By Bre Harris

Otter Tail County Master Gardener

I love a messy garden. To me, it means the plants are happy doing their thing. But every year, without fail, once fall rolls around, I get into cleanup mode. Maybe it’s because the kids are back in school and I can finally finish a task without someone needing a snack, asking where something is, or yelling “MOM!” from the upstairs window.

But every year, I also have to remind myself to slow down and just let some things be. The pollinators, birds, and worms will thank me for it.

I am a sunflower girl. I let them happily self-seed every year, and not just because they make me smile each morning. Around this time of year, as they start to dry out, something else makes me smile: the wonderfully cheery, bright goldfinches start constantly popping by for a snack. American Goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, eating almost entirely seeds. Apparently, I’ve been running a goldfinch buffet this whole time. And leaving my sunflowers just as they are, makes the upcoming cooler weather a little easier for the birds.

Really, “finished” depends on who’s looking at the garden.

To us, a dried sunflower might look ready for the compost pile. To a goldfinch, it’s dinner. A dead flower stem might look useless, but it could eventually become a nesting place for a tiny native bee. Fallen leaves collecting beneath plants may look messy, but they can provide protection for insects and other small creatures through a Minnesota winter.

It can be tempting to cut down every perennial once the flowers fade, but many seed heads are worth leaving standing. Sunflowers, coneflowers and other seed-producing plants can provide food for birds well after the blooms are gone. Berry-producing shrubs can also provide valuable food as the seasons change. If they don’t need pruning in fall, consider leaving some of those berries for the birds spending winter alongside us.

There is also a selfish gardening reason to leave a few plants standing: seed heads, grasses and dried flowers can be surprisingly beautiful on a frosty morning. Not all bees live in hives. Many of Minnesota’s native bees are solitary, and about 15 percent of bee species nest in cavities such as hollow plant stems or holes in wood. Some use hollow or pithy stems to raise their young.

So that dead-looking stem you’ve been itching to cut down? It may have plans.

Rather than cutting every perennial to the ground in fall, consider leaving some standing. University of Minnesota Extension recommends leaving hollow stems in the garden to create natural nesting habitat for native bees.

It takes almost no extra work. In fact, it requires us to do less. Finally, a gardening chore I can confidently accomplish by not doing it.

If leaves had a nickname, it would be garden gold.

  In garden beds and around trees and shrubs, fallen leaves can act as natural mulch. They help protect the soil, conserve moisture and eventually break down, returning organic matter to the soil. It’s spring-prep compost. Easy-peasy.

They’re also habitat. Butterflies, moths, beetles and other insects can spend part of their life cycle tucked into or beneath fallen leaves. Removing every leaf from every corner of the yard can mean removing some of those creatures along with them.

You don’t have to leave leaves scattered across your lawn. Simply rake some to the side, scatter them on your garden beds (my personal favorite), or leave them beneath shrubs where they can decompose naturally. Your garden gets free mulch, and something small may get a protected place to spend the winter. Everybody wins, including those of us who weren’t particularly excited about bagging leaves anyway.

This doesn’t mean abandoning fall garden cleanup altogether. Diseased plant material should still be removed when appropriate, and vegetable gardens may need cleanup to reduce the chance of certain pests and diseases returning next season.

The goal isn’t to leave everything. It’s simply to leave something.

That’s perhaps what I’ve come to appreciate most about fall gardening: a plant doesn’t stop being useful when it stops being green.

The flower that fed a bee in July can feed a bird later in the year. A stem that once held a blossom can become a nursery for another generation of bees. Leaves that shaded us all summer can return to the soil while sheltering tiny lives along the way.

So this fall, before you cut, rake and haul away every last piece of the growing season, take another look.

Leave a few seed heads. Save some stems. Tuck the leaves into the garden beds. Let one little corner stay imperfect. The smaller creatures in the garden will thank you.