Gardengal, I know how you're feeling. We lived in our last house for 24 years and in the end, leaving the house was easy. The garden, not so much. Three years later and I still regret not digging up my daphnes.

I did manage to bring a crabapple tree that we had bought a few months previously and a mountain laurel that was my favorite along with a few other goodies.

I have bought some duplicates of things I left behind and loved: Pink dogwood tree, Kerria, those daphnes etc.

I hope you find joy in your new garden and the regrets are small.

So you're starting a nursery.... congratulations! LOL.

Getting rid of a lot of stuff isn't a bad idea. I tend to hoard plants and growing supplies. As a consequence I'm still not officially done moving from Poulsbo to Sequim. But it should only take one more box truck load (mostly of pots and building materials).

Good luck on your quest to find a permanent new place.

I'm glad to hear you are philosophical about your move. As you say, gardens are all about change and it will be interesting to see what you do in your new place! I've thoroughly enjoyed your pics and comments and wish you a happy gardening future.

Glad so many of your babies were able to go to new homes. Good that you could make some money too.

Unfortunately whomever lives there next will likely not appreciate them.

I hope you find a new place soon.....

Oh my goodness! That's a big change. I'll forgo the pun about uprooting your life. I can't think of a better way to dismantle the garden than to parcel out the plants to those who already had admired them. Think of how many gardens that you're making better with your treasures.

And now... a clean slate to start from. How exciting! Or paralyzing! I'll be very interested to see your take on a simpler garden that incorporates the specimens you've saved, so I hope you share the process once you settle into a new place. Best wishes on the search.

I hope you find your dream home, good soil would be nice :o). With your talent the rest will just fall into place. Best wishes in your new adventure.

Annette

Good luck, gardengal! I know how you feel, I too moved just last fall from a house and garden that we had for just over 25 years (in Massachusetts), to a rental home here in the PNW. Are you staying in the PNW? Just tonight I was looking through pics of that garden that I left behind, and it brought a lump to my throat. I miss it so much! But like you I'm going to be starting over soon in a new garden, as soon as we find a home to buy. All I brought from that old garden was seeds. The moving company wouldn't transport plants, and they were shipping our car, so we couldn't take anything living. I'm glad you're taking starts from your garden.

I hope you find the perfect place.

I find myself scaling back, as well on my garden plans. Along with everyone else, I wish you the best with your future garden & thank you for your contributions here.

I am also glad to hear that your moving sale went well, and you feel good about finding good homes for some of your favorite plants. I would be interested to hear the rest of this story,(feel free to email me directly if you don't want to put it all on line), as I have certainly enjoyed your expertise and good humor over the years I've been reading your posts. Will you be staying in the area, or is this a portent of other big changes?

I am so glad I am not faced with your situation at this time, but certainly can foresee the day that I will be needing to do the same, and I'm already thinking about how to simplify my own garden to make it more attractive to a non-gardening potential buyer in the future. In my own case, it is more a matter of moving special, large plants into new gardens I am constantly designing, with an eye to where they have the best odds of continued long life. As many of my favorite plants are not commonly available, I am also making efforts to get things propagated and into the nursery trade. It certainly helps that I am good friends with someone like Annie at Annie's Annuals, and she is now growing many of the plants I've suggested she carry over the years, after initially not much liking succulents and uncertain how popular some of the more tender cloud forest tropicals would be.

Best wishes on settling in to your new digs, and please continue with more of the story if so moved...

Thanks so much for all the positive wishes! While I've got plenty of potted plants to keep me busy over the summer, right now I'm just recuperating from the experience of moving. What an ordeal!! And I have to face it all over again once I find a permanent (don't wanna do this again!!) residence. A friend recently told me it's a good idea to move every few years whether you need to or not.....if just to purge yourself of unnecessary belongings, I'm beginning to think that is an excellent idea!

This evening I am sitting at my computer in front of an expansive waterfront view of a small Bainbridge Island cove....the hummingbirds are doing acrobatics on the otherside of the window, an otter cruised by a while ago and a light rain is making patterns on the water. My puppy is curled up at my feet and I start a new job tomorrow! A new, smaller garden is just down the road, somewhere. Life could be worse :-)

A new job too? Oh boy, that is a lot to handle at once. Glad you have such a view to enjoy.

Wow, your view alone sounds like heaven to me! A horizon beyond the water, complete with otters and then womans best friend at your feet, what could be better? The stimulation and excitment of a new job will keep you young at heart and alive in the spirit. The possibility of a new garden to create in the Puget Sound tropics, I could think of worse situations! LOL A lot of work yes, but I know you are up to the task! You go girl and keep us posted OK? Cheers

I moved about a year and a half ago. That house is also a rental now. The garden was just beginning to look like something finally, and now it will be neglected and unappreciated. Botann kindly moved a number of my plants here (I'd broken my foot), but I'm starting over with some things that were too big to move but I can't live without, and smothering grass for beds again. This is a whole new ballgame with sand instead of clay, and a giant old walnut tree. Which means I can, and must, try some new plants. This place has some good things, like trilliums, and lots of potential. There were also some pleasant surprises that hitchhiked here with the plants Mike moved, like starflower and fringecup. One advantage of having shared plants with friends and family is that they can share them back again with me.

Good luck with your new job and house search. Change is hard, but it's good for us. It keeps us limber.

Sounds like you've gotten nicely settled Pam, I'm glad. Congrats on the job! My one year old garden had been transformed by the horticultural treasures you so generously provided, It now looks more like a 10 year old garden in places. Doesn't purging the clutter feel great?

Thanks, Klark.......I couldn't have done it without all your help :-) And Kristi's too, so big thanks to her also! I am just glad I could share my plants with you by way of a return favor. I know they'll receive great care under your attention.

The purging was great!! One final trip to the dump and two more to various charities. But there still seems to be an awful lot of boxes and various household accoutrements that made the move with me, not to mention the plants and assorted gardening gear I couldn't bear to give up :-)

Just to speak up in defense of renters...I know there are lots of us who love to garden but can't afford our own plot of land. We moved into a rental with a sadly neglected garden and have rehabbed as much of it as we can considering that it's not our property (I would love to tear out the weedy lawn, but our landlords prefer to keep it). No reason to assume that renters will neglect or not appreciate your garden. If you choose the right tenants, they might even continue your work!

dirtygloves, I totally agree! I have been a renter at various times in my life (will be one again, now) and have always left my rental gardens in much better shape and more fully planted than when I found them :-) However, I no longer own nor will not be the landlord for my old property and have no control over who might be living there in the future. And to be honest, my former garden was far more complicated and densely planted than most tenants would be comfortable with, unless they were very serious gardeners. And I anticipate there will be some significant renovations to the house that would generate substantial trauma to any existing plantings, so selling off the best of the garden made sense.

gardengal48,

Your posting is very timely for those of us who ponder moving. Like dawn8b, I feel no attachment to my house but the thought of leaving my garden saddens me. We've considered building but I can't even contemplate moving to a home on a barren, empty lot. I ask myself how old will I be before a tree will be decent size. Where will I hang the hammock that my DH and the grandkids love? You've given me food for thought. I commend your bravery. Hope all goes well for you.

nwkrys, reluctance to leave my garden is what kept me from making a change earlier, which is really what I should have done :-) It wasn't 'finished', which of course no garden ever is, and I had so many plans for it! But it was getting harder and harder to maintain properly by myself and even more so since I severely injured myself last summer and it was neglected for months. That made the decision a lot easier. It was just time.

While I look forward to starting a new, smaller garden, the blank slate of a new construction landscape would be intimidating to me as well at this time in my life, so I understand your concerns. Hopefully, you will find just the right site with some mature plantings that can be maintained so you won't necessarily have to wait too long to have some semblance of a garden. And a place to hang that hammock :-)

Dirtygloves,
The average person is not interested in gardening the way I garden. Every house I have ever moved into had too much lawn and not enough beds. The average renter has even less interest in making that kind of sweat investment in someone else's property. There are renters who garden, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

Gardengal, a great view and a furry friend to warm your feet sound like nice consolations for the discomforts of moving. I do understand your sadness at leaving your garden, even if it was time to do it. I rented a house for 18 years and even after buying my own place a little over a year ago I find myself missing the old garden --the rosy bloom of the quince in spring, and the dogwood, and the breeze through the birch branches, the viburnum and pieris, and the lavender by the gate at that rented house. Where I am now will be nice someday, once gardens can be created from out of all this bleak and boring grass. Lots of work to be done and it can be exciting --but I do find myself missing the slightly overgrown embrace of the old garden and hoping someone is taking good care of it.