of tiny animals and the blackbirds and starlings love rootling through it.

Otherwise we have insect shelters. mostly built by various GC, all around and a thick layer of fallen leaves under the dense shrubbery.

I do garden with wildlife in mind but i am by nature tidy, so try to meet it halfway!

I cut the grass yesterday. That's it now, I won't touch the garden again till February. I normally prune roses and pick up fallen leaves from next doors tree, but this year I am going to leave the lot - it's a small way to help nature I suppose.
Not sure what I will face next spring mind.

We have the remains of quite a big oak tree stump in our front garden and recently noticed that half of it looked like it had been eaten away. We were a bit worried that rats may have been gnawing at it but a tree surgeon assured us it was just insect damage. It's been there for about 10 years and I was surprised that it would degrade quite so quickly. He thinks we've probably got a family of stag beetles living in it amongst other things.

Would love to see the still flowering plants in my garden but due to the terrible rain and winds over the past two weeks everything is covered in leaves. Can't see the grass and don't mention the borders, absolutely covered.

I have gravel paths so i sweep (a very soft brush works well). as many leaves as i can and throw them in my borders, lovely mulch and crawlies galore

The only thing I do is sweep up the Walnut ‘leaves’ they fall down still attached to a long stem so don’t rot down, they go into the Garden waste bin rather than the compost heap, as they can kill other plants.
There are plenty of berries and hips, seed heads for the wildlife in the garden. We also have Hedgehog houses behind the garage.
The dog spends hours sniffing out the field mice and voles, when she comes to stay, meanwhile the rabbits are running around behind her! Daft dog.