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Moving house

Paul NPaul N Posts: 303
After enjoying twenty four years in our present garden with it's 1/3 acre garden, our children have advised us to move both to release equity and to have a much smaller garden. I really wanted a garden I could actually enjoy rather than be a slave to it and as we're in our seventies, our present garden is just too big. The move has been tortuous and has been a matter of waiting fifteen months for our buyers to actually sell their house, having been let down twice. We hope to be finally on our way in September-ish. I shall be sad to leave our garden and the eighty or so roses but have taken some air looms and plenty of cuttings. Two exceptions are a 7ft double white lilac (brought from our last house) and a camellia of a similar height. Both now in very large pots, they were each watered copiously during the hot months. We're treating the move as a new adventure, to move to a village with a regular and reliable bus route, and to grow plants we have not done so in the past.
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  • pr1mr0sepr1mr0se Posts: 1,193
    Paul N:  OH and I did something similar a couple of years ago.  Like you, I took lots of cuttings and split a few precious plants, too, so that I had a good base range of plants for our now much smaller garden.  Overall, it worked well, though there were one or two casualties.  

    But nothing is really irreplaceable, and you will find that cuttings that mature into sizeable plants will give you great pleasure.  You will also have your memories (and probably lots of photos of your previous garden) and you will find you can enjoy the new place just as much as the old.

    It was strange at first to have a smaller house and smaller garden and it wasn't without a few pangs of regret.  But I now love it and know it was the right move at the right time.

    btw your delays in selling moving were quite speedy:  it took us three years of stop start and all sorts of problems.  Persistence paid off, and we are now glad that we did what we did at a time that we could cope and put down new roots.  

    I wish you well in your new house.  Enjoy the garden!
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  • hogweedhogweed Posts: 4,053
    I have a couple of friends who are older than you and in big houses and big gardens. Both of them regret not moving to somewhere smaller 10 years ago when they could cope with a move. Now they are stuck with both garden and house, neither of which they can cope with and having to pay people to look after houses and gardens. 

    Best of luck with your move. I hope all goes well. I think you have made the right decision. 
    'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
  • Paul NPaul N Posts: 303
    edited August 2018
    Thanks you for those good wishes. The move has been prolonged as of all the people who came to see our quirky house and large garden, only one couple fell in love with it, and we wanted someone who loved it rather than concrete it over after felling the beautiful, mature trees. Our heads said we should have accepted the first offer but our hearts said 'Wait'. Thank goodness the owners of our 'new' place had the patience to wait also. I dug up a few white Japanese Anemones this afternoon ;-) 
  • pr1mr0sepr1mr0se Posts: 1,193
    Our decision was primarily made because we had seen other people around us get older and more frail, and, as Hogweed has said, lived to regret not having moved sooner.  

    A neighbour in our previous village went from driving a car and being fully mobile, to having a mobility scooter - as was therefore village-bound.  And then when she couldn't manage that, she was house-bound.  Our move has allowed us to plan ahead.  Buses, taxis into town, railway fairly near.  All should mean that we can cope for many years ahead.  
  • Paul NPaul N Posts: 303
    11 September, and we finally moved after fifteen months of waiting whilst our buyers were repeatedly let down by prospective buyers. It will be months before each and every box is opened and their contents put away. However I am dead pleased with our 'new' garden. Neutral soil so have inherited a wonderful Acer and a Magnolia plus I've dug up and brought from the old garden a large Camelia 'Donation', another purple Acer and a large white Lilac. It's such a pleasure to go out and spend an hour in the garden, then see the results whereas the 'old' garden was just a chore and struggling to return to a wilderness. No bindweed not ground elder but also almost no birds. I can mow the grass in fifteen minutes rather than 2.5hrs and am discovering bits of variegated Fuchsias and a couple more roses. The existing beds are so full there is no room at present for the dozen or so roses I brought with me. Deep joy!

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Good.   Enjoy yourself.  Dig up some lawn to plant more roses and then you can mow it in 10 minutes!  
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Paul NPaul N Posts: 303
    Obelixx, When I planted the Lilac, it came as a shock. Spade on the grass, press down, and it sunk down to its shaft in a second. Moist neutral soil with no sign of stones, too good to be true. Elsewhere I planted an Acer. Lovely friable soil for the first 10" then a solid pan of sticky clay. I'm used to chalky soil having lived and gardened on the North Downs for well over 40yrs.

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    edited October 2018
    I have almost the opposite.   Have moved from 25 years in Belgium on deep fertile alkaline loam on a clay sub soil with plenty of rain but killer winters to a bigger, plainer plot which is half neutral fertile loam having been cow pasture and half bands of neutral but solid clay like bricks or solid sand like stone with surprise foundations of ex buildings and, just where I want to plant roses and clems we found a deep pit of broken terracotta roof tiles from one of the demolished buildings.

    Mild winters usually but the last was a shocker for the locals with snow and a -8C for 2 days.  Last year we had 20cm of rain between mid Jan and mid December then 2 years' worth of rain till the end of June and since then heatwave and drought again.   Hoping we'll get some rain soon and that the man with the digger will come and dig out all those flipping tiles and also make me a bog bed while he's on and one or two other wee jobs.

    I will have a beautiful garden one day.  Very pleased you're enjoying yours.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    Unless you have acreage, generally a tape measure will do the job. Even pacing the length and sides of the garden will do. I tend to estimate by counting the number of fencing panels.
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