Garden Clear

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Hi everyone, I’m hoping you might be able to give me some advice.

I moved from a rented flat to a house with a garden which is about 100ft last year. I love it! And last year through Spring, Summer, and Autumn, I was doing really well clearing out various bits of bamboo, creating a no dig bed, and we even had a great crop of fruits off the trees that are already there. Grew veggies, put in a new rose, dug out a pond and generally just loved being out there with all the flowers and wildlife.

Through a combination of being really unwell through November/December and the weather on every single weekend being awful (I work FT hours in the week so evening work not possible), I never did a ‘winter garden clear’ and now I just feel so overwhelmed looking at the task before me.

You can safely assume no knowledge on my part, but not afraid of some work. I am going to prioritise:

1. Fruit trees need some attention - do I just give them a hard prune back?
2. I have some big reedy things in the north facing bit - do I just hack them back and clear them out? Just pull out anything brown and dead looking?
3. Most of the leaves have decomposed now, but I guess I could rake up any detritus and pull out any mega weeds. We are SE London so alkanets particularly prevalent and they have massive tap roots so take ages to get up.
4. I’ve got some big rambling roses and dog roses. What’s best to do with them?

Any advice gratefully received. I feel like I need to break this task down because honestly I have no idea what I’m doing. I know Google exists but I find sifting through all the info a bit hard when I’m already a bit overwhelmed.

Thank you if you made it this far!

Number 2 very much depends on what, specifically, the big reedy things are. But if they have any sort of hollow stem they should be left until spring and cleared after temps reach 10°C. Until they they are hibernating-insect houses.

Actually, the same applies to a lot of winter clearing. A tidy garden is not an ecologically useful garden. Leaves decomposing where they fall shelter overwintering butterflies and feed the soil. Weed cover prevents nutrients being washed out of bare soil, and rain from compacting it.

Pruning is a different matter. That needs keeping on top of. But do the roses in early spring when the frost has passed. Fruit trees might need summer or winter pruning, depending on what they are and whether you want to encourage or discourage growth. If they are plum trees, don't touch them till July.

For now, settle down with a notebook to plan what you have, what you want to keep, and what you want to change.

Please read about insects and pollinators, and don't prioritize clearing until May. These creatures desperately need "messy" yards in order to survive. And we need THEM for our survival.

A "neat" garden is a lifeless garden. Please.

I’m glad you’re enjoying your garden. Don’t worry about missing the autumn tidy up. It can mostly be done in spring instead. The only task to carry out now would be to tie in and prune any rose bushes that might be damaged by high winds in the winter. The main pruning is done in springtime.

Leave any plants that have died back for insect shelter just now. You could pull up weeds and compost them. Starting a compost heap would be a great project for this year.

A great resource is the Royal Horticulture Society (RHS) website. You’ll find specific advice on caring for all your plants and choosing new ones. Use this for a guide on pruning your fruit trees and roses.

I’m not sure what the ‘reedy’ plants are. Use a plant identification app to get their name then look up care for them.

You might have bulbs coming up so look out for them - I already have snowdrops in my Edinburgh garden. Think about what bulbs you’d like for next spring and where you’ll plant them this autumn.

Then use this time to plan your garden for the rest of this year. You might want to think of some scented plants such as honeysuckle near where your sitting area is. Or would you like another vegetable bed for strawberries or asparagus? Continue to work in manageable steps, learning as you go. No need to feel overwhelmed - gardens can look after themselves for a while.

Good luck!

@LaurieStrode @Honeysuckle16 @NoBinturongsHereMate

Thank you so much for your replies, they have made me feel a lot better about the situation! In which case I’ll leave nearly everything as is for now and put notes in my calendar for pruning. We have a few different fruit trees so I will do some research.

I am happy to leave things to be more ecologically beneficial (I had lots of older relatives rolling their eyes when we did no mow May), I was just worried in case I was doing harm by not clearing out. But now I see that it will be better to leave as is.

In that case, I’ll finish getting the pond sorted this weekend and sort the roses out.

The ‘big reedy thing’ I fear may need to come out eventually as we have an errant bamboo rhizome trail from next door coming in around it which needs to go. Will investigate but leave it for now.

We are north facing but long - so we do get plenty of sun around 10m out from the house. We have decking close to the house (I don’t like sitting in full sun so this suits me), any suggestions for something scented that would do well in the more shady bit?

Honeysuckle doesn't mind shade.

Hyacinths, honeysuckle and Lily of the valley will grow in shade. Some roses will tolerate shade as long as it’s not too deep. Daphnes also.

The RHS has good guides on pruning, for example

If you don't know how to prune fruit trees, don't touch them. If anything just take out dead, damaged or diseases branches back to healthy wood and leave them. Then start doing some research on what fruit trees they are, when to prune and how to do it. For example plums you only do in the summer and Bramley apples are end tip bearing so if you prune these wrong, you won't get fruit. Also many fruit trees fruit well in alternate years so you have time to just learn what to do between now and next summer.

With roses you can do a prune now, to above an outward facing bud. Unless they are climbing roses in which case, you leave the framework and cut back to above a bud just up from the framework growt.

The rest, just leave it and deal with things that need doing as and when.

Despite what AIBU would have you think, regular hard pruning is not necessary for the plant’s health. Its main reason is to satisfy your aesthetic principles. So don’t panic if you don’t have time.

The leaves will decompose and feed the soil. The big reeds??? I don't know

If in doubt leave it. You'll get a feel for what needs to be done in Spring.

Pruning isn’t just snipping off the ends of branches Eg my apple tree (only about 12ft high) takes about an hour to prune into a goblet shape,as explained by that RHs link. Then picking up the bits and dealing with them takes time.
Just don’t rush it.
I don’t tidy up too much in winter -by the time the summer plants have grown, and leaves apperaed on trees -the messy dead leaves etc just disappear.