The Sky is Falling!
Actually, it’s not… but everything else is. Petals, samaras (such as the ‘helicopters’ that spin down from maple trees; a.k.a ‘maple keys’), spent catkins (flower clusters), fluff, even last years leaves from trees reluctant to release them last fall (young beech trees, hornbeam, English oak to name a few)… everything seems to be raining down on the garden right now and it feels like all that work put into Spring clean-up was for nothing. For someone particular like me, it’s enough to drive you nuts (which, incidentally will be raining down in the months ahead… thanks to all those butternuts, black walnuts, beech, oaks and hickories)!
Spent birch catkins and maple samaras
Catkins from a butternut tree. We somewhat-affectionately call this ‘the invasion of the worms’.
So what does this mean? It means another round of cleanup is in order. Afterall, removing all the fallen debis will do wonders to clean up the look of your gardens.
It doesn’t take much to clean up the ‘look’ of a garden bed. Just a light rake-through of the surface with the fingers to remove the main culprits!
And it is not just the ground that may need a tidy, large-leaved perennials such as Hosta are notorious for capturing debris in their foliage. It not only looks unsightly but the debris holds onto moisture. This is not ideal since prolonged periods of leaf wetness can promote foliar diseases on plants. Additionally, critters such as slugs LOVE eating Hosta leaves (this is bad); they also like moist environments. Don’t lay out the ‘wecome mat’ for these pests by making the environment especially favourable to them!
Spent redbud flowers captured by Hosta leaves; the same plant with flowers removed.
As for seeds raining down- it may seem like a hastle to remove them from the beds (I usually rake through the surface of the beds with my hands to collect them) but your efforts will be well worth it in the long run as it will save you from having to pull lots and lots of seedlings down the road.
Maple seedling
If you have a compost pile, you can put the petals and leaves you collect into it. As for the seeds? You can compost those too- you may have some seedlings cropping up but at least they will be contained; or you can put seeds in the brown yard waste bags and out to the curb for municipal compost (if available in your area) so that you are not pulling trees from the compost heap (or from the garden if you spread the compost prematurely).
Alternative ‘Garden Hack’
By now you are probably wondering if there is a shortcut to this second round of garden clean-up. Well, if you haven’t mulched your garden beds yet and intend to then you are in luck! You can always cover up any ‘non-seed debris’ (such as petals and catkins) with mulch. Just remove any debris that has collected on or within the base of your plants. This will not only look better visually, but it will be better for the health of your plants. If you are dealing with seeds that have rained down on your beds (such as ‘maple keys’), I do not recommend mulching overtop as you will most certainly be pulling out a large number of seedlings from your gardens in the future! (Sorry!)