Re: perennials DIGEST V3 #177

On Tue, 10 Jun 2003 23:01:02 -0500, some mardy inna cardy wrote:

>I'm looking for any suggestions, tips, or experiences you can share with me.  Is it really worth taking all this with you?

I thought so. When I came to Ohio I brought mine with me 500 miles. Of
course it wasn't as big then, but I rented for 6 years and moved
several times. The last move I lived on an estate with a 5 acre yard
of combined light and shade. As you can imagine, that last move was a
whopper.

>  Moving in itself can be a nightmare, I truly can't fathom moving my house AND my garden.

It truly should be done in steps and with help if you can get it.

>  While it seems ridiculous financially to start over, how feasible is it to dig, move and replant a garden?  

Totally do-able if you have the physical, emotional and financial
resources. 

I haven't read all the posts responding to this yet so I may repeat
some advice but here's what made my moves easier. Since I deal with a
number of auto-imune problems I had to pace myself and get help.
That's the first thing I'd advise: know yourself and what you're
capable of. It will be difficult if you dig everything up only to have
them die at the other end because you're too ill or depressed to make
yourself get out there and put them in the ground. 

Establish, if possible, a place in the shade the first year to heel
plants in. That might mean a trip to the place to negotiate a little
advance yard work.  Heeling in (in case you didn't know means poking
the roots in ground any way you can including lying trees and bushes
on their sides and covering with dirt) can buy you a year of liesure
to put plants where they'll grow best. they might get a little crooked
but they'll grw out of it eventually. An alternative idea is to
pre-plan up a nursery like area, protected in the winter,  under
shade, where the plants will get some sun but be protected while you
are able to set them out at your own pace. Our big move from the
estate to here was made in January and the plants spent the first
month or so in the garage where it was slightly less cold, and we
proceeded to heel them in as soon as the weather broke a little, then
dug beds and things when the ground unfroze. Incidentally one of the
things we moved and heeled in was an (almost)entire 50 foot lilac
hedge and another of spirea and several forsythia about 4 feet tall. I
hired a friend's young teenaged boy to do a lot of the digging work
for me as I was still recovering from the move. These two hedges were
heeled into two big piles until I could figure out where they were
going to go permanently. They're now 8 and 6 feet and I could never
move the lilac, though spirea is pretty easy to fork out of the ground
and move around. Forsythia is dead easy to move, even deeply
established bushes. It's only a matter of brute strength in the case
of old ones--I'm convinced the things are indestructible.

Line up a source (or several) of pots. Ask friends, approach nurseries
and ask about buying or renting pots in the off season. Really big
bushes can be bagged in burlap if you can lay your hands on
some--again ask the nurseries.

If possible you might see if you can do your plant moving either
earlier or later or even both. 

Also (very important!) *Do* ask the future owners how much they care
about the garden. You might find they're philistines who plan on
pulling everything out and making it into lawn or concrete patio--you
never know if you don't ask and it might save you a lot of splitting
work! It's way easier to fork up a lump of plants entire than to try
to both dig and split them.

Finally get out there and take a lot of pictures. Now, while you still
can.

Melis

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