Long Gone Garden Keeps On Giving

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - 'Did you throw that away? I was going to eat that!'

That's what some birds or other critters may say if you're a super-tidy gardener. You go past some people's homes in the fall and you see that all the annuals have been plucked from their pots, the perennials in garden beds are gone, everything's been taken away and raked clean.

But waiting until spring to clean up those dead perennials, and dried flowerheads isn't just less work for you right now. It also gives feathered and furry friends in your yard a place to find cover from the cold this winter. And since lots of those flowerheads still have seeds in them, they provide plenty of sustenance too!

So, although those browned stems and straw-like stalks may just look like a Halloween scene to you, if you leave them there through winter, you'll provide a cozy cover spot for critters and - like that piece of cold pizza some of us love to find in the fridge - they'll enjoy the leftovers too.