It's time for the perennial garden chop and drop

Do you know what type of music flowers like best? Heavy petal. Whether you play music to your flowers or not, do you chop and drop in the perennial garden? Before we discuss chopping and dropping, some gardeners have already completed their flower garden end-of-season cleanup. Many of us are just starting, now that widespread killing frost has ended another growing season. Some gardeners prefer to clearcut the perennial garden in fall, pruning everything back to near ground level, and neatly raking away everything in preparation for next spring. My mother liked perennial beds clean as a whistle going into winter, while adding mulch around tender types. Other gardeners leave the perennial garden totally intact, preferring spring cleanup. If the above-ground stems remain, they help catch snow, increasing its insulation power and helping survival during brutal winters. Pollinating insects can also nest in hollow stems and help next year s apple and cucumber crops.