When To Clean Out Your Gardens In Spring

These warm days in March make me itchy to garden. But, it is TOO EARLY to clean out your garden beds if you live in a cold weather area. The beneficial insects and pollinators are still hibernating. Wait until it’s consistently above 50 degrees for several days and the ground is warm so that the insects can emerge are not as vulnerable to our spring cleaning.

Who are some of the insects sleeping in your garden in the leaf litter and overwintering flower stems?

• Some butterflies hibernate in curled leaves.

• Fireflies spend up to 95% of their lives in larval stages. They live in rotting logs, soil/mud/leaf litter and spend from 1-2 years growing until finally pupating to become adults.

• Praying mantis survive the winter as eggs in your garden.

• Woolly bear caterpillars curl up in thick layers of leaf litter for winter. In spring, they crawl out and spin their cocoons.

• Black swallowtails spend winter as chrysalis, emerging as butterflies when warm weather returns.

There are more but this should give you an idea as to why it’s best to do some early spring pruning on your butterfly and blueberry bushes instead of pulling out the rake. Soak of a bit of sunshine, go for a walk, say hello to your neighbors (from a distance, of course).

. Give it a little more time and you’ll be happy you did.