This week (and the next several) I am all caught up in gardening. One of the few reservations I had about our move was giving up my gardens. I’m not a Martha Stewart of a gardener, but I love growing flowers, fresh produce and canning the delicious food we have raised. Gardening is my outlet, a true hobby with practical purpose great end results.
Our new home is in a subdivision with an all-powerful homeowners association calling the shots. It’s really not that bad, but without a fence up yet, I know we will have to be very creative in some of our gardening adventures this year. The very first thing I did when we were out of boxes from the move was to take the large flower pots I had brought and planted strawberries plants to grow on the patio. I am so glad that I did as I love going and picking handfuls of fresh berries a couple of times a week.
For now I am washing and freezing them to save for making muffins or a dessert this summer.
A few strawberry plants weren’t that expensive, but if you garden you know that it can be costly when you are getting started, especially when you are running behind. Landscaping and veggie gardens will empty a checkbook before you can blink your eye! It wasn’t long after the temps started warming up and trees began blooming that I had serious spring fever accompanied by the gardening bug!
{Have I passed the fever & bug onto you?}
With little extra resources following the move, I needed another option to get my gardening fix.
My solution?
To transplant as much of my little farmette in Alabama to South Carolina as I possibly could. I had several years of roses, including beautiful English roses, a variety of perennials, and fruit trees that I didn’t want to lose to renters who wouldn’t ever take care of them.
I married a really good man, because Audley has made two trips to our place in Alabama and we have spent the last five weeks carefully transplanting and babying nearly a $1000 in plants!
This is what we moved: 34 rose bushes, 8 peonies, 20 calla lilies, 5 blueberry shrubs, 2 dwarf plum trees, 10 day lilies, 30 irises, a hydrangea, a lilac shrub, a concord grape vine, clematis, a young pussy willow, lavender, hollyhocks, shasta daisies, black-eye Susan’s, a Meyer lemon tree, rosemary, mint, oregano and chives.
We also moved about 350 river rocks for borders, 3 decorative topiaries, the trellis Audley built for my garden, and one of my raised garden beds so that I had a starting place to work with (my mom took the rest of the beds because we couldn’t haul them all).
{I told you that I married a really good man!}
Digging up established plants is quite a challenge. You have be oh so careful not to injure the roots, but they also require much attention after they have been moved!
 |
| David Austin Strawberry Hill |
Above is one of my poor English roses a week after we transplanted it. I was worried, but not giving up!
And I am glad I didn’t give up as here is the same English rose just this morning! She is going to be so pretty!
 |
| Strawberry Hill |
Even more exciting than seeing the improvements in my roses, is seeing the blooms as they are opening on my Don Juan climbing rose!
The dwarf plum trees and five blueberry shrubs I moved are thriving, which has been one of the biggest surprises of all! When you have experienced a warm winter, an early spring, then let the yard go for weeks, you would be amazed at the mess that will greet you! We had to dig the trees and blueberries out of weeds and running grass which had really damaged them.
 |
| Dwarf Plum tree |
Now with blueberries growing I do hope to have enough to at least mix with strawberries for a luscious mixed-berry jam in a few weeks.
 |
| Even Windsor has been quite helpful! |
We have spent many evenings out in the yard working on our gardening project. To aid the transplanted plants we mixed a little Miracle Grow dirt in with the dirt in which we were digging and also added a little bone meal to increase the nutrients in the soil.
While some things are looking great, we are still really spoiling our plants right now. They require almost daily watering, pruning off dead branches as new growth takes over, & spraying insecticidal soap to keep away the mites and mildew.
 |
| The space where my veggies and herbs will be planted |
This weekend we will begin the task of building raised beds and creating a space to grow fresh vegetables and herbs. We have gotten a little start on it all, but there is much more to do.
I am so excited and can’t wait to share some of our progress and details on putting it together!
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Fiddle Dee Dee by Jennifer Jones 
“Really Good Man” ? ALL THAT WORK and I get a really good. GIRL I'm GREAT!
LikeLike
We have similar “plans” for our yard…we did the raised beds last summer. Come by for a visit!
LikeLike
Pingback: Creative Landscaping | Fiddle Dee Dee