Fern relocation

I discovered last fall when we moved into this garden that a small brick patio near that beautiful dogwood tree was being invaded by ferns. The patio appeared to be overgrown by euonymus and ivy as well as covered by a couple of seasons of leaves. The patio looked very small and I wondered how far it extended beneath the advancing ground covers. So I decided to make a quick job of clearing it off.

It wasn't long before I ran into some strange knobs protruding from the spaces between the bricks. It was impossible to shovel more than a few inches of dirt and leaves off the bricks without hitting one. These "knobs" had green things that looked a little like curled up worms at their tops. I quickly realized that they were dormant ferns. And some of them were big! One was 8" tall. Since it was November and getting cold, I decided to remove only the ground covers and as much of the dirt as I could without harming the ferns. Then I used grass cuttings and mulched oak leaves to cover the ferns again for winter, creating an edging of wall block to keep the mulch from blowing away.

As I noticed the fiddleheads beginning to unfurl a few weeks ago, I decided they needed to move before they got too big. Here's how they looked as I removed the mulch and dirt. I'm still amazed at how far the colony had expanded under the patio. It gave me some insight into the type of soil these plants prefer.

My mom helped me pry the plants from their comfortable, but inconvenient, home. Using a long screwdriver and a small spade we leveraged the ferns from the sandy spaces between the bricks.

This photo shows how the ferns were connected. Their underground stems would turn to follow the gaps between the brick and produce new ferns every few inches. We tried to keep the groups intact as much as possible, but we often ended up breaking the stems to get just one out at a time.

We ended up with two boxes full of ferns. I never counted, but I think there were at least 2 dozen plants.

Here is the space at my mom's house that we planned to make the new home of the transplants. It's on the north side of a fence in a space that doesn't grow grass and often grows moss. Mom has covered the dirt with gravel, which I think will make the space even more appropriate for the ferns.

Here's the way they looked after planted; tiny, but still healthy. I'll post an updated photo soon, but Mom says they are 2 feet tall. She will enjoy their feathery fronds a lot more than her blank fence and I am glad to give them a comfortable home rather than see them in the compost pile.

And, lastly, here is my patio. It still needs some new sand and dirt to fill the gaps, but it's much bigger than before. I noticed last fall that moss was also growing between the bricks making a beautiful contrast with the red brick. I'll add that as I can to make a more solid pattern. The ferns are now at the edge of the patio and out into the surrounding garden space. They are, as my mom said, at least 2 feet tall now and very green. I'm so happy I found a home for the invading plants. They really are lovely.