This is still working out incredibly well!
I always loved the "volunteer" plants that would show up each spring in the garden. Basically, any plant that had been allowed to go to seed in the garden the previous year was a potential parent of tons of free seedlings to start the next gardening season off with. With our recent move of garden sites to the new one down on the homestead, I figured that our old garden site would be supplying plenty of free seedlings for us to transplant to the new garden. Sure enough, it is still supplying us!
CHECK THEM OUT!
Here you see a Mustard Green growing in the old garden. You can also see that we no longer weed the old garden. We've gotten quite a few plants out of here earlier this year including Stinging Nettle and Hops, and now we are ready for the next batch as other kinds of plants begin to sprout and grow.
This small Kale plant is even more special. It is actually regrowing from roots that were left in the soil over winter!!! Yes, we planted it last year, and then harvested the leaves. However, since we did not uproot the plant, it actually went perennial on us and is now growing again for a second season! Since this garden area will soon be turned back into lawn as the mowing begins and the Bermuda Grass moves in, we wanted to preserve it and keep it growing to feed our family for another year.
There are even a few small Chamomile plants growing in the old garden site. I'm not sure if they are an annual or perennial variety, but either way they are here and growing, so we are moving them down to the land.
TRANSPLANTING PROCESS
As far as transplanting goes, we use a rather simple method. Basically, we dig up as much as is reasonable around the growing plant. This way the root system is intact and even gets to stay in its own soil, which increases the potential for a successful transplant and also lessens the shock on the plant. Above you can see Red-Pepper with a Chamomile plant.
Here she is again, this time at work on a Mustard Green. Yes, we could just as easily sprinkle new seeds in the new garden, but these seedlings are already growing. Plus, we don't want them to go to waste. If they were left in this location no one would use them and they would just get ran over with a lawn mower.
Once we lifted enough plants for the time being, we loaded them up to move them down to the land. For the most part, we had Chamomile, Kale, and Mustard Greens this time.
WELCOME TO YOUR NEW HOME
This particular raised bed is home to some White Currants and an Aronia Tree. Since these perennial plants are young and freshly planted, we'll have plenty of space to grow some annuals around them, so the Mustard Greens have found their new home. Eventually we may find a useful perennial ground-cover to grow here, but it's a great place to grow annuals too!
Even with the roots left in their original soil, some wilting due to shock usually occurs. It was also a hot one today when we got to work on this project, which did not help. However, with adequate watering this plant should do just fine. We like to try to keep our plants happy, so we've got high hopes.
The Chamomile have found themselves in an herb garden that I am planting for 
As always, I'm 
and here's the proof:
proof-of-free-transplants
