The rhubarb in my late grandparents’ garden. They used to have the most stunning garden with a huge allotment down the bottom where my grandad grew all sorts. Now it’s all overgrown and weeds apart from the rhubarb. The house sells next month
I've been going round periodically and picking kt and giving it away for free as I don't like rhubarb but I hate waste
Before we sold my nan’s house I divided the rhubarb. I kept some and passed the other bits on.
It’s sad seeing a once loved garden going over, but hopefully the new owners will bring it back to life.
Thestolenone
Rhubarb is always the last plant to survive in old gardens. When I was a kid there was a field near my house that had once been allotments and here and there among the grass were rhubarb plants.
theoriginalpetebog
Looks like ground elder has taken over. That will be fun for the new owners.
Existing_Ad_5811
You sound sad, and I understand that. I’m retired myself now but I remember my parents giving up their allotment when it became to much for them but they still did their best with their tiny back garden. When they eventually passed away, it was hard to think about their once carefully cultivated little garden, so full of precious plants and memories going out of our family.
But nothing we have is really ours. We are just caretakers for a while and eventually have to hand things on. Maybe that garden will be someone else’s pride and joy. Maybe they have passed their love of gardening on to you or others.
Maybe there’s a cutting or a plant that you can divide and take with you to carry things on?
My daughter is a keen gardener and has things in her garden that originally came from my parent’s garden. That’s how I like to think of it anyway, not ending, just being passed on.
Cultural-Web991
Dig it up and take it!
I left mine at my parents house and I regret it
NaniFarRoad
I have been trying to grow rhubarb in a large pot (terrace) and it keeps dying. I’ve since read rhubarb doesn’t like growing in containers.
If you don’t have a garden with a proper soil spot for it, it might be better to say goodbye to it, or find someone with the right space for it.
mines-a-pint
You should be able to divide it, even this time of year, as it’s super tough. I’ve just rescued the last bit of my wife’s family rhubarb from her mother’s garden, it had barely a leaf left on it in late June, but is now looking pretty healthy in our garden.
Excavate around it until you undermine the tubers or can’t go any deeper. You might just be able to attack half of it, it’s a big plant you have there!
Try to split the clump with a fork, or two back-to-back forks, getting as much of the root tubers as possible: they are probably stupid long, over a foot, so it doesn’t matter if you can’t get the last few inches out.
All you need is a couple of tubers, ideally from the outside of the plant, as undamaged as possible, you may, or may not get some finer rooty bits out too, don’t worry if the leaves pull off, but don’t damage the crown (the top of the tubers where the leaves emerge) as that’s where the growth comes from.
Having extracted a few fairly intact tubers, put the rest back and back-fill.
Now the tubers you’ve got, remove the leaves, if any, as the plant won’t be able to keep them hydrated with no/damaged roots, keep tubers moist in wet newspaper or something until you are ready, and when you can, dig a big hole deep enough for the tuber(s), so the crown is *just* under the surface, and back-fill with nice compost, maybe mixed with a bit of manure, or at least some organic fertiliser like chicken manure pellets.
Water well, and keep fairly moist until the autumn (shouldn’t be a problem now the heat has eased!)
Hopefully, within a few weeks you’ll see new leaves emerging. It will die back again and go dormant over winter, and hopefully reshoot in spring. Don’t harvest the first year, to let the plant re-charge its reserves.
Good luck!
misterygus
I had to look after my parents’ garden after they died, until we sold the house. It was terribly sad that on one hand it was overgrown and a reflection of their decline, but on the other it was still thriving between the nettles and the brambles and every month was a new delight. I felt awful that I couldn’t do it justice. In the end I had it looking tidy for the sale but I wish I could have started five years earlier and then my dad could have told me what needed doing.
Menainthegarden
It is heartbreaking when you see stuff like this happen. Gardening is still quite a physical activity at times so seeing Garden slide into wildness is not unusual.. I definitely be taking some of that rhubarb with me. What a gorgeous monster
x_Lele
Take it!
We have a rhubarb plant that is my great grandmother’s. We dug it up each time we moved, nearly lost it completely one year. It’s growing better than ever currently! Endless crumbles, fools and flavoured gin!
10 Comments
Before we sold my nan’s house I divided the rhubarb. I kept some and passed the other bits on.
It’s sad seeing a once loved garden going over, but hopefully the new owners will bring it back to life.
Rhubarb is always the last plant to survive in old gardens. When I was a kid there was a field near my house that had once been allotments and here and there among the grass were rhubarb plants.
Looks like ground elder has taken over. That will be fun for the new owners.
You sound sad, and I understand that. I’m retired myself now but I remember my parents giving up their allotment when it became to much for them but they still did their best with their tiny back garden. When they eventually passed away, it was hard to think about their once carefully cultivated little garden, so full of precious plants and memories going out of our family.
But nothing we have is really ours. We are just caretakers for a while and eventually have to hand things on. Maybe that garden will be someone else’s pride and joy. Maybe they have passed their love of gardening on to you or others.
Maybe there’s a cutting or a plant that you can divide and take with you to carry things on?
My daughter is a keen gardener and has things in her garden that originally came from my parent’s garden. That’s how I like to think of it anyway, not ending, just being passed on.
Dig it up and take it!
I left mine at my parents house and I regret it
I have been trying to grow rhubarb in a large pot (terrace) and it keeps dying. I’ve since read rhubarb doesn’t like growing in containers.
If you don’t have a garden with a proper soil spot for it, it might be better to say goodbye to it, or find someone with the right space for it.
You should be able to divide it, even this time of year, as it’s super tough. I’ve just rescued the last bit of my wife’s family rhubarb from her mother’s garden, it had barely a leaf left on it in late June, but is now looking pretty healthy in our garden.
Excavate around it until you undermine the tubers or can’t go any deeper. You might just be able to attack half of it, it’s a big plant you have there!
Try to split the clump with a fork, or two back-to-back forks, getting as much of the root tubers as possible: they are probably stupid long, over a foot, so it doesn’t matter if you can’t get the last few inches out.
All you need is a couple of tubers, ideally from the outside of the plant, as undamaged as possible, you may, or may not get some finer rooty bits out too, don’t worry if the leaves pull off, but don’t damage the crown (the top of the tubers where the leaves emerge) as that’s where the growth comes from.
Having extracted a few fairly intact tubers, put the rest back and back-fill.
Now the tubers you’ve got, remove the leaves, if any, as the plant won’t be able to keep them hydrated with no/damaged roots, keep tubers moist in wet newspaper or something until you are ready, and when you can, dig a big hole deep enough for the tuber(s), so the crown is *just* under the surface, and back-fill with nice compost, maybe mixed with a bit of manure, or at least some organic fertiliser like chicken manure pellets.
Water well, and keep fairly moist until the autumn (shouldn’t be a problem now the heat has eased!)
Hopefully, within a few weeks you’ll see new leaves emerging. It will die back again and go dormant over winter, and hopefully reshoot in spring. Don’t harvest the first year, to let the plant re-charge its reserves.
Good luck!
I had to look after my parents’ garden after they died, until we sold the house. It was terribly sad that on one hand it was overgrown and a reflection of their decline, but on the other it was still thriving between the nettles and the brambles and every month was a new delight. I felt awful that I couldn’t do it justice. In the end I had it looking tidy for the sale but I wish I could have started five years earlier and then my dad could have told me what needed doing.
It is heartbreaking when you see stuff like this happen. Gardening is still quite a physical activity at times so seeing Garden slide into wildness is not unusual.. I definitely be taking some of that rhubarb with me. What a gorgeous monster
Take it!
We have a rhubarb plant that is my great grandmother’s. We dug it up each time we moved, nearly lost it completely one year. It’s growing better than ever currently! Endless crumbles, fools and flavoured gin!