One of the most often asked questions at this time of year is “Can I cut my plants back yet?” The only answer a good American *should* give is “This is America, do what you want!” But we know that you want to dig a little deeper.
As always, there are very few straight-ahead answers in dealing with the ecological. Insects use the cover and habitat of the previous years vegetation for overwintering as adults, pupae, or as eggs. Birds will forage along the stems for those insects and any seeds that might have fallen to the ground. Voles will use the cover of grasses whose leaves have flopped over to cover the soil. Snakes will sit and wait for those voles to walk within striking distance. Those dead plants are still providing for your ecosystem.
So when to clean up then? I like to divide the yard into different areas that will be “cleaned up” in different ways. First, I make sure to select some part of the garden where the previous years vegetation will stand throughout the new growing season. Let’s mimic a natural area that has not any fire come through and do nothing.
Next, in mid to late April I’ll take about half of the remaining garden and remove all of the dead plant material, mimicking a very successful fire. In the other remaining half I will cut the stems down to between 12-18 inches, mimicking a patchier fire. Creating this mosaic of treatments allows for diversity to thrive in your garden, hopefully keeping insect populations abundant and healthy, while limiting the potential for plant pathogens. I like to use the cut stems as mulch in my veggie garden beds, as conditioning for the compost bin, or I will use it as sheet mulch in some new bed I may be planting. You can also you the native grasses as kindling for campfires as well!
Any areas you might have in food production should be kept in immaculate condition. You might add layers of mulch to protect certain perennial edibles like strawberries but for the most part, left over plant material should be removed and composted. Don’t let diseases or pathogenic insects build up in your edible gardens!