Not that I’d ever recommend this, of course. But sometimes our creative urges just can’t wait til the temperatures cool down enough to move plants safely, so measures must be taken.
- Watering twice a day at first, then daily through the first week or so.
- Providing shade til the roots get established. My neighbors assume I’ve become a radical front-yard laundry-dryer but lucky for me, they’re mostly hippies (at least in spirit) and couldn’t care less.
In this case I moved the decidedly shade-loving pulmonaria to a spot that gets direct sun from 3 to 6 in the afternoon. Wish it luck. For more about this front-yard garden, now an anti-lawn, catch my story about it and GREAT comments over at GardenRant.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Benjamin 07.10.08 at 2:06 pm
Hey, I have a WHEELBARROW over an oakleaf hydrangea right now, so, to each his or her own. But, it is in the back so no one thinks I just don’t clean up.
Layanee 07.13.08 at 7:27 am
That is gardener’s ingenuity! I have found those lovely paper parasols at the local ‘lot’ store and have resorted to using them for shade over the moved items. Umbrellas also work if you are willing to sacrifice the handle and poke it into the ground. I thought of ‘Black Mondo’ grass as a good companion for your lysimachia and, while it is short, it is a bit architectural!
Charlotte Snyder 07.14.08 at 1:53 pm
Yes, I know about moving plants in July! I’m a school librarian, and I have to work in my garden when I can; spring and fall are too busy, with my two jobs, to allow much time. This weekend, in fact, I moved a bluestem, 2 Joe Pye Weeds, and numerous black-eyed Susans and purple coneflowers. What I do is: 1) dig the transplanting hole and fill it with water; 2) refill it with water; 3) dig up the plant and take it to the hole and plop it into the water; 4) fill in around with soil; 5) hand water the next couple of days. I’ve been using this method for a while and this year I even transplanted a few things on those heat-alert days and have not lost a single one. I’m chipping away at my lawn, bit by bit!
Bob Nold 07.15.08 at 1:24 am
Seems to me that you are consistently confusing “sustainable” with “organic”. Well, no, it doesn’t seem to me, you are. Irrigation is not “sustainable”.
Susan Harris 07.15.08 at 6:10 am
Bob, your criticism would be more helpful if it included any specific examples, which I welcome. In the meanwhile, here’s my page about organic gardening (including how it relates to sustainability): http://www.sustainable-gardening.com/Organics/Organic.php
And on the home page of my site (www.sustainable-gardening.com) is the statement that sustainability is more goal than realizable reality, since our gardens would revert to forest without attention from the gardener.
Dave 07.25.08 at 8:25 pm
Susan, have you ever tried Moisturin? We spray it on everything we transplant… and last summer, we moved a 9′ tall pieris in August. Not only did it survive, it’s doing great. You could probably get a great interview out of the inventor; he is SO excited about the product, he’ll talk your ear off.