Back for my usual January update...

After feeling so defeated after last season, I am getting amped up for a new season. I lay much of the credit for this on Baker Creek again, as their catalog leaves me drooling, though I also lean to D. Landreth for inspiration, as well.

Keep moving forward, right?

Anyway, we are in the process of looking for a new house, which may take some time. Of course, I am in a panic because like most gardening folks I know, your plans are laid out and in place by March, and who knows when we may find a place, close, and move? It could be March! It could be July! It could be October! What will I do with my garden???

Thankfully, I have already been doing Square Foot Gardening which I think will work to my benefit. My plan is to put bottoms on the boxes I have already built and perhaps put them up on "tables" made of plywood and horses so that if we end up moving mid-season, we can just hoist the "tables" up on the back of the truck and transfer it to the new yard. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Also, you know how after you spend a few years in the yard/garden, you have some plants and areas that you just adore and can't see leaving behind? Each seems to have  a story to tell.

- The cherry tree from Michael and Charlotte the Mother's Day I was pregnant with Eleanor. It needs to come with us. It's just 4 years old, so I am hoping moving it will not cause any irreparable trauma. (Again, suggestions?)

- The lilac bushes that I had in about 3 locations before finding they work best next to our swing along the driveway?

- The raspberries that felt like they would never grow and thrive, and now are a veritable patch, and so delicious, and that we munch on straight from the plant all summer?

- The strawberries that started with a couple plants and have multiplied like crazy and I hope will continue to grow like crazy?

- My mini-butterfly garden?

So I guess my question is how poor form is it to uproot everything and take it with us when we move? I feel like a total weirdo, but you know you invest so much blood, sweat, tears, time watching some of these little guys grow, cheering for them, crying when they die off, cultivating new spaces for them to thrive...What to do?

I think it helps that in all likelihood, it will either be a family member moving in here who has minimal (no) interest in gardening or the home may come down altogether, so I don't feel like we are baiting and switching anyone who is purchasing it from us, you know?

It will be bittersweet to not look out at the garden and think "that's exactly where my grandfather had his garden when I was a kid!" but that is a mindset I am battling in every aspect when I think of leaving here.

I need recommendations for the tree transplant for sure (we're just outside Chicago, in the near west suburbs), and any thoughts or suggestions for the other stuff would be appreciated, too!