Digging up herbs to pot

[Gryfon]

Hi all

I have some rosemary (huge thing), sage (again huge) and some oregano/marjoram which I need to dig up so I can put a couple of raised beds down. Will I kill them by digging them up? Or am I best off trying to make the raised bed around them

Thanks

[Flummery]

Take up as much soil and as big a root-ball as you can with them - replant them straight away, keep them well watered and you should get away with it.

[Eyren]

You can also plant woody herbs deeper than they were originally growing, and they will root from the buried stems and make several new plants. I think this was covered in a recent GYO issue.

I'm hoping to do this with my old lavender bushes - if I can get them out in the first place!

[BarleySugar]

My rosemary was about 4ft tall, and the same across, taking up far too much room, so I took cuttings last year, then advertised the parent plant on freecycle. It took the chap about an hour to dig it up . By the time he'd wrestled it free, there wasn't much soil on the roots though

[Gryfon]

Thanks all!

I'm still trying to get brave enough to have a go at them! Or I may just cut the rosemary back and stake it then fill up around it. The other plants should come up alright I hope.

[Victoria26]

Dig them up. I had a monster of a rosemary bush in my front garden. I cant stand it so It promptly got dug up and transported 200 miles to Glasgow for my mother in Law.

It was out of the earth for about a week - (I'd put the root ball in a bag for transport) It now takes pride of place in her front garden and its doing really well. (I still cant stand it though....euch!)

[Paulottie]

You can also plant woody herbs deeper than they were originally growing, and they will root from the buried stems and make several new plants. I think this was covered in a recent GYO issue.

I'm hoping to do this with my old lavender bushes - if I can get them out in the first place!

Ohhh I like that one...I have failed dramatically taking cuttings from my overgrown lavender two years running.

It is worth a try as so often sage, rosemary etc get lanky and leggy. It is worth taking cuttings at the same time just in case.....marjoram is pretty difficult to kill

[sharonr]

I dug up a huge sage plant last April and put it at the side of the garden. I didn`t plant it as I was going to get rid of it as it was going woody. ( I`ve heard you need to replace them every 3 years) It is still there growing away and it had lots of flowers on last year.
Might try to get rid of it this year.