Fall Maintenance
With the weather turning colder and fall color starting to pick up, here are some good tips for fall maintenance and how to take care of your landscape.
The ornamental grasses in a landscape are one of the easiest to maintain. They are given one good hair cut a year to keep them tidy and healthy. When to cut down grasses is a question I get often. From my experience, you get the best results and healthiest grass when you cut it down in the early spring, in the March-April timeframe. Keeping the grasses standing through winter provides many benefits to both wildlife and to the landscape. Almost like a head of hair, grass stems help keep the root crown warm through the dry cold winter months. Doing this also provides some winter interest to the landscape as the seed heads and fall color normally stay all winter long. Having all the grasses standing also can serve as protection for birds and small animals during especially cold days. With benefits for both the grass itself and the animals around it, keeping grasses standing will ensure a healthy landscape in the spring.
Deciduous Shrubs are mostly pruned in the spring before buds break but after the plant wakes from dormancy, this is also in the March-April window of time. Pruning them in the fall does not benefit the shrubs much and can cause some branches to die back a little. Another reason to not prune in the fall is a lot of the foliage is still attractive with many having showy fall color well into winter like viburnums and burning bushes.
Evergreen shrubs can be pruned back in the fall, but only a third of the total size should be cut at once. Plants like boxwoods can have winter burn from over pruning in the fall as the interior is more exposed to the elements and leaves that once were protected are no longer. Junipers like ‘Sea Green’ Junipers benefit from some trimming to help with snow load and prevent long branches from breaking.
Perennials should primarily be cut in the spring. Every species is different but generally the old stems and leaves from the previous year's growth should be cut away as new growth appears. This cutback will make room for new leaves and help the plants grow with more vigor for the coming year. Like grasses, the old stems and leaves can help protect and allow it to survive the impending winter.
