The single most important thing you can do during the winter season in your garden can also be one of the most difficult things for a lot of gardeners—leave it be. Leave the tall, browned stalks of your summer annuals upright, let the fallen oak and maple leaves blanket the ground, and let the landscape regenerate without interference. Your front or backyard is part of the local ecology—how well it thrives depends on the role you take in this natural system of regeneration.
Decomposers such as soil bacteria, fungi, and invertebrates feed on the organic matter on the ground and deposit those nutrients back into the soil in a form that plants can utilize in the next growing season. This cycle of transferred energy and nutrients in the fall plays a critical role in the success of the wildlife and insect populations thriving in the spring and summer. So before you rake those leaves, chop down your annuals, or till the soil in preparation for spring, consider the lepidoptera, beetles, bees (and so much more) that are nestled in those fallen leaves or hiding in camouflage on those dead flower stalks.
Wait until spring to clean up. The biodiversity we all enjoy will thank you, perhaps by returning and calling your garden ‘home’.
