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Moved in winter to woods, question about leaves
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Posted by transientgardener 7 (My Page) on Fri, Jan 9, 09 at 8:55
| Hi all,
I moved just recently to a house in the Virginia woods. The owners who lived here for two years did not garden at all. It appears that some previous owners did garden but the woodland garden has been neglected in recent years. I think that in the back we have mostly a ground covering of ivy but it is currently under lots of leaves. I can see some remaining green foliage of what I think may be daylillies and some other plants poking through the leaves. My question is this- should I start cleaning up the leaves now in mid-winter or should I wait to some later time to provide whatever plants remain some protection? My plan, if we will clean up now, is to get the lawnmower working and shred the leaves into mulch and then do something with the mulch. I don't know what survives here and will just have to wait for growing season to figure out more things. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Moved in winter to woods, question about leaves
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| Unless you have really wonderful winters there in VA, January is not the time of year to do much in the garden other than plan ;-) It's usually too cold and too wet for anything else. Leave the leaves ('scuse the p.o.w.) other than any which may be on the lawn - they're acting as a mulch as-is. When you start tidying up in spring, you can rake them into an area and then shred and add to planting beds, but they should be pretty well broken down by then anyway. They do provide some cold protection but not that much is needed in a zone 7 and their greatest value is what they add to the soil as they decompose. |
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