Fall Energy

Recently, I read an article about overwintering the garden. To my way of thinking, all those dead sticks poking out from the exhausted plants and flowers were an eyesore that needed snipping. Lo and behold, apparently it's better to leave those things on there! Who knew? Well, apparently lots of people must know this, but this 40 year old former city-dweller had no earthly idea.

The best, most exciting part of this discovery is it now gives me a good reason to be a lazy gardener. I don't have to go out with the clippers and trim all that stuff, nor do I need to rake out the leaves from the garden. You'd think I'd be a little more with the "organic" program and realize that the leaves, for instance, will decompose and improve the soil. DUH!
But leaving the dead heads on the plants are good for the plants, too. The nutrients from the dying stems goes back into the roots for the next year. Almost everything I have in my garden is a perennial because I am, if nothing else, a lazy gardener. But another thing I learned about leaving the stems and dead flowers on is that some flowers provide winter food for birds, for instance Purple Coneflower. I have LOTS of that in my garden! It makes me happy to think that in addition to sparing my back an afternoon of cramped, bent clipping, it will also make for a yummy bird buffet.

In the meantime, I'm looking for more pots of bright red mums. I've read that placing them around your home's doorway brings good energy and I sure could use some of that!