Dividing the Lilies

Finally, a nice spring weekend! After snow on Easter Sunday, I was beginning to think that I would never get my hands into the soil. But this past weekend was gorgeous. I was even able to hang some sheets and towels out on the clothesline for the first time this year. On Saturday, I had the chance to split up some daylilies by our back porch. We have two nice, large plants that were just starting to send up shoots. I decided it would be nice to spread them out along the entire length of the porch.

Before – those bushes needed to go

I have never been much of a flower gardener but I do know that daylilies are almost indestructible. This made for a fairly quick and easy project. I did Google when and how to split up daylilies just to make sure I had the right idea of what I was doing. Here's how it went:

Daylilies ready to be divided

Step 1: Dig them up

I took a shovel and dug all the way around the plants until each came up as a single clump.

Step 2: Split them up

I then drove the shovel down through the plants and split them into several large chunks. (Instructions I read said to split them into 6-8” pieces. I just split them up however looked right.)

What a lovely chunk of plant!

Step 3: Dig more holes

I wanted to put in a full row of the lilies along my porch so I dug holes in a relatively straight line. (Keeping the plants about 12” apart was recommended. Again, I just did what looked right.)

Step 4: Put them in the holes

I put a chunk of lily (very technical, I know) into each hole root side down, obviously, and filled in around it with dirt. I packed the dirt down firmly by hand. Then I moved onto the next hole and did the same. I did not feel the need to water the transplants in as it had been raining just days before and the soil was still pretty moist.

After – the line of new transplants

Step 5: Stand back, admire your work and hope for the best

In about half an hour or so, the two daylily plants magically became twelve. I’m really looking forward to watching them grow.

Three days later and still looking good

Oh, and by the way, some of the mystery bulbs are indeed daffodils.

First blossom of the spring!

Spring is Here!

We’re just over a week into spring and I’m anxious to get working on the gardens. It snowed a couple of days ago and the ground is still pretty squishy so there’s not really much I can do outside yet. We did get a couple raised beds built today, though. Last fall we cut the recycled plywood from the demolished pool into 12-inch wide strips. We pieced them together to make two raised beds – one 4-feet wide by 11-feet long and another 2-feet wide by 11-feet long. We filled the 1-foot wide path between them with gravel salvaged from around the former pool. It’s really nice to see the beds in place. It gives me a better idea of what the garden will look like when it’s finished. I have no doubt that I’ll have plenty of space for everything I want to grow.

Two beds in place -- six more to go.

The warmer weather is starting to wake up plants around the yard. The mystery bulbs are coming up next to the house. When I weeded the overgrown patch next to the driveway in the fall, I found dozens and dozens of bulbs. I had no idea what they were so I buried them again and figured I would know in the spring. It looks like I’m going to get some daffodils, tulips, and a couple varieties of hyacinths. 

Mystery bulbs next to the house.

The day lilies off the back porch are starting to pop up too but everything else is still asleep. It’ll be interesting to see what is planted around the yard. I know there are hostas out front that the deer like to eat. We also have peonies by the garage but I have no idea what color they are. This first spring in the new house should be an adventure!