why and when to divide perennials, with ken druse (and tales of his latest flood)

I’VE BEEN SCOUTING around in my garden for orphaned plants, ones that used to be in visually pleasing clumps or masses, but because of expanding shade or a naughty vole or who knows what, aren’t looking as good as they used to. Over in New Jersey, Ken Druse has been digging and dividing some perennials, too, but for different reasons.

And that’s our topic: what and when and why and how to dig and divide.

Ken Druse is author of 20 garden books, and gardens on a small island in a river in New Jersey, which sometimes backfires as it did recently during Hurricane Ida, when the place flooded. He’s no longer underwater, so we talked about digging and dividing our way to a better garden.

Plus: Enter to win a signed copy of my book “A Way To Garden” by commenting in the box near the bottom of the page.

Read along as you listen to the Sept. 27, 2021 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).

Margaret Roach: Hi Ken, how are you doing? High and dry[laughter]?

Ken Druse: Dry.

Margaret: Is the ship afloat?

Ken: Drier. Well I love “a naughty vole.” A naughty vole.

Margaret: Yes.

Ken: Well, it’s not that hard to say. “A naughty vole.”

Margaret: A naughty vole. So the swamp report:  Maybe give us a couple of minutes of what happened.

Ken: Well, you may remember in the far-distant past, like four weeks ago, we had Hurricane Henri, and it didn’t flood. And I thought that we dodged a bullet. But the water was high, because I garden on an island in a river. And it has a fast branch on one side and a slow branch on the other. And the water did come up really high.