Moving house!! What do i do?

Howdy pals,

This is my first post. My partner and I are moving from a rent house to one that we are buying. I've lived here for 10ish years and built out a lot of trees and garden spaces (all in raised beds). Has anyone been in this position before? What advice do you have for moving over all soil and established plants?

Thanks for any input!
-Meg

Welcome to the forum!

I have been there and done that several times.

If you want to take plants with you my suggestion would be to start digging now and keep the plants watered and in the shade until your actual move.

To me, the stress of moving is so much that I do not have time to dig up plants much less take care of them until I can get them replanted, though that is just me ...

I've been known to adopt trees from other people in that position who didn't trust their replacements to care for them.

1.  How far are you moving - plants/dirt are heavy and awkward.

2. Consider if taking cuttings from some of them, wouldn't be the easier way to go. Not all plants cooperate with the cuttings route, and some will only root if done at a specific time of year (yes, I learned this the hard way, and now I research before just faking it!)

3. Set priorities - plants that are hard to get and that you really love would be my top priorities, but everyone's different.

4. How well do you know the new property? Will the ecosystem be similar? Consider sun/shade in particular, as they may change more than the climate, but a difference in wind patterns, underlying soil, and moisture levels can change dramatically.
For example, my sisters live 2 large blocks from each other, but one property is wet clay and the other is dry sandy soil. The gardening is totally different.

5. Consider your time. Will you have time to look after plants while doing all the other things moves require. Some sellers are friendly, and may let you move pots of plants before the closing date. Others may not.

Good luck!

Hello Megan,

I've just been through a move and had similar thoughts on moving plants. I decided to not try digging anything out, although I took some cuttings. If you take a lot of the plants, the garden will be a bit of a mess. In the end I resigned myself that perhaps the garden would be like leaving a bit of an echo. I know a young family moved in, and perhaps in a few years we will sprout a new permi here?

Secondly, this is a real opportunity to start over and avoid some mistakes that were just too much work to overcome in your old place. Make a truly spectacular garden. You might have to learn how to fit in with the new environment. Did you move far enough to change Ag Zone? Change soil type? If so you will have lots of fun making a whole new set of mistakes!

Over the years of wandering, I've left fruit trees, asparagus (why do they take 3 years to start yielding and my jobs would only average around 3 years?), raised beds and trellis in my wake.

Good luck!

Hi Megan,
I can relate to and understand the wish to take 'the fruit of one's labor' with you. But it's a lot to haul, and not all plants will appreciate it.
Do you know what is already in the place you're moving to?
Like others have suggested, try taking cuttings. Saving seeds is also a great way to go, but now is not the season for that.
Take some time to wander through your garden and make a list of what is there that you really would like to take with you.
Then try to reduce that list in all the ways possible.
Maybe ending with; plants that are quite difficult to find. Those I would move with me, and leave the rest.

My intention is not to discourage, but rather to help by being realistic (through own experience).

Good luck with the move !

The last few transitions I've made, I made it a priority to take and move starts of everything I could.  Considering the monetary investment I'd made in many of them, this meant a pretty significant savings as contrasted to re-purchasing them for the new place.  A lot of course depends on season and distance...one recent transition was from California to the Midwest, in midsummer.  That one hurt....very little could be moved that wasn't a packet of seeds or a few dry bulbs.  But our most recent move was fifty miles, in late fall and early winter...and for that several car-loads of pots and plastic bags of dug plants happened, all to be quickly tucked in to what I called my "refugee garden"....just stuck in hugger mugger in rows; all while painting, doing mold and rot remediation, laying flooring, all the other moving stuff!  They grew there happily for a summer and then got moved to their permanent places in the new design the following winter.