I was shocked when I went back and saw how completely over grown all of my gardens were. I felt horrible that I didn't have the time to take care of all of the poor babies, they were just screaming out for help. Poor Mom must feel overwhelmed with all of the gardens to take care of and work full time.
I was not feeling very hopeful that I'd be able to salvage anything out of this garden at all. Look at it, wouldn't you be skeptical too? This was once my prize rose garden. I replaced the roses each year since I never had the ability to get them to live through the winter. Right before we moved, I planted 3 clematis and 2 roses as a gift to the new owners of the house. With no care given to them since we moved I wasn't optomistic that they were still alive.
While browsing through the weeds, I found all 3 clematis and 1 of the roses. Not too shabby. Of course I dug them all up, I can't imagine that the next owners would want to keep this mess. Would you?
I have some wonderful sensation lilacs that were still in bloom, but they were on the decline. I should have grabbed more of them, but I only dug up and took two of them back home with me. I couldn't believe how big all of the "little" shoots had gotten by now, when we left there were several managable sized lilacs I could have brought with. So many of them are huge for one person to handle. They were thriving wonderfully in the mulch garden, as were the weeds. Look at that! I couldn't find a single place that I could see the mulch.
This plant is a remnant from the first owners. We were the third owners of this home. I have never seen anything quite like it. It sure smells like a lilac bush, but the leaves don't look like the typical lilac leaves in either shape or color. The flowers were also not clustered like the traditional lilacs.
The front garden was also badly in need of weeding. I did manage to weed this garden area while I was there, but this picture was taken before I had the chance.
I was so disappointed that my periwinkle and fern leafed bleeding heart weren't growing there anymore when I arrived. I had planned on taking them with me. Imagine my surprise when they popped up two days after my arrival. I could almost hear their tiny little plant voices pleading with me to take them with me. There were only a couple of leaves on each plant, the whole plants looked to be smaller than my pinky finger. I showed them to Cheesehead and all he could do was laugh. Of course I dug them up too. They're not big enough to showcase. They're so small they didn't even show up in my macro pictures I took of them. That's alright though, now they're safely nestled in my new shade garden!
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I ended up taking 22 plants with me from my gardens. I wish I had taken some more, but I ran out of pots and time. Here they are awaiting the move. I dug them up the night before Cheesehead and BIL came to help me move everything. The plants rested in the garage that night and I loaded them up in the van the next morning after I had breakfast with my friends.
I have most of them planted in the ground already, however there are 9 left to plant. I ended up having to paint the garden arbor from my former rose garden, so the clematis had to wait to be planted until I had the arbor put back together.
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
8 comments:
Cinj---my heart went out to you. I know that must have been painful to see your former gardens in such shape. That's how it is for me and my old house. It's not in such shape cause the new owners are doing great with it-----but I could really use some of those plants. I'm glad you got a few/lot to bring to the new home. I'm really glad you got a knock-out rose! I did read that in one of your previous post.
Your mystery plant is a Daphne--I think. They do smell wonderful. I can't grow them cause it's too hot in my new garden.
I also saw where you are having cold weather---I'm saying what??, in June? But we're suppose to get down to 50 tonight..that's after over a 100 last week. My plants are glad for the break.
I think you did great bringing those plants back with you. I know you will make them thrive in your new gardens if the deer behave. I don't know for sure but it sure seems like your current home has better soil. Is that true? Your old home looks like it was in a neighborhood and the new one is out in the woods with better soil. That soil looks alot better than what we have here which is clay and then worse clay. We have to spend as much in amendments as we do in plants.
You are doing so well with all this house situation stuff--I'm so happy it's coming to an end for you and your family. It will be good to be over the stress. No one should own two homes unless the other is a nice vacation site.
It is great to get plants from a previous home. When we moved I took as much as I could with me. I had a truck load of potted stuff. I knew in advance we were selling so I started potting things up as we listed our house. I am sorry your you had so much to deal with. I didn't follow the story but I am sure you did your best. Now you can move on and not have to worry anymore. I will look forward to seeing your pictures as you go along(-:
Anna- It was heart wrenching, though I could understand the reasons. It didn't make it any easier for me. It was nice for me to feel free to be able to dig up whatever plants I wanted though, no new owners to frown on those plans!
I have 2 knockouts now! A refugee and a new purchase. Lucky me.
My garden is full of those plants. They are very cute. I moved some of them to the rock garden just to add some native plants to my mix of peonies, roses, phlox, lavendar, sage,...
It was around 40 again tonight, but the plants don't seem to mind- as long as they don't freeze. They're happy and flourishing here.
I've been trying to mix in plants that they supposedly don't like the smell of with the plants I couldn't resist bringing back. I hope it helps, but I guess that remains to be seen. I had a wonderful golden arborvitae there that I though about taking, but Cheesehead refused to help me. I guess I see his point, they devoured the last one!
The soil we had needed to be heavily ammended. This is pretty sandy here too, but I do feel that I need less ammending here.
We've got 6 months to redeem the house but I'm going to pretend that it's not even ours to deal with anymore, I think it will help with my sanity just to be done with it.
Cindee- Our move was unexpected so I wasn't able to do it before we left. It is very nice that you were able to pot things up prior to moving. I'm going out in a few minutes to plant the last of the refugees. I'll have to dig in the trellis first, but it will look so wonerful when I'm finished! I can't wait to share it with you.
Good for you, Cinj! I know you and your rescue plants will both be happier being together again. And it's always lovely to look at a plant and see a memory!
Hi Cinj, the plants you rescued will thank you with lovely blooms and healthy foliage. You have been a busy lady the past few posts. The stepping stones are wonderful, I love the designs you made with the tiles. Please accept my condonlences on the loss of your father. He sounds like his life was full and he was much loved. Hope you can get your garden back into shape soon and have some relaxation for yourself. You deserve it!
Frances at Faire Garden
Hi "Ben"! I am especially happy now that they're all planted in the ground. They look to be perking up too. Some of them were looking a little droopy, I think a few of the roots may have been exposed. I felt bad leaving so many of them behind still, but I think Cheesehead would have had a heart attack if I would have grabbed more of them.
Frances- I sure hope so! I'm a bit worried since they were transplanted so late. It is supposed to be hot next week when we are taking vacation. I hope they're established enough by then to go a few days without extra care.
We're planning on making some more of those stepping stones later this summer, they sure don't go very far. I think I need about 8 more ice cream buckets for the next time around though. Maybe we'll use aquarium gravel next time, I've got tons of them.
Anna- I found it! It is a Daphne. It looked like the Carol Mackie Daphne. I even found one at Spring Hill Nursery for $15.00 earlier. I sure was tempted to buy one! Ah well.
It's always sad to see all your hard work look so shabby. I remember one young woman I work with buying her new home and she talked about how beautiful the landscape, flowers and plants were. By the next summer, her first summer, her and her husband were digging and throwing everything in the garbage. You should go back if you get a chance and get more!
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