I don’t want to waste the plants

[Okz]

I moved into a house 5 years ago and the previous owner was a fantastic gardener. He has an array of flowers (including beautiful roses), shrubs, fruit trees, other trees (a gorgeous acer) and a great vegetable garden set up. He also timed it beautifully as well so when one flower is finished blooming another different type will pop up shortly after.

However, I’m not a good or keen gardening and don’t have the time to maintain it. The layout also doesn’t work for us and we have a baby arriving in a couple of months so it’s not very child friendly.

The last thing I want to do is for someone to come in a flatten all these stunning plants - or send them to the chipper. I will try to move some of them but most of them will be surplus to requirements. Some of them are very mature, so I think will be difficult to move but there are also some smaller fruit trees about 4ft that seem a same to get rid of.

Is there a way of gifting them to a gardening club? Or is there a general rule that anyone knows?

You could ask on your local Facebook if anyone wants any they can come dig them up but many plants and trees don’t transfer well.

Depending where you live, allotment holders, local council. Even Freecycle, charity spaces for local folk with learning disabilities, often have garden activities, would be glad of free plants. You need someone who knows what they're doing so that stuff is moved at the correct time of year. Us,we love gardening, we've got 200 foot, everything you mentioned and more. For some reason our neighbours, have got the same (more in fact) yet all hate gardening,why buy it then (it causes us a LOT of problems) we actually put spare plants in our front garden, and a sign help yourself. Our local Tesco has notices for plants for sale, but you could do that for freebies.

You could advertise on olio for people to come and dig them up to take away?

I find olio users generally more reliable than Facebook free pages.

Before the landscapers came to clear my garden I posted on freecycle and freeliewheely. Everything went to lovely people.

I'd be tempted to sell them on faceboook. Not so much to raise money but so that they go to people who will actually use them rather than random facebookers.
You could always give the money to charity.

Plants often don’t survive transfer, and very few folks will go to the hassle of digging up and transferring if they dont want them. I’d not sell, any gardener knows transferring is often difficult.

I agree I wouldn't attempt to sell because they are quite likely to not survive. But you could offer them free on Facebook or wherever. Experienced gardeners will be able to tell what they could feasibly lift and replant. Trees and roses are unlikely to survive (roses have a tap root).

Your best bet is to ask advice from an experienced gardener - a neighbour maybe? So you then know what you could keep/move yourself which doesn't need much attention. Herbaceous perennials can often be lifted, divided and transplanted.

By the way this is not a good time to move plants. Early spring or latish autumn would be best.

Have you decided what you do want? Make sure to have come up with your new garden design before you get rid of anything! A lot of the plants you listed aren't particularly high maintenance?

Could you pay someone once a month to maintain it? Can't beat a lovely well-designed garden. The veg patch you could just leave until you have time, or maybe just try tomatoes and sweet corn as they're quite easy to grow.

Depending on age, the acer and fruit trees also difficult to survive, as well as the roses that a pp mentioned . Some experienced gardeners could have a look, but it will really take someone who knows what they are doing,

as said, I’d post on local Facebook , neighbour chat etc, and see is someone willing to habe a look.

i have moved small mature trees, an example would be, a small laburnum about waist high, and it took 3 men to get enough of the root system out to move it,it weighed an absolute ton, and I was very very surprised it lived, as we had to cut so many of the roots. I was also very surprised at just how extensive the root system was for something so small. It was very old, hence why age is important.

Trees, shrubs and roses are all pretty easy to look after, you would need to get someone is to prune them maybe once a year. I would be very reluctant to get rid of too many trees from a well planned garden.

Are you going to get someone in to help reshape your garden? They may have an idea of how to pass on any unwanted plants.

Don't get rid of fruit trees if you have a baby coming. Many children eat their own weight in fruit daily.

I had a garden like this, it pretty much looked after itself, got cut back occasionally and that was it. I really miss it now I’ve moved. You might be surprised how much some kids enjoy plants too. I would keep at least some and try to incorporate into the new design.

I think it’s the wrong time of year in the UK to move shrubs for maximum chance of survival, I think it’s better over the winter (or before May!). Are you planning to do the work quite soon? Definitely worth asking at your local allotment, or maybe a local Women’s Institute? I’d try and leave some though, pottering in the garden with purpose is quite nice when kids are happily playing in the garden. My toddler loves helping me dig and plant things - you can just fill a veg patch with sunflowers!

(Also don’t get rid of any good trees for swings, hammocks or for climbing! - I loved those in the garden I grew up in until probably my teens! Gutted we don’t have them here!)

The garden sounds gorgeous. What makes it not child friendly? Growing up my parents had fruit trees, ponds and all sorts. It was gorgeous.

If you're in Wales I'll take them 😁

It's a shame to take them all out though op what about just removing the roses for safety, I can understand that with a young child. Why not ask your neighbours if thry would like them if you really don't want to keep them.

Local freecycle site. Someone will snap your hand off for them

Another vote for keeping the trees! Lying on a blanket under a tree was the best way to entertain my babies! And great for kids too having something to run round instead of a blank space. Cooler in a heatwave. So many reasons!

I would also wait till late autumn/early winter before doing this because they go into dormancy and are less likely to die during transfer although even then it's still a gamble because not all plants are equal.

A garden full of plants and trees is great for imaginative play, and good for a couple of children when there aren’t really enough for satisfactory ball play. Get rid of the veg bed but shrubs are pretty low maintenance

Why isn't the garden child friendly? Most children love being surrounded by a garden / greenery. Do you really have to rip everything up and start over? Some things require little maintenance. If they have a need to kick a ball about, you could always take them to a local park instead for that. A vegetable plot could be lovely for them to learn where food comes from...

But if you must change it, Facebook Freecycle groups might get a good place to re-home plants. If you do dig anything out, you need to protect the roots as much possible. Dig them out as wide so to not damage roots, and you mustn't let them dry out.

Thank you all for your amazing tips and ideas. I definitely want to keep as many of the plants as I can. Especially the fruit trees - I love to bake. This garden has been a labour of (someone else’s) love for decades and to start again would be so wasteful and I’d never see something as mature and beautiful in my lifetime.

Good tip on local sites - I love the idea of giving them to a charity or allotment.

I am not a fan of a big sparse garden but (and this sounds selfish) there isn’t really space for us to sit or do anything else. I’ll show some pictures to give you an idea e.g. there is a beautiful Japanese acer but it blocks the view and the walkway into the garden as it’s only a couple of foot from the back door. My neighbour and I have been trying to propagate something from it for a few years but apparently acers are notoriously difficult.

What are you planning to do instead? Well established shrubs and trees are very little effort and will keep the weeds back at least as well as gravel or matting while looking far better.

A veg patch is more work so I wouldn't keep that but you could easily plant it up with some strawberries and fruit bushes that will largely look after themselves and save you an absolute fortune for years to come.

North London might be a little too far then? 😂