For mine in containers, I pull them out. For the ones in the ground, I cut off at the soil level. I have no idea if this is "correct" but it has always worked for me.

outside the box you are sitting in ...

why not just leave them there all winter ... and pull them out.. when you have new trays of annuals to plant in spring ... it gives you the grid.. presuming you liked last years layout ... and then you are only disturbing the soil/mulch once .. rather than twice ...

ive got a million answers for not working so hard in fall.. keep em coming ,,,... lol

ken

I pull my zinnias and treat them as infected, even if they show no signs of disease. I dispose of them in the trash, which goes to the landfill.

ZM

Well for me, it depends on how "clean" I'm feeling. Some years, like this year for some reason, I seem to want a cleaner yard for winter. But in general, I do a bit of both. Some of the bigger annuals - like the big clumps of zinnias with the bigger roots - I cut back and leave the roots in the ground. I have this idea in the back of my head that I once read, that roots of plants left in the ground decompose and add to the soil. Can't for the life of me remember where I read it, but I think of that every fall when I'm doing clean-up. I think it was about tomato plants specifically but can't remember. And even if the roots don't do much it's easier to get them out in spring lol.

With some of the smaller, thinner-stemmed annuals, or more "single" annuals (as opposed to big clumps) with smaller root systems, like larkspur or nigella or cosmos (though some cosmos get pretty big!) I'll pull them out if they come out easily, and shake as much of the soil off the roots as I can.

Zen Man you have me a bit worried now as I just composted all my zinnia plants! I had absolutely no disease issues with them this year so into the compost they went. Is there a reason they shouldn't have?

:)
Dee

P.S. I may also leave some of the reseeding annuals (that I want to reseed lol) up, depending upon the timing of my clean-up, just to make sure I'm not removing the seeds also.

Hi Dee,

" ...you have me a bit worried now as I just composted all my zinnia plants! I had absolutely no disease issues with them this year so into the compost they went. Is there a reason they shouldn't have? "

That compost may now contain organisms that are harmful to zinnias. Many years ago I had a whole compost pile just for discarded zinnias. When I used compost from that pile to mulch my zinnias in a year or two, the results were catastrophic, and my zinnias died of various infections. Seed companies routinely heat treat their zinnia seeds to kill any infectious agents, whether any are visible or not. I dispose of my dead zinnias in the trash, which sends them to a landfill. Maybe you will get lucky. I didn't.

ZM

Thanks ZM. I'll keep my fingers crossed I guess. Not much I can do about it now, lol, but now I know for future reference!

:)
Dee

I think it is against the rules of most waste management companies to send yard waste to the landfill. If you want to remove discarded plant material from your property, it should be placed in yard waste bags and disposed of according to the rules of your particular municipality. Or, if you can get a burn permit, dispose of plants via a careful bonfire.

The gardens (this year) got dumped into the lawn and chewed up for added organic material in the areas where the sun blasts them the worst. Some of that was retrieved and placed in the pots to decay and feed/mulch them a little--it'll enhance growth next year a tad! So 2,000 square feet of flower garden ended up on about 1,000 square feet of lawn that's to the southwest.

I do leave some "winter interest" plants in the garden. There are a few blue salvia that are actually still slightly in bloom but getting blasted as the weather gets colder. Once they go, they'll make nice tiny tree patterns and I'll clean them out in April.

I also leave the Easter Egg plant as they make pretty larger bare trees 18" tall, with the withered "eggs" still hanging on them. As the months wear on, birds pick at them for the seeds and animals remove the eggplants to eat.

"I think it is against the rules of most waste management companies to send yard waste to the landfill."

Many communities have yard-waste pick-up services along with the regular trash - mine does. It's my understanding the yard waste is recycled in some way -- composted/chipped, etc. I put a lot of stuff out in the yard waste, I don't think there's anything wrong with that -- I'm not a burner nor a composter (except for the horse poop, which is just a big covered pile, completely passive other than me transporting it to the bin). I do save my leaves, though!

To the original question -- most of my annuals are in pots, so those get yanked. I try to knock off as much container soil from the roots as I can to use it for next year. I also yank those in the ground, if I get around to it -- most years I do (but I have next to zero motivation to do anything this year...)