Cutting Down Grasses Before Winter - November 2026

One of my (V1 Draft) "Great Garden Rules" is to think about designing for a four-season garden.  Part of that idea is to have things that look as good when they are dead as when they are alive.  For me, in Zone 6a/5b, that means things that look good in Winter.  In dormancy.  

One of my favorite garden plants (that isn't a fern) is Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass.  I, of course, like how it looks in the garden during the growing season.  But, I also *really* like how it looks in Winter.  With the upright seedheads standing proud throughout the dormancy period.

I have it planted all over the garden.

I also have had a couple of problems with critters in my garden.

Near our house and the back stoop, we have an entire ecosystem of chipmunks and (I think?) voles and or mice.  They scurry around.  Make burrows.  And hide inside all the plant material.

We also have rabbits.  I've done my best to keep them out with a fence, but they seem to keep coming back inside the perimeter.  

In past Winters, those critters took refuge around some of the 'still up' plant material.  And, ate away at things like tree trunks, stems and the bases of Oakleaf Hydrangeas.

One of the things that I don't want to do, but have started to do (this Fall) is to fight back.  

I've decided that in a few spots, I'm going to provide NO QUARTER to hiding rodents.  

There will be no place to hide. 

That, unfortunately conflicts DIRECTLY with the idea of a 4-season garden.  

But, I'm willing to bend my own rules for one season.  To see if it makes any difference with the critter damage.

The first place I'm starting is with some Karl Foerster grasses.  I have three planted along the face of the Screened Porch.  They are part of a rodent highway - that links the side of our house (which includes the Boardwalk and the stacked wood piles) with the backyard stoop area (where they seem to have their burrows).  

Here's how it looked before I started some clean up:

Easy place to hide if you are a critter scurrying to-and-from.

So...despite my own rules, I opted to clean these grasses up right now.  In the Fall.  

Here's the after:

There are a few more spots around the garden that I'm going to take a similar, proactive approach to early (Fall) cleanup.  In service of trying to keep some areas free from rodents/rabbits.