Don't Rush To Clean Up Your Garden Beds!

Toss it away -- or let it sit?I spent part of this afternoon pulling up dead tomato plants, dumping out the Walls O Water (at this altitude, we use them all season long), and putting away the wire cages.But should I have done that? There is a good eco-friendly case to made for saving all that work until spring — although the plastic "walls" need to be stored out of the weather.From the Give a Shit about Nature website — also an account on X.com:The Fall Cleanup Instinct and Why It’s Worth QuestioningThere’s nothing wrong with wanting a tidy garden. The issue is that fall cleanup, when done thoroughly, often wipes out habitat at the exact moment it’s being occupied. The stems that look dead and expendable in October are full of eggs and larvae that have nowhere else to go. Nebraska Extension notes that when hollow stems are cut and moisture seeps into the open ends, it can kill the eggs, larvae, and pupae of native bees living inside. The stem needs to stay intact and dry through…

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