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When the growing season is done in a native plant garden a whole new job begins, and we get to witness it! Dead native gardens are a bird and wildlife winter oasis, which is much different than their non-native counterparts. We are used to hearing the term "Fall Clean-up" and the tradition of cutting "dead" gardens and raking leaves begins. When we switched over to planting native Michigan plants this seasonal chore is now done a bit differently. Let me explain further how leaving the dead flower heads, grasses, and fallen leaves help our local ecosystem.
What happens after the flowers are pollinated? Seeds happen that's what! These seeds are nature's "storehouse" for the winter season.
In native gardens, we do not cut down the spent flower heads, and grasses for this very reason. They are all left standing! Birds will forage for seeds on the Little Blue Stem, Sideoats grama, and Black-eyed Susans. Along with leaving the dead flower heads we also "leave" the fallen tree leaves.
Our leaf clean-up went a bit differently than it has in past years. Instead of bagging and leaving them on our curb for pickup, we manually raked them into our perennial beds, raised garden beds, and into the "wild" areas of our yard. Leaves are like gold to your gardens, they are FREE mulch! There are many other reasons to leave the leaves. Fallen leaves are home to butterflies and moths pupae that use them to overwinter. Animals such as toads, shrews, and salamanders benefit from leaf litter to hide and hunt. Songbirds and many mammals rely on leaf litter for food, shelter, and nesting material.
This is what I love about our native plant gardens, there is so much to observe! Even in the dead of winter, life is happening within them. We see songbirds perched on our Agastache and Black-eyed Susans feasting on the seeds. We have a shrew that we occasionally catch a glimpse of (those critters are FAST), that I know is seeking out insects and seeds of the like to eat under the fall leaves within our garden. Nature knows what it's doing we just have to sit back and let it happen. Cheers to a new season my garden friends! As always I am here for any questions you may have or if you just wanna chat! Just send me a message using the form below.
Wow, thanks for all the good info! I learned some things!