I haven't been in the garden much because, among other things, I have been filing complaints and getting a restraining order against a problem neighbor. This person is so abusive and unstable that I can't enjoy being in my garden. Anyway, as summer winds down and I prepare for winter, I am keeping a possible move in mind. I would most likely be moving in June. Does anyone have advice on handling bulbs, perennials, etc ?
I already dig up glads and calla lilies. I am thinking that I may dig up my other lilies as well. They are much smaller than last year. Maybe it is time to separate them anyway. I will leave the roses in the ground, covered as usual. I will refrain from purchasing any tulips this year. I will also save extra seeds from everything.
Garden Moving Advice
Gracious...how horrible is that?!? I'm so sorry you're having to go through this. I'm sure one of our more knowledgeable MA DGers will help you with this!!!
GQ--
Wow! How unfortunate that you have to move because of a bad neighbor! Were you planing to move otherwise? Will you have access to your old garden after you move?
Re digging up bulbs.....I can only offer some generic advice. Bulbs are best dug up while dormant. That would mean in Fall or early winter and then re-planted before Winter sets in so they can establish a root system by next Spring.
BUT--you are not moving until June......Not the best time to plant bulbs of any kind----maybe Glads?
Daffs and Tulips should be planted in the Fall, but I suppose if you store them properly, they will carry over to theFall after the June when you have moved. Keep them cool and dry.
I have dug my Lilies in the Fall and separated them and re-planted them the same Fall. Don't know how yours will fare out of the ground for a whole year??? Might be OK......
Sorry--nothing specific here in what I am telling you. I am sure others will jump in and give you better advice.
Gita
Sorry to hear that, it stinks big time. Quality of neighbor is one thing you can't quantify before you buy, but overwhelming odds are your new ones will be much better!!
Leave all your daffs in this fall and fertilize them in very early spring to get ready for you to pull some. As they bloom make sure you know which is which so you can take what you want and need. I wouldn't plan to move any tulips anyway.
Consider starting some cuttings or digging shoots of special bushes--so you can take a small pot instead of wrestling with a big one.
You might seperate some things and put them in pots now, plunged into the garden, so they'll be easier to pull out when you need them.
Mostly- remember there will be plenty of plants to share here when you need them. Best of luck with the situation.
That really stinks!! I am fortunate to have great neighbors, don't know what I would do if I didn't. I cant imagine having to move because of them. So sad.
I took half my yard with me when I moved...I tied a ribbon around everything that was going so the potential buyer would know it wasn't part of the deal. If you are using a realtor let them know your plans. I dug things up a few weeks before and potted them up. A lot of them stayed in the pots until the following year.
Good luck!
So sorry to hear of your neighbor issues, how long have you lived there and how many plants would you move? I have never moved my gardens and rarely transplant anything so I wouldn't be much help.
GQ, sorry to hear about the 'hood' situation. That really stinks! I liked Sally's advice. It sounded very practical. Best wishes.
This is my starter home and my starter garden. I moved here from NYC while recovering from a serious auto accident. I still don't drive, so looking and moving is complicated. I have just made finding another place a higher priority. At the same time, other neighbors have had similar problems with these people. Local officials and their landlords are dealing with them as well.
I have some things in pots that I am leaving in the pots instead of in the ground. Some, I will overwinter in the ground in pots. The most difficult thing to move will be the roses. I planned from the beginning to remove all of my plants and throw down grass seed when I leave. Morning glories will probably be reseeding themselves for years to come. They are much prettier than the poison ivy the bf removed when I moved in.
I already dug out my tulips. I also dig out the glads in the fall. Wherever I am in spring, next year I will put them in a planter. I am tired of digging them up each fall, replanting them each spring and fighting the morning glories all spring and summer. (I have morning glories on a trellis against the building and a row of glads in front of them. It looks nice, but is difficult to maintain, especially with the roses getting bigger than expected. )
I have relatively small garden beds, but am surprised how quickly I filled them. I just wish that I could sit outside and enjoy my garden without being harassed by drunken unstable neighbors and their untrained unleashed dogs. Thanks for the advice and the sympathy.
Sounds like a nasty situation. Possibly if they are causing that much trouble for the whole neighborhood and they are renters their landlord might get them out.
Although a new house might have a bigger yard! ;-}
They may be doing me a favor by motivating me to move. Prices have dropped dramatically in this area, so it is a good time to be looking. There are three realtors vying to by my BFF (at least until I send in the first low offer, been down this road before...). One way or the other this situation will be resolved. At the moment, I have a cordless phone with me every time I leave the house in case I have to dial 911 again and can't get inside fast enough. She is that unstable. It is sad. Her friends and family should be trying to get her professional help instead of buying her booze and physically restraining her when she tries to attack the neighbors. At some point, she will end up in a mental hospital, jail or the morgue.
I would rather relax with a glass of iced tea and watch the hummingbirds in the garden than listen to crazy people's domestic disputes and drunken rants. The bf said to see it as entertainment, I would prefer to change the channel. I am viewing the neighbor as another garden pest, like the slugs, aphids, squirrels, chipmunks, stray cats and japanese beetles. It is not going to stop me from gardening. I just wish that I had space to plant a rose hedge around my yard, top of my wishlist for the next place.
If it ever stops raining, I am going to experiment with papercrete planters. I really love the trough style planters, but not the prices. I have to replace the broken large square planter housing my honeysuckle. I also want several long narrow planters for raspberries and blackberries. I have had them in self made grow bags all season against a fence. I had already been growing wild blackberries against the north fence-the fence under the black walnut trees within screaming distance of the boozehag. I wasn't sure if the other berries would tolerate juglone, so decided to keep them in containers.
Crazy neighbors notwithstanding, the garden beds have extended as far as practical. I can still fit in a quite a few plants here and there, but containers are the next frontier.
Hm, don't think I've heard of papercrete. Sounds interesting, like a hypertufa kind of thing...?
We had to move for the same reason. I ended up leaving all my plants and looked foward to starting new and it was a good excuse to buy plants. The soil is so different here anyway I don't know if the plants I had at the old house would have done well here.
Yes. I first read about it in a post by a DG member TomTom in the containers forums. Tomtom is from Japan. Apparently it is quite popular there. There is also a yahoo group about it called papercreters.. People make buildings, building blocks, walls, all sorts of things with it. One person in the yahoo group made a garden border by using papercrete over empty soda cans. In the end, you didn't see the cans. It just looked like a low adobe wall. As I understand it, papercrete is made by adding portland cement (or a concrete mixture like quickcrete ) dry to a slurry of paper ripped and dissolved in water. It is also called papertufa. I will take pics and post them if it ever stops raining. Concrete can cure underwater, but I prefer to have at least a day without rain to play with it. Maybe Saturday....
Thanks GQ
I am sorry flowerjen. I hope that you are finally happy in your new home and garden.
I would definitely take my plants with me, or share them with friends, or both, especially the roses and the bulbs. I have gotten sentimentally attached to my plants. Many were gifts from friends. The bf gets me bulbs or plants instead of cut flowers. (Hence the 80+ gladiolas that winter in the downstairs bathroom.) There aren't many gardeners in this area. Most people either have weekend homes here or commute. I know things would get "rounded up".
If you want to start potting up plants late this summer and fall, you can overwinter the plants by clustering the pots together in a protected spot close to the house and burying the pots in mulch for the winter. That way when you are ready to move, you can just box up the pots and not have all that digging and potting to do when you're trying to get everything else packed. It's easier to water them too when they're in a cluster.
I have moved bulbs any time they weren't in bloom. Just don't cut back the foliage, they need that to make blooms for the next year.
It's awful that you're being forced out by a nutty neighbor but I hope you can find a nice, quiet place with lots of room for gardens.