Now that it's getting cooler I have noticed that my Semps are looking kind of rough. They have quite a few dead leaves on the undersides. Should I remove all of the dead leaves before it snows or is it better to leave them alone and clean them up in the spring?

Well, that depends--
Folks in areas where it's wet in the winter and it doesn't freeze generally clean them up to avoid rot issues over the winter.

I'm just to the west of you in Utah (on the other side of that mountain) and I might pick at a few in the fall just for aesthetics, but I do not clean them up in the fall because they do just fine with their own dead leaves here (I do clean up all the dead leaves of the trees and other plants off of them so they don't get smothered).
In dry winters, I think it helps them to have their dead leaves... and when tempted to feel neglectful, I remind myself that there are probably no little fairies with tweezers cleaning up the ones clinging to life in the Alps in preparation for winter...just the bugs and although they do not do as good of a job as the tweezer-fairies, they do alright

But if you want to clean them up and tuck 'em in with gravel or grit, I'm sure they won't mind

If it were me, I would leave the dead leaves until spring, and then clean them up.

Great question Sandie.
And some great answers, and agree with the ones given above.
Each of us has different growing conditions, so it comes down to what is your winter weather like? Does it tend to be dry and cold/freezing/snow? Or mild/short periods of freezing/very little or no snow/lots of rain?

For our PNW conditions I try to clean up most of the dead leaves, because we have a pretty mild winter as far as cold goes. But we do have lots of rain through the winter and spring months. This can lead to rot if the semps have lots of dead leaves turning to a mushy mess. We can get a lot of dead leaves during the summer (July, Aug & Sept) with no rain and high temps (90's and up).

Thanks for all your help. I will have to keep all of the leaves that fall from our 100+ year old Silver Maple off of them then! We usually get a lot of snow and I've actually seen it stay until May but thankfully that's not been happening the last few years!! I'll just leave them untrimmed for the most part until spring.
Dirt...I wondered where in Utah you were!! I live right next to the Divide so my sun goes down at 2:30 in the shortest days of winter. When everyone on the other side of the mountain is green... We've usually still got snow!!

I have a question, how do you all deal with fallen leaves accumulating in your semp beds?

BlueOddish said:I have a question, how do you all deal with fallen leaves accumulating in your semp beds?

I've wondered that as well. I have a Huge 100+ year old Silver Maple tree that still hasn't lost it's leaves. Sometimes it's the snow that brings them down!! It's going to take a lot of cleaning them off the semps this fall. This is the first year I've had a large amount of semps. It will probably be a big project!

Knee pads.

Sandi, I wonder if you could spread a huge piece of shadecloth over your semps during the leaf fall time, and then gather it up and uncover them when the leaves are done falling. It sure would be easier than trying to pick them all out. I've never tried it, but wonder if a leaf blower would work in and around semps?

Edited to say we have no falling leaves in AZ or NM. Trees take water, and are fairly rare in our landscapes. I love areas full of nice trees!

Bev... Lol!! For sure!!
Karen...I may try that. It would definitely save time!!

You can get various types of shade cloth. Some of it lets most of the light through. I don't think it would hurt the semps to have it over them for a fairly short time.

We are right at the mouth of the canyon so our 'leaf blower' is pretty constant--sometimes it blows the leaves down the street for me but most of the time it blows the leaves coming from everywhere all in my gardens. It's never a do it once and then you're done kinda thing, but yes--a regular leaf blower is awesome to get them off all the low plants, and I don't bother with the tall stuff 'til spring. When there is an excessive volume accumulation though, I usually start with a rake to get the overburden off and then use the leaf blower. Wet leaves are the worst--then we're talking knee pads and gloves!

Almost all of my semps are in containers including a number of them under my Pink Dawn tree. I use this very light weight tulle to keep the leaves out of the containers. It lets most light through while keeping the leaves out. All I have to do is shake the leaves into the compost bin every couple of weeks until drop is finished. You can get it in any fabric store; here it is JoAnns Fabrics.

During the hot days of summer the tulle is used over my lilium seedlings to reduce the effects of the sun.

Connie I love your idea of using tulle. I may give that a try for the beds that are over by the woodland. That would also work to keep the seeds from the ash tree from getting in those beds. The other full sun beds get few leaves blown in so a leaf blower works great on those beds.

I love the idea of using the tulle to keep off seeds and leaves.

Connie... That's a great idea!! I will definitely give it a try!!

I wonder if the tulle would keep those pesky deer from uprooting my semps?

I've never had to deal with deer but I think it's worth a try, Sandie. It comes in all colors so you should be able to find something suitable that would not contrast too much.

That's a great idea for foiling the birds, chipmunks and deer. I might have to do it too.

BlueOddish said:I have a question, how do you all deal with fallen leaves accumulating in your semp beds?

A leaf blower on low and at a distance should do it. I have problems with pine needles. I transplanted mine from under Hostas where 1/2 died to on top of my Zen Ben's grave, best dog in the whole world. They are in an old sink buried in the ground. I didn't think of the pine tree.

I try to pick out what nots as I walk by with my now dogs.

Thanks for the tip on pulling out dead leads from the semps or not. I live in Zone 5a. They will need their mulch for the winter. Semps are so amazing.