Plants Moving Out East to P.E.I.

One of my very favorite flowers in my front and back flowerbeds is the old fashioned hollyhock..I love the white ones out front this year..on the other side of our walkway a pink one is blooming and out back is a yellow one..the only trouble I have with them is that the groundhog family likes them too, eating them that is. He or his family eat the tender leaves so I feel very fortunate this year he left them alone for the most part. I took many photos of them especially close ups of a single bloom as I hope to paint a nice watercolor someday of all my hollyhocks..

We are heading out to Prince Edward Island in about a week and I have tagged some plants around the yard for my hubby to dig up and take with us. I have a 3 day holiday starting Tuesday with three friends I attended High School with so won't be here when hubby starts the digging. As he thought he might forget all I wanted dug up he told me to tag them with some yellow plastic tape. Now that will work fine if he walks all around the yard and finds all the taped plants..we have had several talks about what to dig up so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I have tons of plants that could be dug up but there are some considerations to think of..we are still undertaking our renovations out East so we are not living out there permanently. We spend many weeks out there working hard on the interior of the house but the yard work like cutting the lawn most of the summer and snow shoveling in the winter is left to hubby's brother who lives just down the road. It would be remiss of me to dig up a lot of new flowerbeds as my brother-in-law would have to manoeuvre his big lawn tractor or smaller riding lawn mowers all around these new beds..hubby says he gets dizzy sometimes trying to cut grass around all my flowerbeds here in town..

But I feel if I dig up a nice straight flower bed up near the front ditch out East and just plant day lilies and iris in it for now, it won't interfere with the lawn cutting. I already have two large flower beds that were dug up out there last year but they are so large they are easy to mow around. I would dearly love to take buckets and buckets full of plants this trip but must be content with the few plants that I've marked. Rome wasn't built in a day. It just seems though I can save a ton of money by dividing my plants here, rather than buying new ones out East.

I have many, many hostas some of which have been moved out already. Those I can tuck under trees here and there, so as not to interfere with the lawn mowing..another consideration I have to think of is how big our new decks will be that we built later on so can't plant near the house as yet. I could perhaps plant some perennials out near my little barn but it has to be painted yet, so they might get trampled. I guess I'm being impatient and just want to do it NOW!

We are pulling a trailer just packed full of boxes, small pieces of furniture we don't need here, my bike, Jim's tools he wants to take and some of my gardening tools. Also we will be packing up the back of our truck with many boxes, many holding light fixtures that were given to us. How come my house doesn't look any different? You would think with all we are taking the house would look emptier but alas, it still holds way too much. We've certainly added many toys this past year for our dear 2 1/2 yr. old granddaughter. They are getting much use, especially the dolls, toy stroller and high chair.

There is so much to think of when going away for a month, lawn to be cut, garden watered, mail collected, indoor plants to be watered. Thankfully we have the best neighbours ever..one neighbour is looking after the lawn and garden and our other neighbour and her husband look after the inside and our mail..they are so great to send us regular emails that all is well with the house and we keep them updated on all our news too. Right now my husband is helping one neighbour with her front lawn. She dug the whole lawn up with a rotor tiller and is laying new sod. We all help each other.

I sure hope my plants travel well and we can keep them alive. The ones my step-son dug up last year and I planted last May are thriving I've been told so can't wait to se them. I'm sure they will also be surrounded by weeds so I'll have my work cut out for awhile. Hubby will be doing wiring on the main floor of the house and then start the drywalling. The upstairs is nearly finished, I may be able to start painting our bedroom this trip. It's lots of hard work but exciting to see more work completed on our retirement home. Imagine the day I look outside my windows and see my hollyhocks blooming and waving in the East Coast breezes...