planting the Shrub Bed - Moving Forsythia
One of the enjoyable parts of planting shrubs is growing your own and moving them where they are wanted
The view form the patio has changed and the bed looks good. It is easy to see that a few well grown shrubs will make their own privacy fence throughout the summer.
Forsythia is an easy shrub to propagate. In fact, if you keep pruning to a minimum it will do it on its own. I have given mine a boost by bending some of the branches to the ground back in the spring and encouraging them to root. It is hard to see here but a few weeks ago I took a shovel and dug around the rooted shrub about 8" out from it to make a sort of inground flower pot for its roots. My secatures are on top of the stem which will be cut to sparate it from the mother plant. Note that the branch has actually rooted both to the left and fight of the secatures. What could be easier?
The branch has been cut to separate the new shrub from its mother and now I dig around the shrub and lift the root ball. Many times the root ball will not be huge because the new shrub is receiving part of its nutrition from the mother plant. However, it is good to start 6" or 8" out from the stem so as to be sure to get sufficient roots and to cause it as little shock as possible.
The young forsythia comes out, separated from the mother plant with a nice root system and a nice root ball. From here until it is in the ground it is important to move farily quickly so as to keep the root ball moist and as undisturbed as possible.
In a similar fashion a few more forsythia are selected, separated from the mother plant and placed in the garden cart. Also on the cart is a bag of Super Soil™ from the garden center at one of our local supermarkets, Atlantic Super Stores, a Loblaws Company. Any of the peat based products would work here. I use it to fill in the holes I have made by mixing it with the surrounding soil. Peat is a responsibly harvested and renewable resource which is widely used in agriculture in North America.
Notice that in the case of this block taken from the mother forsythia, at least three and possibly more shrubs could be taken with a few deft strokes of a shovel. It appears I have plenty of material for the new bed.