Hellebores Dead Foliage (Last Year's Stems) Late Winter Clean-Up - February 2025

The clean-up continues in the backyard - thanks to a little window of 50-degree temperatures this week.  First, I showed the trio of Muhly Grasses at the end of the boardwalk that I clipped and composted.  Then, yesterday I posted a photo of the screened porch border/bed where I clipped and composted four Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses.  

Today, I turned my attention to the colony of Hellebores in the backyard understory garden.  A couple weeks back, I posted a photo showing the buds had emerged on these.  Below is a new before-and-after showing last season's foliage being clipped-off and removed.  

Here's the before - showing the brown (and some green) foliage along with A LOT of leaf litter:

And, here below, is the after.  A lot less foliage.  (I hauled the stems and foliage to the compost bin.). But, even after leaving the stems and leaves, there is still A LOT of leaf litter left behind.  Most of it chopped up into little pieces to form a leaf mulch.

We have about 90 days until I expect to have the pros deliver and install mulch.  As part of that effort, they usually do a REALLY THOROUGH job of using their leaf blowers to remove as much leaf litter as possible.  I'm tempted to just ask them to leave the leaf litter behind this year and simply *cover* it with new mulch.