By JIMMY ROGERS
For one third of the year, a butterfly garden can hide in plain sight. In April, tender foliage signals springtime rebirth. In July, tall stalks and showy flowers attract celebrity pollinators. In November, red and yellow fall foliage take their final bow. In the four months from December to March, winter stems and fallen leaves can fool the passerby into thinking that a patch of ground has fallen into scraggly disrepair.
Courtesy of Jimmy Rogers
If a home gets too messy, we might try to clean it up. Naturally we have transferred this idea to the garden, and as a result, many gardeners discuss spring garden cleanup as though it is a foregone conclusion.
Before picking up the hoe, rake and clippers, let us remember why we grow native gardens in the first place. Native plants provide superior habitat for wildlife, be they wild bees, butterflies, songbirds or box turtles. They also tie us directly to our place in the world, as no two regions have the same combination of plants. A native garden allows us to invite nature into our lives.
That said, native gardens must strike a balance between human needs and wildlife needs. Since animals are unlikely to negotiate, we humans have to decide how far we are willing to go to accommodate them. For me, finding this balance means I must be able to tolerate my garden, it must function for wildlife and, hopefully, I will experience more joy than frustration.
Since gardens expand and bloom in the growing season, many gardeners consider fall to be the ideal time to clean up. While a vegetable garden needs to be tucked in for the winter, native plants handle that themselves, drawing their energy back into their roots and hibernating under the fallen leaves. The fireflies, butterflies, moths and bees we so eagerly welcomed into our gardens have taken up residence in those same leaves. As long as you can comfortably walk along each pathway, you can let any remnant stems persist through the winter.
The early spring, perhaps when we’re first willing to brave the outdoors again, is an opportunity for both reflection and planning. I recommend taking a step back from each garden area and letting your eyes trace the outlines. Are there sufficient edges and pathways, and if so, do they seem well managed? Do you see any unintentional asymmetry? Are any beds too monotonous and in need of some structure to break them up? Are there bare spots in need of spring planting? Could a summer-blooming plant use a spring-blooming companion?
Rather than following an impulse to clean and organize the outdoors, you can set goals for change, plan projects and identify next immediate actions. This year I’m planning to take a more active approach to pruning my perennials throughout the season, ensuring a shorter, fuller look, especially along pathways. Last year’s stems should give me a guide as to where things got a bit too unwieldy, and where to focus this year.
You can also identify where weeds have grown and ask yourself why they were able to flourish in one spot and not another. I see weeds as placeholders for the plants I need to grow to claim the ground. I tend to leave weeds until I’ve procured something new to plant.
Cutting back stems will make the biggest visual impact on your garden. It’s an optional step, but it can help define your space, especially for small beds and pathways. Be careful, for If you cut too short, you’ll leave a pretty barren landscape for at least a month. I recommend cutting no shorter than your knees (about 18 inches), so stem-nesting bees can lay the next year’s queens over the summer. I’ve seen this happen in my own garden over the last two years.
Leave as much leaf litter as you can between your plants. It is the only mulch you will ever need, and to a large degree, it is the ecology you have worked so hard to create. Just last week, a winter flock of robins descended on my garden and turned over just about every leaf in their search for insects. Curiously, they completely avoided the turf grass of my nearby neighbors.
Rather than attempting to clean up an innately wild space, I recommend reinvesting in your relationship with your land. Learn something about every plant growing out there. Ensure it’s comfortable to walk around and enjoy your space without a machete. And envision what a perfect balance between people and nature might look like.
