Batya, I'm in Z8 Alabama (about your same winter lows - 10 degrees F? Summer in the high 90's?) Due to creaky knees I now grow mostly in containers yearround. When we moved about 6 years ago I was already growing lots of small trees and shrubs in pots and the nice thing is you can amend the soil, plus move pots around for optimum conditions and design. So if you can't get replanted right away you can be confident most of your hardy plants will thrive in pots. I'd suggest concentrating on getting root system settled into pot not much larger than root ball especially for Rosemary, Aloe, plants which prefer good drainage, drier soil conditions. I often combine a small tree (Vitex) or shrub (Rosemary or Rue) with groundcover like Sedum and tuck in small bulbs. As to perennials, they should do fine... I'd just wait until resprouting and dig up a chunk and plop in pot or you can use old plastic basins, trashcans, etc....just punch out big drainage holes. We stuck small pots into those plastic milk crates for easier transport after first using them for moving other items...is your new place nearby? Crates were easy to carry, kept pots upright...are they readily available and cheap there? We even lined a couple with plastic and moved my beloved black-stemmed Bamboo...I then just poked holes in the plastic thru sides and I've got a mini grove started as the roots ramble...lol). In winter here I only water pots weekly but in summer it's sometimes daily for 6-8" pots thus I'm gradually combining more plants in larger pots (24" or even larger) which can survive a few days between watering. But these larger pots are not easily moved...just wanted to mention in case you wanted to consider containers as permanent plant homes after you move. Forgot to mention that one benefit is easier to weed and care for...and much easier to dump out and start something new...lol I'm not sure shading other than placing on north side of house would be necessary for your newly dug-up plants this early in year...and leaving outside where they would remain semi-dormant until warmer weather arrives seems to give good results in my zone. I've read that roots continue to grow whenever temps are above 40 degrees so they would do fine I think. Nurseries here recommend transpanting new shrubs/trees in the fall but earliest spring is fine...time to get settled in before hot weater stresses them. Good luck...and I can surely sympathize wit wanting to take your garden with you...don't miss my old home nearly as much as my garden. josh

My yard was essentially a field when we moved in 18 months ago. Through late fall and winter, I collected up bagged leaves from my neighborhood week after week, then ground them up and spread them thickly over the areas where I wanted garden beds. When I was ready to plant, I dug under, surface leaves and all this time, though I made sure to fertilize well, with compost and small amounts of commercial fertilizer, since I knew the uncomposted leaves in the soil would use up some of the necessary soil nutrients. After planting, I mulched everything around the plantings with more ground leaves - lots of them. My garden produced well this year, and I can tell the organic material in the soil makes a difference - what was very hard and impervious can now be easily dug into. I'll probably continue this cycle of adding finished compost with the planting process, mulching, and then digging it all in after harvest, but I am certain that in the next year or so, as the initial additions are well broken down in the soil, that this place will have very nice soil for growing. A year ago most of this ground was like concrete, but already it is softer and filled with earthworms. I have people commenting on how amazing my yard is, with an amazing mixture of flowers, vegetables, still small fruit trees, and more. I'm still working on the lawn to compliment it all, but I'm amazed at the transformation the last year. So my recommendation is to pile all the organic matter you can over the area, and let things go to work.

Goga--I, too, can relate...I moved 2 years after my dh passed away (2005). We had lived in the same house for 45 years, started with a large square surrounded by beams, which I quickly told him we needed to make it more aesthetic, so took beams away, made the large plot kidney shape and put bricks around it, then on to side yard where I planted lots of roses and lavender, dianthus' and many other perennials, grew a few climbing plants on fence and azalea bushes, hosta, etc. in back where it was shady, had a long narrow plot against deck in back with herbs and clematis which grew up a few of the posts for deck roof...my retirement gift from Pitt was a fairly large gift certificate for Wayside Gardens which I ended up with a white arbor to be used in our white picket fence also with a gate (grew blue morning glories and a climbing rose called Altissimo) plus more plants. Had several areas in front with flowers, a small child's wheelbarrow which I usually placed the wave petunias in (they spread out so nicely). When I sold that house the new owner said that was one of the "selling points" and she asked if I would come back and help her take care of it...well, it certainly has changed...I moved too far away to go back very often and she really wasn't interested in maintaining what was there, let alone do anything new. A friend told me it's kind of "gone to seed"...Now I've finally come up with some new ideas to add to old favorites here...as others have mentioned. ENJOY memories of your old garden and start ENJOYING the "new"...

Thank you! I knew someone on the Antique Roses forum would know! It is definitely Carolina Allspice, no doubt a cultivar which was in commerce a long time ago. I am laughing about the info on the internet, which says that it gets 5-8 feet tall. Mine, which is deep in a part of our lot which is wild, is at least 25 feet tall, and 12-15 feet wide (climbing up a tree). Why, oh why, does everything in my garden get 5/6 times larger than in other places? Now I have a dilemma. It is in the part of our yard which is scheduled to be completely dug up (several much bigger and equally old woody shrubs full of dead wood removed, as part of our fire safe re-landscaping) and cleared. Then my DH is going to build a deer proof steel fence around that area (it is about 500 sq ft), and after I see what the new sun/shade patterns are, I hope to plant roses and other things there. This plant was in the area which is to be cleared, but now I am wondering if we cut it down to about 3 feet tall, if it could be saved. My DH likes it, as he remembers it from his childhood 65 years ago, when the house belonged to his grandparents. To answer your question, slummgulion, the leaves (when crushed) smell like celery leaves, and the new flowers smell like some sort of unidentifiable sweet berry. Most of the info I have found says it needs to be watered. Ha! It only rains here 4 months of the year, usually, and in the hot dry summer it does not rain at all for 5-6 months. This plant never gets water other than some rain in the winter. It never gets "fed", but of course as it is in an area dense with old shrubs & trees, it is getting natural food from all of the leaf litter, etc). It looks healthy and thriving, and planning on taking over the world. If I chop it back, it will be on its same no doubt huge root structure. I am guessing I will not have to irrigate it? Any thoughts about how to manage it if I keep it (which I am realizing I will)? Even with the other way more enormous old shrubs removed, it will be in some high shade from a tall tree on one side, and a nearby house, and some other trees. Thanks for your help, as usual. Jackie