say goodbye to the old life, losing something but gaining more
A clunking trailer bouncing: chicken coop, couches and a mobile garden over speed humps. There was something delightfully outlandish about our arrival at our new home, chook in the boot, we were the Beverly Hill Billies of Flemington (alas no rocking chair grandma on the roof). Books and plants and tools, that is what our worldly possessions amounted to, but after months on the road even those few items chaffed a little, there was no carrying them on bike and back.
Downsizing in house size and housemates was a huge relief after months self-indulgently alone. Even now, months after touching down, my brain fills with static when the emotions and drama of others grow too intense. A rising desire to flee to the quiet recesses of my own brain. Time to slip into my most fluid friendships, easy-going and nurturing they’ll help build back my tolerance to the world we live in.
Here are my top 5 tips for a mobile garden:
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Deciduous trees
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Cut a circle around deciduous trees a few weeks before you move them, prune braches so root loss to branch loss is about even. An arborist friend says this gives them a chance to regrow their feeder roots before being transplanted.
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Evergreens
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Grow dwarf evergreens in barrels/planters with wheels. We have all our citrus in barrels as well as a devil plant so when moving garden they can just be wheeled to the trailer. Make sure wheels you buy are strong, we’ve had one collapse before and it’s no fun.
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Infrastructure
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Make things dismantleable. Our chicken coop can be dismantled into three pieces which I can carry by myself although I prefer not to. This is also good if you want to rotate your chickens every few months for hygiene and to make use of the super rich soil under their coop.
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Cuttings
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Before perennials get to the point where they can no longer be moved without risking death take cuttings as a back up and pot them up. Take cuttings of deciduous plants while they are dormant. You are more likely to have more success if you catch them before they have expended all that stored energy.
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The Everyday
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As a renter you never know when your lease might be suddenly broken, keep a copy of all your most useful herbs and vegetables in a window sill planter so you at least have your salad, oregano, chives etc flourishing while you go about trying to get to know and establish your new garden.
What are your tricks? Let me know it the comments section!
First cup of tea at the new place! We have a chest fridge/freezer, a “Ghillie Kettle” and a biomass stove that we fuel with dropped gum tree twigs, it’s a bit like camping! So much fun!
Gracie the old Border Collie is very sceptical of the whole arrangement, and Clem the pup is so stick obsessed we had to stop her retrieving the twigs from the fire! never a dull moment!
2 Comments
Lovely!
💞🐕