Transplanting perennials in winter

Well I thought I would just give it a go.

You know how it is when you plant up a huge new garden area. Of course you space things too close to each other.

I have been walking past this stipa gigantea / lavender grosso mash up for some time.

And this week I decided that one needed to be transplanted.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,…

Actually that was a simple answer.

I know that the lavender roots are very deeply and well established. And the stipa is just a grass…

One of my self-seeding glories that turn up in the courtyard around the stipa hedge.

It was a beast to uproot. But there you go.

I love being reckless in a garden setting.

I was actually thinking that it looks like Cousin It from the Addams Family.

I have a whole new extra area of the Dry Garden to plant up. So winter translating is the order of the day. And flinging bucket of water and wondering if it was a good idea. It’s a statuesque beast.

And while I transplant I am trying not to step on all the self-seeded euphorbias I am finding under the mulch I put down in the autumn. I have trays and trays of the little euphorbia rigida ones in the potting shed. They are so tiny I really am walking over a carpet of them.

Right now I am looting like mad. Anything that looks faintly crowded is getting dug up and moved in.

Cistus, sage, nepeta, a lovely self-seeded lavender stoechas from the walnut path.

And I have taken a chance and planted up the LEYCESTERIA formosa right at the end. You can’t see it as it is hidden by a stack of broom cuttings in case we get more cold weather.

But right now it’s absurdly mild and just a wonderful temperature in which to work.

Oh dear, I really do need to attend to that wonky fence. I am planting heaps of iris further up the bank and I swear they are planted in straighter rows than that chestnut barrier.

And with this weather, I am even contemplating doing a proper get out the hose sort of watering.

Fancy.