You might think I’m about to unload a bunch of advice about what to clean up in the garden in the fall.

I am not.

I will let the toad do most of the talking.

What toad?

This toad that I spotted just as I was about to pick up this metal “pot topper” and stow it and the pot it was on away for winter.

Toad said, “No, leave this.”

And then Toad sat there guarding it all yesterday afternoon as I moved other “stuff winter would ruin” under a tarp, like those clay pots in the background.

This morning, that pot and decorative “pot topper” are still there, but the toad is gone.

By leaving it, I feel like Toad said, “Okay, move it too.”

So now I’ll move those with the other “stuff winter would ruin.”

What Toad says to do elsewhere in the garden is “not too much” because the toad and an unknown number of other toads, insects, and other creatures need a place to live all winter safely. So I leave lots of leaves on the ground, mainly in the flower borders, and I don’t cut back all the perennials.

Of course I clear off the entire vegetable garden because any bugs or whatever that want to overwinter amongst dead tomato vines, pepper plants, and squash vines, are not nice and will try to kill off next years tomatoes, peppers, and squashes.

And that’s all the advice the toad and I have to offer.

With one last tip!

If you tie down the tarp over all the “stuff winter would ruin” on a windy day, you can rest assured that anything winter blows up isn’t going to cause that tarp to fly up and expose all the “stuff winter would ruin.”