Wait Until Spring to do 'Fall Clean-Up'. Ornamental grasses, dried seed-heads on perennials, and fruit-bearing shrubs all add visual appeal during the winter months. The different colors and textures break up the grays and whites of winter. I love Michigan and all its seasons, but I need a little extra help in the winter.

I enjoy winter when I’m cross-country skiing and taking a winter walk in the woods – it is easy to enjoy winter then. In a forest, Viburnums, Hawthorns, Dogwoods, etc dot the scene with reds and whites, and blues and purples. Across a field, native grasses break up the long expanse of white with browns and tans. But, driving around town and through neighborhoods with landscaping cut down and pruned is limiting the landscape’s potential. Landscape can mimic nature - the browns of ornamental grasses (native or garden-variety) and the reds of the fruit on shrubs make it much more interesting to look out the window. When the colder winds blow through and toss around the plumes of ornamental grasses I forget (for just a little bit) how cold my fingers and toes have become. So whether you hire a company to clean up the yard in the fall or if you are a do-it-yourselfer like me, give it a try next season and wait until the spring to do “Fall Clean-up”.