We lined them with rags, old sheet, bits of hessian (whatever we had basically) and then popped the plants in quite well butted up together, and loose soil to fill up gaps. Much quicker than potting everything separately, and easy to move. Some of them lived in their crate for many months, but we didn’t lose anything.
I would suggest you ask your removal men for a separate quote to move all the plants. as they will probably have a better idea of what size van is needed and can supply the muscle! They will be quite used to people moving plants.
When I moved a few years ago, my next-door neighbour was happy for me to put the plants that I had potted up in her front garden. We had a friend with a truck who went over about a week later, packed them on to his truck and brought them over. It worked well - but I moved in the autumn, and your move in August could be more problematic, since the temperatures could be quite high. (You never know, it might be summer by then). If you get on well with your neighbours, you may be able to do something similar - maybe hiring a self-drive van for a day a week or so after the actual move. Assuming, of course, that you are moving within a reasonable distance. I don't remember how many plants I had - but suffice it to say that it filled the back of my friends truck!
I've done it before and it went well. We moved in high summer so I had to keep things watered until I could dig out a border. One of my grasses stayed in a plastic bag for a couple of months and actually flourished. Had some trouble with moving a large acer in a pot, it was just too tall for the trailer.
I moved just over a year ago and like you had permission from new owner to move whatever I wanted. I had around 60 pots and maybe a 100 or more from the garden. I bought big plastic pots for huge clumps of perrenials and the strong sturdy supermarket bags ( the ones that cost about 40pence to a pound. I cut holes in bottom for drainage. We only moved ten miles away and were lucky as we moved to empty house we started moving them a week before into a cold dark shed. When we moved it was the heat wave! I managed to get them all planted within a fortnight. Took approx three hours a day watering but I didn’t lose one! It is hard work but so worth it. Lots of luck in your move. You definitely will need separate transport for the plants. If you can’t take to new home in advance could a friend stash them for you? My stash 😊 in the bottom right corner you can just see the tops of the bags. I kept them all together for easy watering until I planted them
I agree with Lizzie , it wouldn't hurt to get a quote from your removal firm for the pots. Last time l moved (admittedly some years ago), l moved a partly dismantled greenhouse and a whole load of plants and pots. They were brilliant and were very careful with it all and everything arrived in one piece. Once you've got everything potted up you can just hand it over to them to worry about. It's worth balancing the cost against hiring a van, loading it yourself and then unloading it all at the other end.
We had only rented before we bought our house, but we had always kept both a patio, and vegetable patch full of plants. We had a month and a half gap between move out and possession, though we knew the year prior it was going to happen, so seed harvesting was a breeze.
We moved three rhubarb, 4 strawberry plants, and 4 Speedwells, mint, plus various houseplants. We were able to keep them safe in a family members fenced garden area. This was on a much smaller scale than you are planning though.
It was the wrong time of year to purchase plant pots for us, so I gave up a blue fescue I had nursed back to life, and 4 lavender plants. I did resort to drilling holes in buckets to be used as planters-can you readily obtain some of those? Might be a cheaper option. Also provides handles. We are still using our holey buckets for weeding and rock transport, so they can be reused in the garden.
If you are in a pinch, and have time to plan you can always harvest as many seeds as possible to start over next year, but it's the wrong time of year for that now.
Do you have any gardening friends you could borrow plant pots from?
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We lined them with rags, old sheet, bits of hessian (whatever we had basically) and then popped the plants in quite well butted up together, and loose soil to fill up gaps. Much quicker than potting everything separately, and easy to move. Some of them lived in their crate for many months, but we didn’t lose anything.
If you get on well with your neighbours, you may be able to do something similar - maybe hiring a self-drive van for a day a week or so after the actual move. Assuming, of course, that you are moving within a reasonable distance.
I don't remember how many plants I had - but suffice it to say that it filled the back of my friends truck!