On Transplanting My Family By Joe Lamp'l
A move is in my future, as my family relocates from Georgia to North Carolina at the end of this month. My work has allowed us the opportunity to live closer to relatives, which really helps with a crazy schedule like mine.
Our move is exciting in many ways and sad in others, but as a gardener, it is bittersweet. I've had a vision and grand plan for my current backyard landscape now for more than 10 years.
The plan has been evolving, and I've made progress slowly but surely. I've added pathways, and a sturdy bridge over a wide creek. Plant rescues on cold, wet fall mornings and many trips to the trash bins and clearance racks of nurseries make up the bulk of what has been planted.
Unfortunately, my grand plan never considered the possibility of a move. Gardens are never really finished, but mine would one day be a showplace as I gradually added plants. My daughters, now 8 and 6, would someday be married in this back yard, I imagined.
The potting shed/office/hideaway/tool shed/kids' playhouse I dreamed about had yet to be realized. The perfect location had been selected--tucked away under the shade of tall pines and surrounded by hemlocks and rhododendrons.
The soil in my garden beds has been an evolving labor of love for years. Each fall, my neighbors and I would haul hundreds of large leaf-filled trash bags from their backyards to mine. By the time the season was over, all those leaves would be shredded and raked into my garden beds as mulch.
These efforts have indeed created enviable soil--a noteworthy accomplishment considering that Georgia is famous for its shovel-breaking, hard-packed clay.
Over the years I've also collected a thousand or so plastic pots and containers. I came across them recently as I was cleaning up for the move. It hit me that each one represented a perennial, shrub or tree that I had added to my garden, sometimes alone yet other times in the company of my daughters as I attempted to instill in them a love for gardening as well.
I had saved those containers thinking that someday I would open a small family nursery. But now with the move, the containers won't be going and neither will the plants that will continue to grow their roots in Georgia soil.
Thankfully, gardens are meant to be enjoyed by more than the gardener. My hope is that the new owners of our house might include a gardener and that the family will find as much joy in this backyard as my family did.
As we leave our house and garden for the last time, I know I will think back on the many days I worked from dawn to dusk in my yard. Although I might have been covered with dirt, I was thoroughly happy.
I plan on building that shed in our new yard--and adding the pond I've been dreaming about. Along the way, there will be many plants to add and a few to transplant--to find that place where they can really thrive. People are like that, too. I'm looking forward to our "transplant," and I trust that the soil is even better there than what we leave behind.
(Joe Lamp'l, a master gardener, hosts DIY's Fresh from the Garden as well as a gardening radio show. For more information, visit www.joegardener.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)
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