I’ve potted up all the plants I intend to move and we’ve mostly sorted out the closets and cabinets. (That was mostly Chuck.) We’re trying to clear out the kitchen by eating what we have, with as little shopping as we can manage, and still have food that isn’t ridiculously weird.
I think the only thing that needs my attention, until we are actually packing, is the shed. I’m taking usable pots to the extension office to be used for next year’s plant sale and the big tools we’re donating to a camp that my BIL is connected to. There are a lot of bits and pieces that can/should just go to the dump. Leaving a half a jug of random copper fungicide that may be expired isn’t a kindness to the new owners.
But, that work doesn’t have to happen today because it’s not time to deliver any of it for a couple of weeks. I should ask Chuck when he wants to do the dump run.
I could put some effort into deciding what to do with the photo albums I’ve been carting around for decades.
The list of plants I intend to move gets smaller and smaller.
A lot of what I love is replaceable if I actually get busy in my sister’s yard. So, I don’t have to do that all at once, potting up pieces to move. I do have a canna I want to put beside her house. It was a gift from our mutual BIL and will be pretty as it spreads there. A piece if it is in a pot now.
I do intend to get a decent herb garden going and maintained over there next Spring. I’ve gotten spoiled by drying my own herbs over the years and won’t give that up if I can help it.
I intend to take a piece of the flame calla and the stunning blue Siberian iris that was a gift from a friend to put in the tiny area that I get to manage to the left of the front walk. I’ll put the ‘Frost Queen’ calla to the right of the front door under the upstairs naighbors’ steps.
Two bonsais are going with me, the Japanese maples and the swamp cypress. The cypress hasn’t actually been bonsaied yet. But, I’m not giving up that project. We have a tall, marbletopped, iron based, outside-only, very heavy table that I intend to put to the left of the front door. I’ll put the maples on that and set the cypress down into a non-draining pot beneath it. (I’m trying to force it to make knees before I actually bonsai it.) The quince continues to do poorly and the handthrown pot it’s in is crumbling. So, it’s not making the trip.
The long, glass IKEA table we’ve been using in the kitchen will go on the deck to hold the carnivores. I repotted the S. psittacina into a lower, plastic pot to decrease its weight. It was heavy and it doesn’t need to be that tall if it isn’t sitting in the water garden.
The Schlumbergeri all went to crap this year and I’ve been trying to reroot the peach and yellow ones. As much as I wanted the yellow one, it’s the one doing the worst. So, I may take the peach and give up on the other 2 pots. I recognize that that collection was a bit excessive.
I have a handthrown pot that was made for me by a friend of my Spawn. I commisioned it during the shutdown and I paid more for it than I ordinarily would because of that. I had it made for the batfaced flower that hated living here and never thrived. I’m going to transplant half of Chuck’s peace lily into it and find a home for the other half.
The rest of the houseplants will simply go as they are.
After having it as background noise in our minds and conversations for about 6 years, we have finally pulled the trigger and are moving from this huge yard. We would have kept the house, if we could, but the yard is just too much.
There are other considerations, too. But, that’s the main one right now.
We are moving to Asheville where we will be near the largest collection of my family (my mother, her brother and his wife, my youngest sister and her husband, her oldest son and his SO, a cousin, her husband, her youngest daughter, her husband and baby). My spawn is going to be about 30 minutes farther away than they are now. So, that isn’t a big change. Just the direction of the drive.
We found a condo we really like, made an offer, negotiated briefly and have it under contract in less than 3 weeks since deciding to move. Our house will be listed on the market today.
We’ll have a tiny little patch of ground that I think I can plant a little something in by the front door and a covered deck in the back.
There is an arboretum and a botanical garden where I can volunteer, if I choose to. And my sister has offered her yard to me. So, I don’t have to be without dirt under my nails. I’m considering doing the Master Gardener training, again, to learn how to grow things better in the mountains. I’ll talk to the Buncombe County agent about it when we are actually there and situated.
I spend a ridiculous amount of time pondering what plants I want to move. The furniture is much easier to decide.
Chuck and I saw this piece at an Exhibition at the Weatherspoon at UNC-G in February. It’s an interactive piece that offers the viewer to participate by removing a page. We each took a piece. He folded his to carry it out to the car. I did not. I wasn’t sure what I would do with it and taped it over a a framed poster in my bedroom.
My friend, Caitlyn, has had the habit of folding paper cranes for as long as I’ve known her (around 18 years). Anytime she is somewhere that there are bits of paper lying around, she folds cranes. She said it started when she read that if you fold 1,000 cranes, a wish will come true. She figures she should have gotten more than one by now. But, she lost count ages ago.
(Last night, we went out for dinner and she was making tiny ones with the chopstick wrappers on the table without even looking at her hands.)
A couple of months ago, I asked her if she would take my sheet and fold me a crane. I had to cut the edges down before I delivered it, because it needed to be square instead of rectangular.
She learned something by using this bicolored sheet that wasn’t obvious otherwise. Theres a point in the folding where you have 4 triangles that become the actual bird. No matter which way she folded it, there were always 3 and one. It was always going to be colored diagonally. Never tail/head and the wings. Always each wing a different color. She could only choose which color she wanted to be the head and which the tail,
I have removed all of the Red Hot Pokers from that side of the house. They were growing to the left of the HVAC unit and were a little stunted by the shade. I have plenty thriving on the south side. So, giving those away was no loss.
There is still a little patch of bearded irises I should probably move. But, they’re close to the fence and not in the way until I decide where I want them. I’ll deal with them later.
The muscadine I started from seeds a few years ago will stay on that piece of fence because I expect it will die if I try to move it. One day I may get fruit. Or not.
I ordered 3 bleeding heart roots from American Meadows, one each of pink, white and red. They have been planted on that left side.
I’ve also been putting wild violets over there. They are growing all over the place and I like them and I don’t mind them spreading around in that area. Some are white with purple throats and some are all purple. As I have removed them from other beds, I’ve moved them to this one.
Left side
I want to get some ferns going over here, too, and I’m dithering. The Autumn fern hasn’t come back as quickly as the other two. I took it out of its pot and planted it in 2 pieces in front of the bleeding hearts. If it actually comes up, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. If it doesn’t, it wasn’t a good choice for our yard and it’s probably just as well.
The Japanese Painted fern and the Cinnamon ferns are doing well in their pots. I would like to put part of them in the shade garden. But, I also like seeing them off the patio. I think I’ll wait until they start moving into dormancy to put pieces of them over there. That will give me the summer to be sure I’ve cleaned up that bed to my satisfaction and give them winter to get established.
Cinnamon at the bottom, Japanese Painted at the top
(I need to move the JPF to the shade. It’s getting sunburned.)
To the right of the HVAC, I have had swamp sunflowers (Helianthus angustifolius). They are native and great Fall food for pollinators. They did moderately well over there, leaning out for the sun. But, only moderately and the lean proves they aren’t in the best spot for them to be happy.
Right side
I’m taking the 3 largest pieces to a friend tomorrow (She wants them. I’m not just dumping them on her.) And the rest I’m going to plant behind the lilies growing in the middle of the back yard. Because of how all those things grow, I think it will make a nice display for a longer length of time.
A wild thing has shown up there and I’m not sure what it is. I have Eastern columbines (Aquilegia canadensis) planted in the roadside bed and this looks similar. iNaturalist thinks this is a Black Snakeroot (Sanicula canadensis). Both are native and these leaves look like it could be either one. I’m going to leave them alone for the summer and see what I think later.
Snakeroot or columbine?
Another thing in that bed? A feral asparagus showed up.
They’re everywhere
After moving the sunflowers, I think I’m leaving this alone until Autumn. (Except for making sure there are no Virginia creeper, elderberries or silk trees trying to come back.) When I get through this year, I’ll make some decision about that I want to keep/have toward the front of the house.
I am the Audience 