Friday, October 29, 2010

Giving a shrub a second life

Ever since I found out about Freecycle, it's been my new favorite thing. I subscribe to the emails in search of garden related items. I finally scored on Wednesday when I saw that someone was giving away their Lilac, Viburnum and Climbing Rose Bush. They didn't want the plants anymore because it was too big for their small Brooklyn backyard. Here's the catch... we had to bring a shovel and dig it out of this guy's backyard. When I told my husband about the free plants, let's just say he was less than thrilled about the idea, but he said he would do it. I called the guy and asked him how big the bushes were.  He said they were 5 feet tall.  Then I told him we would come to get the plants.   Here is where things started to go downhill.  The minute we pulled up to the house, it starts pouring rain!  Since it took us an hour to get to Fort Greene Brooklyn, (we hit crazy amount of rush hour traffic on the BQE) we decided to rough it in the rain and start digging.  When we entered the guys backyard, the first thing I thought was, man, I wish I had my camera.  The backyard literally looked like one of those yards you see on the History Channel show "American Pickers".  There was furniture, bikes, a sink, pots, wood, boxes,  chairs, all toppled on top of each other.  We had to climb over the mess to get to the plants.  Then when we saw the lilac bush I thought to myself, this is way bigger than 5 feet tall!  Don't get me started on the viburnum, it was like 10 feet tall and 3 feet wide.  I decided to only take the lilac and rose bush.  The lilac roots were well established, my poor husband was struggling to dig it out.  It took us an hour to dig out the bush in the pouring rain.  My husband looks at me and says, "You soooo owe me for this!" .... Gulp! Well, 3 hours later and completely drenched, we got both the lilac and the rose bush into our car.  When we got home it was dark so we waited until morning to plant the bush.  Here is the hubs digging a hole in our side yard for the lilac.
He dug a big wide hole for the plant.
We added lots of homemade compost to the hole then got the plant in and covered it with soil.
Here is the lilac in it's final spot.  Note the 2nd tall fence behind it?  that fence is 6 feet tall.  So this lilac is easily 7 feet tall!
Here is the rose climbing bush waiting to get planted.
And here it is in it's final spot.  This one was much much easier to dig up and transplant.
When all was said and done, I realized that this was a lot of work. My back hurts right now from digging, lifting and planting. I also am so grateful that I have such an amazing husband that puts up with my crazy ideas! He is so awesome beyond words. I also feel great that we were able to rescue two shrubs and to give them a second life. Now I have to cross my fingers that they survive!

19 comments:

  1. What a great score! Hopefully the plants are very grateful for rescuing them from the American Pickers' yard, LOL, and will reward you with very nice growth in the spring! And you are replanting them at the perfect time of year for that!

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  2. It's a lot of work to move large plants like that! Especially in the rain! I moved a large lilac when I moved here....but only 5 feet. I was told by a seasoned gardener, that lilacs don't like to be moved. The one I moved has done very well and grown a lot. Keep your fingers crossed and protect it a little this winter. You will really enjoy the smell of the lilacs in the Spring!!

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  3. My poor hubby does that kind of stuff for me all the time cause I'm spoiled and he made me that way.

    Good luck with them.

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  4. Let's hear it for awesome husbands the world over. Yours earned two posts in a row...wow. But my guess is that you still owe him.

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  5. This is too funny! My mom is obsessed with freecycle. I get a lot of, "Jenn, do you need a rusty tea pot?" or "Jenn, I found you a broken bicycle seat" or "Jenn, I found an amazing hot pink couch!". I'm always telling her to lay off the freecycle crack - but now that I know plants are involved I may be more open minded! :)

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  6. What a nice haul you got from freecycle. Another good source to check for free plants is Craigslist.

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  7. You saved those plants! Next time I have shrubs to get rid of I know who to call.

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  8. I've heard of freecycle before be have never used it myself. Glad to know you've had great results with it. What a great find!! Congrats!!

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  9. Great score indeed! A rainy day is the best time to transplant stuff too. :) I signed up for freecycle in my area and they never responded. I'll have to try again.

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  10. Oh boy, what an adventure! I hope the plants take and flourish for you and hubby.

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  11. wow, that was a big job! Hubs is SUCH a good sport. Maybe you could go get a couples massage together - you saved on the free plants anyway and deserve it, right?

    I once offered all my azaleas to my nieghbor and told her to just come and get it (of course, she hired gardeners to come and dig them out). I realized after they started digging into it what an enormous job that is. Did you have to prune before you got all of it out?

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  12. Wow! What we'll do for plants!!!! : )

    I just joined a freecycle group! I scored an older "works great for me" treadmill... and recently gave away a boot box filled with yarn! Shoot... we could have a separate blog on freecycle adventures!

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  13. This is great! wonderful adventure too. You might need to cut them back a bit just so their now smaller root systems can keep up.

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  14. You have a great husband (definitely a keeper for at least another two week period of time!). I am always amazed how people do not really "see" or understand dimensions or measurements.

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  15. I have never heard of Freecycle and I like the concept. Your husband is wonderful to have driven all that way and then dug up bushes in the rain. I hope the bushes take.

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  16. My friends and I love to trade plants. I have a few plants that I can't remmeber the name of. I just know them as "the purple plant from Annette". It's more fun that way! A lot of guys wouldn't have dug up a huge shrub in the rain! He's a keeper!

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  17. I added myself to follow your blog. You are more than welcome to visit mine and become a follower if you want to.

    God Bless You :-)

    ~Ron

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  18. I added myself to follow your blog. You are more than welcome to visit mine and become a follower if you want to.

    God Bless You :-)

    ~Ron

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  19. Hi!
    These pics are absolutely magnificent with such cool colors of nature.
    I came across your blog on internet and wondered why I haven't visited it before. I am a hobby gardener myself and love to see my plants grow and produce nice flowers.

    I am an instant follower and bookmarked the blog instantly.
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    I am sure that you and other blog followers will love it too!
    I hope to learn more about gardening from you and other fellows here.
    Happy Gardening

    ReplyDelete

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