SPRING CLEANUP

SCOTT: Mike, I’m looking forward to the next time the temperature hits 50 degrees…
MIKE: You, me and the rest of Sylvania too. But, may I ask why? 
SCOTT: Well, I was busy last fall and my yard needs some TLC before I start planting, mowing and fertilizing. Figured I’d rake up the winter leaves that blew into my yard, clear out some brush, restack some firewood…
MIKE: STOP RIGHT THERE… don’t move a twig!
SCOTT: Care to explain?
MIKE: Scott, are you aware of how many lives you will be disturbing when you clean up your yard sooner than you should? Ideally, delaying your garden cleanup allows hibernating beneficial insects, reptiles, frogs, toads, salamanders and birds to feed on old food sources, sustaining themselves until their environment is able to provide new growth and food.
SCOTT: Okay, I did hear something about not cleaning up until the temperature is 50 degrees or above for four to five days in a row.
MIKE: Truly, you should wait until your lawn is ready for the FIRST REAL MOWING. Please, don’t use your lawnmower as an outdoor vacuum cleaner to rid your area of clutter. Wait until the lawn is actually long enough to cut. 
Another good time to clean out the flower beds is when ornamental trees, like crab apples, dogwood or fruit trees like the cherry and apple, start to bloom. This will allow for bees that have overwintered in your flower bed to find new food. When we clean up the leaf debris too early, we unwittingly disturb these beneficial insects. Most pollinators, bees and wasps, lay dormant in the layers of leaves and organic debris.
Perennial and annual flowers that were left over winter should not be removed either until after the dandelions and forsythia bloom. The leftover seed heads are still providing the necessary food source to sustain non-migratory birds, chipmunks, voles and squirrels, just to name a few. If you truly, absolutely, unadulteratedly HAVE TO TRIM, cut them back and leave the stem and seed head lay until the dandelions bloom.
If you live in a neighborhood that insists your flower beds must be cleaned out by a specific date that does not coincide with nature, I suggest you just lightly top rake the front two to three feet of said flower beds, thus minimizing any harm to the beneficial critters still sleeping below your soil’s surface.
Finally, Scott, please hold off on mulching. It is best to wait until you have followed the previous information. Most garden beneficials cannot find their way out of their den if too much heavy mulch is above them. 
I hope this information has convinced you that you don’t have to welcome spring too soon. Just enjoy the outdoors by going for a walk with your loved ones, like Gus, the dog.
SCOTT: Makes sense to me now.
MIKE: Why are you smiling?
SCOTT: I’m thinking every husband can hand out a copy of this article when the wives suggest we go do some early yardwork!
Your Midwest Garden Podcast guys, Mike O’Rourke and Scott Sandstrom, will be sharing gardening advice and information with readers throughout the growing season. O’Rourke, retired from Black Diamond Garden Center and known as the Garden Guy for many years, discusses landscape issues with Sandstrom in a casual conversation designed to educate listeners, and now readers, on a wide variety of topics.