Making a New Garden: The Moving of the Plants

And so it begins. As the house is about a third moved to the new digs, the plants are about 2% moved. That's a frightening thought when the plan is to be pretty much moved in by Christmas. I wanted to show everyone why I will likely be in crazy mode for some time and may not be as frequent with blog posts in the short-term. I will document the whole affair, but getting to a computer might prove to be challenging in the coming weeks. 

In the meantime, here's a reason to be glad you're not us right now:

 The first real load of plants are the super heavy potted ones. There are many more still to move. This photo is deceiving, for there are many crammed in there that are not obvious. The pumpkins are thrown in to give my Portland neighbors a break - I don't want to be the only one on the block without Christmas lights who also still has Halloween decor on the front porch. They are going to live out the rest of their decomposing lives somewhere in the fields of the new garden.

 Just to give me a sense that we're accomplishing something, let's revisit what the back garden looked like this summer.

 Here it is pictured in October. All of these beauties are currently safely snug in their deer-proof cage.

This is what it looks like now. Poor lonely Casa Azul. I hope whomever buys this home finds a lot of love for you. And yes, I DO need to move the contents of the shed.

It's a little heartbreaking.

Here's the same general view from this summer.

Back on the farm: I wanted to highlight our first lesson in country living. Parking the truck on the wet lawn to get closer to the unloading areas is not a good idea.

Much cursing went on. At least in my head. 

 This mud splatter is several feet away. Imagine what I looked like at the rear of the truck helping to push it out of its ditch. Oy veh.

 Moving on to more pleasant views, a few of the pots ended up at the front porch. It may not be permanent but it gives a little life to the metal building.

This is the same maple (as pictured above) earlier this fall in its former home.

This is a view of the potted ones that made the journey. I attempted to place them to be somewhat pleasing for the short-term as my plans for this deck will morph into something usable and full of life hopefully by next summer. For now this will do -- making the journey was a huge step. They look so small out here, **sigh** I have a long way to go. The joy is in the journey, right? Right. I'll keep reminding myself of that. Please feel free to chime in when I slip down the hopeless slope of the overwhelmed new home owner.

Speaking of making the journey, that brings up the rest of the plants that are in the ground at the Portland house. I have yet to dig up one plant as it's been either a torrential downpour (flooding, anyone?) or the ground is too cold. I am patiently awaiting the golden hour when it's safe to dig and I have the day off -- then I will go into overdrive. So many of my gardening friends have been wonderfully generous with their offers of helping me to move the garden but I do not intend to burden anyone else with this muddy, cold, confusing task. You guys are off the hook.

I did manage to plant about 100 small species tulip bulbs at the new garden this weekend, something I had been waiting on as the place I wanted to put them was frozen. I braved the mud and dug the earth at the new garden for the first time. It felt great, finally actually planting something, even if it was just a handful of little bulbs.

Here's the plant prison. All of these guys are new, purchased at the nursery. They may end up waiting a long time....or I may find a temporary bed to plant them in until I find suitable homes.

That's what we've been up to, besides moving boxes and unpacking and making an ungodly amount of lists. Why did we want to move? Can anyone tell me? I can't believe how much work it is this time around. I am more accustomed to "apartment moving" so this house-moving business is for the birds. Well, chickadees that is.

That's it for this week at Chickadee Gardens at Blue Jay Lane (yes, Blue Jay Lane is the name of our street.....what are the odds of that?) - you'll be hearing from us again as soon as I have more garden adventures to share. Thank you for reading, as always and until next time, stay dry and happy gardening!