To further complicate matters, part of the overall project is completing some deer fencing; so, although we're anxious to get new plants started during our short growing season, it's unwise to invest much in plants for parts of the yard that might be immediately decimated by our local deer.
I have been trying to make the best of the situation by transplanting as many of the removed plants as possible into the barer areas. Some of these plants have major imperfections and idiosyncrasies from their original growing conditions, and I'm “late” in moving some of them, according to traditional gardening calendar wisdom. However, I figure that the possible benefits are worth the time and effort of transplanting, even if some don't survive.
After all, these plants are already used to our soil and climate conditions, and the time between digging up and replanting is short, so hopefully any shock will be limited. They are plants I'm familiar with, so I already know the conditions they need and their eventual size/growth patterns. They have a number of year's growth already. They're free, which everyone here would agree is always good. Last, the alternative would be to discard them, which goes against my “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” Yankee upbringing, as well as a general preference not to kill a healthy living thing.
In the past, I have had good results with transplanting volunteer lilacs (with up to 1” thick trunks), and moving bulbs, even after they have leafed out, which I'm not sure is “recommended”. I have also divided and moved daylilies and iris anytime from early spring to late fall. Here is a volunteer grape hyacinth which I moved last year from the front yard to the raspberry bed in the back.
The native maple is leafing out, next to another small lilac.
Moving irises
There were a bunch of irises around the original shed/"cabin" the original owners lived in while they built. They were under the eaves, so didn't get a lot of natural water or enough sunlight. They grow every year, but even after we tore down the shed, they don't always bloom at all. This year some of them are going to bloom (two opened today), and it's great timing, because I was hoping I'd know what colors/heights they were before I transplanted them to the backyard, so I can plan/arrange them, rather than just doing a grab-bag.
However, since I won't be able to move them for a while, I got the idea to loosely tie surveyor flagging around them, with Sharpie notations. Then if I move them when they're all so far past I can't tell what they were, I'll still know.
Last tip – If you don't have existing plants to move, we've also had good luck buying trees and shrubs (like the forsythia below) from other homeowners on Craigslist. The prices we've paid have been maybe 20% to 35% less than a box store nursery, and we've met (and put a few dollars in the pockets of) some nice local people.
