To save your hands and back, rather than trimming all your plants for colder months, consider leaving your perennials alone, suggests Patricia Schrieber of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

With plants like goldenrod, black-eyed Susans, phlox, ornamental grasses and ferns, you can remove individual stems as they break, spreading out the work over the winter and cutting them back before the new growth sprouts in the spring. Hydrangeas, for example, dry to a pretty, papery brown and can be left on the shrub all winter.

Another benefit of not cutting back your plants is that in snowy climates, plants of varying heights add interest to a snow-laden landscape. Snow makes great mulch too, by supplying a protective blanket and insulating the ground, so if you live in an area certain to get snow, you may be able to forgo mulching. Mother Nature can also do much of your winter watering in the form of snow, ice and sleet.