I did a bit of that this winter, along with a few bags of mulch.
All my plants are starting to wake up - Feb. 3rd!
I didn't cut the stems all the way to the ground, left about 4-5 inches and covered the base with chicken manure that I bought from Home Depot (cheap stuff). Put about 1 to 2 bags of mulch on top of that.
Seems like I am going to have some monster plants this year. It's will be my second year with these.