Saying Goodbye To My Garden

Changes are coming in my life and the life of my family. If you don’t already know, my husband and I live with my daughter and her husband and my grandson. It has been one large multi-family household for over three years.

But one thing you can count on, things will always change and a Big Change is about to happen with my husband and I regarding our living arrangements.

We are moving out. We are buying our own home and striking out on our own. At our age! It’s something we have both dreaded…but also have gotten excited about. Circumstances between my daughter and her husband are changing (she can make that announcement on her own), so we need our own place.

How Do I Decide On A New House?

We decided to go back south of town where we used to live. Currently this home is north of Dayton and I want back to more familiar surroundings. I miss knowing the streets and knowing where I am in relation to everything else.

We are not really close to lots of shopping and retail places. I miss the greenhouses, garden centers, and certain parks that were south. I want that back.

My husband doesn’t really care where he is living. He is pretty much content with his computer and an Internet hook-up, a garage area he can putter around in for a hot minute, then back to playing games and YouTube.

What Do I Want To Look For?

For myself, I need a place to make hypertufa pots and planters (like a great garage) with a close water hookup. I want trees and bushes and areas for plants and where I can keep adding more planters and plants. ( Must keep this under control.)

I want homey and cozy, I want some character to a house, but I also want all the comforts. I want my own bathroom. Yes, I am spoiled. My husband and I have lived nicely here with my daughter. We each had our own bedrooms plus each our own bathrooms.

You will only know the logic of this type of arrangement when you get to be my age. His stuff. My stuff. And I can visit him when I want and he can visit me when I want (yep, not a typo). <LOL>

But What About My Garden?

I hate leaving my garden here, but luckily I do a lot of container gardening and can take all of that with me. My largest hypertufa planter here may get to make the trip, but it remains to be seen if it can be carried to a truck.

Come to think of it, we will have to rent a van or something big to take my plants to the new home. I have some large plants that can’t go in a car or trunk, so our solution is to rent a van or small covered U-Haul to get them to the new location. What else can I do?

Saying Goodbye to My Perennials

July and August are the wrong months of the year to be moving perennials, but I will try anyway. The home is listed for sale and it’s been about a week. We’ve had one offer but it wasn’t what my daughter wanted so she declined. Hopefully there will be more soon.

Meanwhile, since there is no contract and acceptance as yet, I am thinning out some perennials and potting them up to be watered and cared for until they can be planted. Of course, once we have an accepted contract, I can’t lift any more plants since they would technically be part of the real estate and belong to the buyer.

But stick with me as I say goodbye to my garden and take a few friends with me. I want geraniums, balloon flowers, hellebores, all kinds of sedum and sempervivum. And I will probably snatch some of my heuchera too!

Can we do this? I sure will try. Stick with me and I will give you a rundown on our hunt for a new garden…and the house to go with it!