Turning 2 Half-Dead Plants Into 8 Plant Babies Full of Potential

It never gets old.

Last summer I moved to a new house and thus inherited 1.5 acres of mature landscaping. (To be clear, most of that is a wooded area, but around the house the plantings are also decades old.)

With the beauty of mature trees and shrubs also comes many that are overgrown or past their prime, or suffering from neglect.

That can overwhelm you, if you let it—

or, it can inspire you with the potential of many, many free plants (labor subtracted, of course).

My new kitchen garden area is almost ready (more to come on that!), but I’ve been dreaming up ways to landscape around it and make it “fit” into our setting.

Also inspired by last year’s reading of Planting in a Post-Wild World, I’ve particularly been dreaming about incorporating lots of swaying grasses on the sunny side of the house—my only potential for a “meadow” effect.

So today I decided to rescue a few half-dead grasses, meagerly trying to eek out life this spring in a too-shady spot, with a dead clump of a center.

And thus two grasses became eight.

Something Important I’ve Learned About Transplanting That Will Make You Feel Better

I learned something important that has forever changed the way I think about transplanting, both when planting something I bought at the store and when dividing or moving things already in the landscape.

I heard it from a guest on the Joe Gardener Podcast (can’t remember which one—sorry!), and it’s simple but helpful:

Anytime you’re disrupting an established root system there’s a chance you’ll also lose foliage.

Think about it: The roots of the plant perfectly support the existing amount of foliage and are fueling its growth.

So if you cut out a significant amount of roots, the remaining roots can’t support the same amount of foliage the moment you put it in the ground. It needs some time to grow out new roots.

The takeaway is this: If you plant something and some foliage immediately dies, it doesn’t mean you killed the plant.

Take heart: It will likely bounce back.