A crew from the local utility company just walked through my back yard and gave me some news. There's an easement along my back fence with a big PG&E pipe running through it. The pipe is old and has to be replaced. Consequently, they'll have to dig up the plants along about 150 feet of fenceline to get to the pipe. About half of the space is shaded, so it's mostly dogwoods, hydrangeas, and rhododendrons. The sunny portion is taken up by roses, of course. There are about 45 of them along the fence (or more, depending on the width of the trench they have to dig).
Luckily, PG&E is a very reasonable company. The crew told me that another crew would be sent out to dig up the plants and either move them to other spots, replant them in the same spots after the job is done, or junk them and reimburse me 2 for 1.
The first option is out because my garden is so packed full of plants that I have no other spots. The second option sounds good because it would give me a chance to really clear out all of the bermuda grass, which creeps over from across the fence, before the plants are replanted. The third option may be the best because most of the roses I've planted along that fence are not favorites. Some are OGRs that I got stuck with when a couple of Dave's Garden members in other states asked me to shop for them at Vintage Gardens and then never paid me for the roses. Others are junky roses that were put back there because they weren't pretty enough to be in more prominent spots (my one and only Knock Out rose, for instance). It doesn't sound so bad to get reimbursed for twice the cost of roses I never liked that much.
