Is it worth or even beneficial to tidy up the garden?

“No Mow May” is worse than a winter tidy up because the flowers are still producing pollen and nectar and wildlife is flourishing, in winter plants are declining and wildlife is resting. To be safe, don’t do either .

 

When we moved into the flat with garden 10 years ago, I followed Alan Titchmarsh advises which all turned out to be wrong over the years.
I tidy up the gravel from the leaves in Autumn and I cut the Hardy Geraniums in December because it's not easy to do it when left until the new grow starts to show up.
There is only one exception that I do all year round: I take out weeds.

 

I tidy dead leaves off the gravel and the patio, and any growing plants in the borders that look as if they are not enjoying getting smothered.

Re No Mow May, Plantlife who started this campaign recommend following it up with Let it Bloom June. I think most local councils observe this - certainly ours does, and then does wildflower surveys, mainly in the first two weeks of June (including citizen science ones which I usually help with). Designated wildflower areas get one cut a year only, in the autumn after the plants have set seed. That cut is needed as otherwise the grass will take over.

 

Yes the advice has changed over the years. Remember AT was trained up in the old way in the local authority parks department and then at Kew Gardens. These public gardens were always cleaned up at the end of each season, but they are on public display.
I agree about clearing things that go mushy, and clear leaves from lawn and paths. Shrubs/ trees get pruned where appropriate, the rest can be left. Oh yes we tend to have annuals in pots so they get changed for bulbs.

 

Over the next week or two I will tidy up and rearrange the containers by the front door to bring my potted Christmas tree, a few other evergreens and my pots with bulbs planted under some bedding cyclamen into the focal spot and put the past-their-best salvias and fuchsias into a less prominent corner for the winter. I'll also cut the grass (just a trim) if I get the chance, and maybe tidy up the fronts of the borders.
The rest is usually a bit of a mad dash in early spring to clear the old herbaceous growth where there are bulbs coming through, so that I can actually see the spring flowers.
No green bin collections until the second week in March next year (because of the way the dates fall ) so by then it will be rammed with whatever I can't or don't want to compost.

 

Let it Bloom June is followed by Knee High July. And then Up to the Bust August.

I did it for a few years when my front garden was just grass, leaving it all the way to early September before cutting. But now that I'm developing some flower beds and shrubs I prefer to keep the grass short so they're not completely hidden.

 

Here the council only cuts the local parks when they are just about to flower. The verges on the other hand are left because they claim its environmentally friendly, as is leaving all the cuttings strewn all over the floor when they do cut it at 3ft tall (and that's only once a year).

 

That could be a good way to avoid the mansion tax in some areas .

 

When I did the garden in April 2016, I left it blank for 2 weeks in May. Strange upright roots appeared all over the 36sqm. I took them out, all together 200 if not more. In 2017, I saw a weed in the lawn and followed AT’s advise to mow it with the grass. It turned out that this was a creeping cinquefoil, one single one left in 2016. Inside 2 years, it had taken over 1/4 of the lawn, in 2020, I had to take out the lawn.
Experience 1: don’t trust AT when he says, ignore the weeds they will be mowed with the lawn.
In 2018, I had lots of slugs and snails and followed AT’s advice to bin them. One year later, I realised a.) how cruel this is and b.) slugs and snails have a crucial part in gardens. Hedgehogs need them to survive. Slugs and snails eat down all the perennials over winter so that I had hardly something to do.
Experience 2: I’m not proud of me that I didn’t think about the cruelty in 2018. It’s a dark chapter in my life.

Since then I’m very careful with advise given by the “gurus “.

 

I think "no mow May" is more about saving the councils money.

 

To me, slugs and snails are like ants. Don't get too close to the house and we'll co-exist.
I think salt is a particularly cruel way to dispatch slugs and snails. A snip or a stamp seems less cruel. (I was going to say 'kinder' but that's not appropriate, I suppose.)

 

Love that!

"Let it Bloom June is followed by Knee High July. And then Up to the Bust August."

I'd love to see the front garden section of this to cover October (just don't bother-ember? ), November (chuck-out-old-mattrasses-and-whatnots-before-December-and-put-up-the-lights-Christmas-is-here-before-we-NOV-it-ember?) and December and so forth...

Gardening is hard work with having to think about rhyminng things too!