To rake or not?

[twoblackdogs]

We're in the midst of a heat wave - more June than March like- with a lot of rain and temps in the upper 70s/80s for the next week. Yesterday I noticed the Bleeding Hearts were way up and the eyes of one of my Sagae tipping through the leaves. I left all the leaves on my beds last fall - do I rake them now or let them sit another month when it should be normal to see eyes? Arggg. We're still 1.5 months away from danger of frost - at a minimum.

[ogrefcf]

I was wondering the same thing as I looked at my beds yesterday. I personally would leave them a while longer for the protection with this crazy weather, it can only help protect the plants. I was told by some to just leave them and let them decompose, better for the plants. Think I might just try leaving them all on this year. My mom told me to put some chicken manure on mine to help break it down. Guess it's high in nitrogen and that's what helps. Have to remember it's hot though and can burn your plants. And now I've rambled to much.

[Chris_W]

I always hold off until after frost danger. It might not matter this year, though, as they'll probably all be unfurled long before that time is over But in beds with lots of old fallen leaves they are more protected from frost and the soil will hold whatever little bit of cold is left from winter. So personally I wait as long as I can.

[jerryshenk]

Why rake at all? Or is this purely cosmetic raking. But even so, why not just lay down a thin layer of mulch over the leaves.

How about sucking up the leaves with the vac side of a leaf blower? That seems like it would be more gentle

[isadora]

I always just pull off the top layer of leaves, but I never use a rake, just pull them off by hand so I don't damage any delicate leaves of this growing between hostas. I take off just enough to keep them from blowing around and refilling other areas that I've already cleaned. Sometimes I'll pick some of them up with a leaf vac. I always leave the bottom layer to decompose and keep weeds down. It would be a major project to take them all off as most of the garden is in woods with the majority of trees being oaks.

Sandy

[HostaDesigner]

I completely raked everything. I was worried about the heat too.

[kaylyred]

My front bed is pretty unprotected as it is, so I cleaned that up a couple days ago and got rid of the old hosta leaves and scapes. Both the bleeding hearts are up and the hellebores are in full bloom. The daffodils have fat buds. No hosta pips yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them soon, especially on the early risers.

I'm leaving the leaves in my back beds for now. They tend to get dumped on with a ton of maple leaves (yes, I grow hostas under maples--if I didn't at least try, I'd have no plants at all, because my yard is maple heaven), and I usually get about 3/4ths of them out but the ones that fall late end up being mulch. I guess I'll see if these hostas rise later and fare better.

[Justaysam]

Chicago weather changes very quickly. In a normal year I leave them on until May 15. Every year that I remove them early, I am out with every empty pot I can find to cover them when I get a night with low, below 30, temp prediction. I'm kind of neurotic, I suck them all up with the blower attachment thing, and put back down the tiny mulched leaves I saved from last fall, then put on a very light layer of composted manure, then do my mulch layer.This year, A lawn guy who calls me every spring, is coming next week to do the clean up of all last years leaves. Then I will start the re-apply bit when he's done, and go look for all my empty pots.

[kHT]

Sorry, I don't rake but use my blower vac to clean up the garden.

[ViolaAnn]

I've got so many crocuses coming up that if I don't rake early, I'll damage them. So, I just don't rake. Pick up unsightly leaves later by hand.

[Linda P]

I don't rake my beds either. I pull off the old dead hosta leaves, and let it go at that. The leaves that fall from the trees tend to blow off into
the cornfield by spring. Now, on this official first day of spring, I have hostas that are hurling themselves out of the ground. The crocus went from
just through the ground last Wednesday, to pretty much done blooming today. Daffodils are in bloom, and the early tulips, and hyacinth, and a lot of the
blooming trees. The star magnolia came into bloom Sunday and is probably going to hang on just another day or two. The petals are already blowing
across the lawn, and the pink magnolia has buds fattening up faster than I've ever seen. All of the trees are leafing out, buds are swelling on apple and
pear trees, along with just about everything else of a flowering nature. It's all going to be gone in a flash if this heat continues. The weather guessers
are saying we're supposed to have a 'cool down' on Friday, with highs for Fri and Sat 'only' in the mid 60's. We've hit our 7th day in a row of record breaking
temps, and it's likely to happen again tomorrow. I think at this point there is little that can be done to try to keep the hostas asleep. I have far too much
to cover if the weather returns to a normal pattern. It's so odd that we here in the midwest (and a good portion of the country east of the Rockies) are
having such warm temps, while Rosemarie and Karma and Owen are getting snowed on.

[Tigger]

Normally we would leave most of the winter leaf mulch on the beds in the spring and top-dress with usual shredded root mulch in the spring. But this year the winter was so mild (no snow at all) that the leaves didn't even begin to break down. (I think they also weren't chopped as well as usual when applied last fall.) We had no choice but to blow them all out; there was no reasonable half-way action.

[mikencarol]

Same over hee in South Jersey, Tigger. And the beds in the deepshade are just plain soking wet. So, we gently raked out those couple of beds this afternoon. Got some hostas over here that are 4'"or 5" p and starting to leaf out. If winter's stayed away this long, he better stay away for good now. No late Spring appearances necessary.

[ogrefcf]

Well my snow melted and it's supposed to be 70's now. Went outside and found a few early rising eyes coming up.