Moving a Garden

by Marie Hofer, Gardening editor, HGTV.com

When we asked you, our readers, to tell us about your experiences moving a garden, we were flooded with mail. Your letters were funny, warm, poignant, all speaking to the difficulty--physical and emotional--of leaving a garden behind or of moving one with you. Here were some of our favorites. Check back again; we will refresh from time to time with more of your stories.

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PHOTO

The Baker garden in Indiana
My husband and I sold our house in Brown County, Indiana, last winter. I had extensive gardens at the old house and miss them more than the house. As part of the deal, we came back in the spring and moved parts of the gardens. So far I have moved hostas, daylilies, coneflowers, black-eyed susans, monarda and a few bushes. I also removed five of more than 30 fish from the ponds. I intend to return at least one more time to thin things out.

--Terry Baker

We moved about six years ago and had to have a habitat for our box turtles. At the old place the turtles had the run of the whole backyard, but every time we mowed we had to search for the tiny nickel-sized babies. Our habitat is planted in ornamental grasses and flowers that are enjoyed by humans and turtles. We built sandstone walkways to make the weeding easier. The state wildlife agent said it [is] the best habitat he had ever seen. The turtles have basking bowls and shelters made of old birdbath tops. It was extra hard to leave our old shade garden and moving to an all-sun garden. We had to create shade for the turtles so we planted the ornamental grasses. We have a beautiful garden and so do the turtles we rehabilitate.

--Connie J. McDonald

Wow, 10 years later I still miss my beautiful garden in Erie, PA. Somehow I knew that whoever bought our house wouldn't be the gardener I am so I didn't feel guilty about taking a lot of plants. I left enough so [the] new owners could still call it a garden, and I gave some away to friends as souvenirs.

Prior to the move to St. Paul, MN, I spent the previous fall dividing and potting perennials into anything that would hold
dirt--milk jugs, two-liter pop bottles, coffee cans, old cracked pots--you name it. In all we transported 70 pots of perennials.

Fortunately during the month of March nothing was sprouted and the containers all got piled into the dock boxes on our sailboat trailer when my husband drove it to Minnesota. By the time I moved in June with our boys, all the pots had sprouted, and I was delighted to find two low-stacked stone walls hidden by the overgrown yews in our new backyard. It made for a great beginning of my new garden.

What I wasn't delighted with was the shade and the condition of the new soil--heavy and clay-like. [I'm] still fighting that and wishing I had the sandy, well-draining soil I had in PA. Ten years later, many of those perennials are still here. Some couldn't handle the colder climate and perished. Thank heavens for the 'Endless Summer' hydrangeas (although one of those died as well...think that was the rabbits)!

--Jill Bull

The hosta in my front garden is the hosta my father planted 90 miles away in the 1950s. My brother still lives in the family home and is "keeper of the hosta" (and hydrangeas, lilacs, rose of sharon and more, all planted by my father over 50 years ago). Whenever a family member relocates to a home with a garden, chunks of divided hosta are delivered in the spring, from the garden of another family member. Even if a whole garden cannot be moved, for me it's enough to see this piece of family tradition.

--Judy Massey
Dedham, MA

I had worked on my yard for a couple of years, ripping out large areas of brush and sod to create landscaped areas. When it came time to move, I couldn't bear the thought of leaving it all behind. Since I was only moving 1/4 mile and had a month to do it, I decided to take as much as I could with me, including a dogwood, hydrangeas and wiegelias. It was a job digging everything up but even more of a job to place it at the new house, especially since there weren't established garden areas to put things in. Many of the plants just got stuck in the ground until the following spring. The new owners of my old house are not gardeners at all, and every time I go by the house it makes me sick to see the untrimmed boxwoods that were left behind, the beautiful bushes that have been cut out or the weed-filled hosta beds. I love everything I moved and am so glad I did it. I just wish now that I had moved everything!

--Kathy Grubbs
Hillsdale, MI