Hi Jit!

When I moved from a rental to the house where I live now I brought "starts" of about 70 plants with me. I had lived in the rental for 10 years and had been putting in plants since the very beginning--there were NONE there when I moved in. Rather than trying to dig up entire big plants I just dug a "small" division off of each one I didn't want to lose--virtually all of them were in smaller than gallon pots, a few in gallon, and a couple in slightly larger pots. All the things you mentioned are plants that will get big again in a year or two--as do "most" perennials, so why do all the work of trying to move huge plants when you can make it SO much easier on yourself (and often the plants) by just moving a smaller piece of them.

When I moved I knew my landlord wouldn't let me take ANYTHING, so I didn't even ask! She wasn't a gardener, and the pieces I dug off of each weren't even noticeable to her--she never knew I had taken anything! I stayed in touch with her, and when I was able to go back to the house a couple years later, as I had suspected would happen, all the perennials that had been left behind were DEAD anyway! The yard was back to the--pretty trashy!--way I had found it when I first moved in!

Even tho your landlord will allow you to take whatever you want, I really suggest you consider just taking divisions of each of the things you want. If you need pots you could probably get some free by posting on freecycle that you need "garden pots smaller than 2-gallon," or something to that effect, or you could maybe even find some here on RMG if you ask for them and are able to find some close enough to you to make it worth going to pick them up. Could also possibly go to a garden center and ask if they have any used ones they're throwing out that you could have--at Paulino's people would always bring back stacks of used pots and sit them right outside of their gate--where they would get picked up and be thrown in the trash! (Could ask for some on Craig's List?)

You're not planning to keep them in pots for that long, so garden soil will probably work for most of them--but you'll need to be more carefull about not over watering them in a heavy garden soil than you would in a store-bought soil. Keep them in a place outside where they're out of the hot midday sun, and don't keep them wet all the time.

If you decide to do it I very seriously recommend that when you put them in the "pots," whatever you use and however big a piece of plant it is, that you cut them down to an inch or two above the crown of the plant when you do it. They will already need to recover from the transplanting into pots, and trying to support ALL of their foliage when you do it will make it extremely hard on the plants as they're trying to establish roots in their new homes. If cut down and not over watered in the pots, the plants will come back fuller and nicer by the time you're replanting them.

Whatever you decide to move, the most important thing in their New Home is that you be sure you get the weeds--and their roots!--out of the new place where you're gonna replant them. Doing that BEFORE you plant anything there is SO much easier, and if you don't finish that first you'll constantly be trying to get the weeds gone without getting the plants gone after you plant them in their new home.

Mulch is pretty much just a matter of "personal preference." I like the look of the small bark mulch you get in bags, so that's what I use. Try a couple bags of different things and see what you like the best. I do definitely recommend a "wood" mulch over things like rock or pea gravel............

ACTUALLY, rather than trying to retype all that stuff I've said before about mulch, here are links to a couple old threads about mulch! In the first I give MY opinion in the first reply, and in the second we had a LONG discussion ALL about mulch--my first LONG WINDED reply is at April 30 @ 4:21 p.m.! Pretty much anything you want to know about mulch you'll probably find answered by somebody on one of these two threads!

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2133837/mulch?n=8

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2129586/use-mulch?n=23

GO FOR IT! The worst thing that's gonna happen is a few of them might not make it! If that happens, what have you lost--just a little bit of time and effort--and you've gotten some great exercise along the way! And, as has already been mentioned, if something doesn't make it you can always replace it--or find something new!--at a swap! The fall swap is the one that's usually mostly perennials!

Skybird