If you ever have the opportunity to tour one of Piet Oudolf’s gardens, I say seize the chance. Not only can you see in person, the effect of a lush planting, be it a matrix or block planting style, but the beauty of the garden in the fall and winter is not to be missed. By selecting plants not just for their blooms, but for their structure, shape, movement, and beauty when, for lack of better words, they are dead, ensures the garden is esthetically pleasing, be it summer or winter. Touring gardens in the fall and winter can be just as rewarding and enlightening, as in the height of summer.

I recently spoke to a head volunteer at the Piet Oudolf Detroit garden, and of course our conversation found its way to getting our hands in the gardens once again. While I had a clear, sunny day, my Detroit friend was gazing at garden beds blanketed in snow. She shared that this was not a bad thing. It was the cold, after all, that would allow them to carry out their late winter- early spring garden tasks.

As the Detroit garden features a wonderful selection of bulbs, they must cut back the garden, otherwise the early spring blooms would be lost amongst the still-standing grasses and spent perennials. The garden is cut back, with material made into small pieces to rest gracefully on the garden’s surface. Hollow and pithy stems can be left somewhat standing or taken to a different area of the garden. When this happens, the stems are not chopped, but left in their entirety so that insects can make use of them this coming season.

The clean-up is timed with the temperature of the garden’s soil. When it’s still frozen, walking about the garden will not harm the soil or creatures residing within, such as ground nesting bees.

The objective in any garden task is to do no harm.

In our area, the weather is such that the ground is likely not frozen. As I write this, last night’s snow may have created a lovely winter view from our windows, but the soil is soft, even squishy in parts. We, unlike our northern gardening friends in Detroit, should not be in the gardens just yet. We need to wait for another freeze of the soil, or until the soil dries and warms up a bit before we start our spring tidy up.