Strawberries and Moving Plants

Strawberries
June 2, 2007

My strawberries have just started producing. These were the first of the season so I had to share them. The technique used on the photo is called selective colouring, combining black and white with colour done in Photoshop. I will be taking a few of these June bearing strawberry plants to the new house. Unfortunately I do not know the variety but they are very proliferic with large, juicy, sweet berries. I plan to plant some everbearing strawberries at the new house as well. Having had no experience with everbearing varieties I will have to do a little research to see what varieties are best for our plant hardiness zone.

By far the easiest way to bring along plants when you move is to bring established plants. However this can present a few problems. Potted plants take up a lot of room something that can be a major consideration depending on the type of move you are making. Even short distance moves can be problematic when dealing with live plants. A few years ago when we moved into our third house, we rented a large moving truck and had it ready for moving by lunchtime figuring we would get the keys by then. All my houseplants were loaded last so they could be unloaded first and since it was a short distance move I was not anticipating any problems. Unfortunately there was a glitch with the people that had bought our house to the point of the very real possibility of not being able to settle it before the close of business and it was a Friday with all our stuff packed. In the resulting chaos and stiffling heat, no one thought to check on the truck. I lost all but two of my houseplants and all my candles. We learned a valuable lesson that day!

The second problem with transporting live plants especially for the garden is you run the risk of bringing damaging insects and disease that will contaminate your new garden. The best way to avoid this is to take your clipping or transplants well before the move then isolate them well away from other plants. Cover them with garden cloth to prevent insect infestations. Check them daily and treat with a soap solution if necessary.

While I will be taking a very few transplants and clippings, the method I'm favouring for this particular move is seeds collected from last year's plants. Not only will this save a lot of space during the move, it will lessen the problems of moving live plants during the summer when temperatures can soar. The primary reason I decided to limit the number of live plants for the move is that the gardens at the new house are mature landscaping and in some areas overplanted. I have no idea what is planted where aside of the trees and bushed. The current ower was still planting more the day we finalized that sale!
Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007