Ooh boy, summertime. There’s a lot to love about a summer day spent outside, isn’t there? Let’s set the scene:Pollen wafts on the warm winds while the sun beats d
06.06.2023 - 21:30 / gardenerspath.com / Matt Suwak
Your Guide to Fall and Spring Perennial Cutbacks and PruningI’ve got to admit, I have a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to gardening.
I don’t mind leaf litter scattered around, and I leave my sunflowers standing for perhaps far too long with the hope of feeding some finches.
Most of the plants in my garden were picked up as throwaways from job sites or rescued from the clearance rack at a garden center.
But even though I trust that the plants in my garden know what they’re doing, I have got to prune back my perennials.
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Part of that reasoning is selfish; I genuinely love crawling around in the mulch and soil with my pruners and soil knife, snipping back perennials and investigating for new growth and funky critters. This is my own little tip for getting kids into the garden, but you can read more in our guide to gardening with children.
Another more pragmatic reason for pruning back these beauties is very simple: it’s healthy for the plants. Leaving around dead or dying foliage is bad news for our garden treasures. We might as well put up a sign inviting fungi and disease to move right into our gardens.
Some perennials benefit largely from regular pruning during the summer growing season, but the most important cleanups are in the fall and the spring.
A host of perennials respond best to a tidy spring cleaning and are seemingly rejuvenated from the practice. Other perennials favor a quick cutting-back before winter sets in, so that they can get right down to business in the spring, unimpeded by last year’s growth.
The trick to doing this the right way is to know when to cut what – and that’s what we at
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