Death of a Garden?

It's been an absolutely freezing day in the garden today. I realised this morning that next Friday is the last brown bin collection of the season so I decided to get the garden cut back. I worked to my ongoing principle that if it's brown and rotting, get it out, but after 4.5 hours of working away, my nieghbour kindly pointed out that I could have killed all my plants! I am in a total dilemma about all of this because some people say let the plants die and take the frost, others say cut the plants back to prevent rot and make sure the new shoots get the light! I supposed I will just have to wait until next spring now to see whether or not I have made the right decision.