The Dirt on Dirt
Building Soil
Starting Seeds
Fighting Crime
Heirloom Gardening

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     I really enjoy wandering around outside this time of year. It is the lull before the gardening storm of spring, and I can meander and observe and piddle without feeling that I ought to be doing something.

     As a rule, I'm not known as a great housekeeper - either inside or outside the house. I can always find something better to do than serious cleaning up. So I often don't clean out the flowerbeds at the end of the first frost or tidy up the shrubs as soon as the leaves have fallen. I never rake leaves. In fact, I pick up the leaves that other people have raked and put at the curb for the trash man. What a waste! These are just like bags of fertilizer sitting and waiting for someone to take them home. (I also never have to buy bags of mulch.) Occasionally, however, when I am out driving around and notice how tidy other people's yards look, I get a slight twinge of guilt.

     In my recent meanderings through my winter garden, I noticed a perfect rationale for letting things lie. Although I really wasn't thinking of trimming my out-of-control Indigo Spires salvia just yet, I did notice that several branches had broken in high winds and were just sort of lying there on the ground. I ought to pick those up, I thought, and put them through the shredder. But just as I thought that, I looked closer and there, stuck tight as if with superglue, I saw a healthy fat preying mantis egg casing

.      Wait a minute! I couldn't trim those branches. That egg casing represented hundreds, maybe thousands, of dead aphids. I hate aphids. Because I have lots of ladybugs, lacewings and preying mantis in my garden, I rarely have much aphid damage, but they still seem like especially despicable bugs to me. After all, they are not lovely in any sense of the word and they are born pregnant! I suppose I should feel sorry for them. They are obviously not Nature's favorite child.

     So, when I saw that egg casing, I figured there must be dozens of others that I hadn't seen. There must be spider eggs, ladybug warrens, lacewing hideouts, and who knows what else lurking in the fallen leaves, bare branches and other natural litter around the yard. Obviously, I would be wrong to clean up all that natural habitat!

     There are lots of unseen allies hidden in the winter garden. Predator insects are just waiting for the warm weather to signal them to get to work. Earthworms and soil microbes are busy breaking down organic material so that plants can grow quickly come spring. The health of the rose and the oak and the tomato all depend on the work of these allies. And these allies all depend on me for protection.

     The best thing is that I can give that protection with little or no effort on my part. I don't have to get out and work really hard. I just have to leave things alone. Don't be too quick to trim. Don't rake up every bit of organic material that falls on the ground. And don't spray or sprinkle poison on the plants or the ground.

     Nature is a grand design. Left alone, everything works pretty well. The leaves gather nutrients from deep in the ground, feed the tree, then fall to the ground where the feed the soil to feed the tree and other plants in the coming season. Predator insects mate and leave their potential young on sturdy branches where they can be born in the coming spring to keep the good bug to bad bug ratio in balance. Birds come along to help the process by eating bugs and leaving a little fertilizer behind. Butterflies and bees also seek protection in the winter garden, and then they come out in the spring to do important pollinating work at the same time they add beauty and movement to the garden.

     It's just wonderful to see all these natural elements at work - without my having to do anything except stay out of the way. Lots of gardeners get into trouble by trying to do too much - too much trimming, neatening up, spraying. The worst thing we can do for our gardens is to start trying to out-think Nature.

     I decided to leave the Indigo Spires alone for a little while longer. It's almost time to start some tomato seeds indoors and the bulbs are coming along nicely. I've got plenty to do without cleaning up.

     I'm continuing my casual research into the benefits of an untidy garden and am hoping to extend it into the house. So far, I haven't yet learned the function of dust bunnies under the couch or cobwebs on the ceiling, but I'm hoping there is a grand design there, too. I'd really love to give up housecleaning all together!