Redefining Resourcefulness

According to a long-time neighbor, someone living here in the 70’s planted a small area of our yard back by the road with a few perennials.  They have overgrown without intervention ever since and choked each other almost to death, and have also invited some intruders to join them: poison ivy, wild raspberry brambles, and miscellaneous weeds.

So today I put on my Resourceful Hat and went to work separating out some of these for transplanting next to the house.  I know I sound like a braggart, but I wore that hat absolutely ALL DAY - like from morning till evening - even though the temps reached the mid-80’s – and even though my resilience factor (see blog a few days ago) was compromised by the nastiest crazy-buzzing flies and an old-lady-aching back.

I learned a few things along the way in the case any of my readership should tackle a job like this.  Allow me to share them with you in the form of a 6-point tutorial:

1. Do not neglect to take some of the root-runners of lily-of-the-valley, as well as the little squiggly roots, otherwise the transplanted plants will wilt and die.  This was discovered after transplanting, oh, probably thirty or more plants incorrectly.

2. Do dig deeply, as the root systems of 20-something-year-old plants are deep and bound together, and expect the digging to take FOREVER. Plan to spend mega-hours picking the roots of various plants apart so you can transplant them individually rather than in jumbled communal clumps.

3. Do keep a hose handy.  Water is good for dry, traumatized plants – not to mention dry, traumatized gardeners.  It is also nice as a coolant applied to hot wrists.

4. Do keep several pairs of work gloves handy.  That way when you inadvertently pull up a vine of poison ivy, you can quickly shun the offending glove, replace it with a clean one, and keep going without unnecessary paranoia.

5. Do have a masseuse hired in advance for the evening-after to relieve knives-in-the-lower-back.  Yeah, right.

6. Do have a plan for *Someone Else* to clean up the battle zone (and leftover craters) in the area you scalp….er, the place from which you borrow plants.  Otherwise you just have one more job waiting for another day.