Drier than last year

Monday wasn’t too bad as it turned out to be a calm, mild and dry day. Just a little bit of brief autumn sunshine in the afternoon made it good for working on the plot. Last year the first day of November produced about 20mm of rainfall. It was followed by lots more rain during the month which put a stop to plot tidying up last year. So it’s just a question of how long the weather holds this autumn.

From 03 Weather 2010

There are certainly some dazzling autumn colours about at the moment. This tree was snapped on our way back from the allotment.

On the plot we made an effort to sort out our now frosted dahlias and prepare them for winter. All the remaining frosted foliage was cut away and composted before the tubers lifted. Judging the colours of each plant from the brown crispy frost damaged flowers wasn't easy and plenty of guess work was involved. The soil around them was surprisingly dry making lifting the tubers easy. Our choicest colours were then placed in a trench dug in the dahlia bed and once they were all in place they were covered with soil. All our remaining dahlia tubers were placed over the top of these buried tubers. Our best tubers will have most protection from the winter cold. I think the ones on top will be more prone to damage from mice but hopefully they will survive the winter too.

From 03 Weather 2010

All that remains now is a visit to the local farmer to purchase some bales of straw to place over the dahlia heap and act as insulation. It will all be protected by polythene to keep off the winter rain. Lots of bricks and stones are required to keep the polythene in place from the winter gales that are bound to come.

Sunday was a dry dull and sunless day. It wasn’t particularly cold but we didn’t visit the plot as we just hoped that there would be some better days even in November!