With the weather forecast for wet and windy conditions over the weekend I thought it would be a good idea to lift our dahlia tubers. All the foliage had been blackened by the frosts last week. We haven’t had any rain to speak of for a couple of weeks now so I was reckoning on the tubers being reasonable dry and in good condition for winter storage.
It was a lovely November afternoon and whilst I was lifting dahlia roots Sue was planning on getting another bed dug over.
The ground was certainly on the dry side in our perennial bed but that made the job of digging out the roots so much easier.
It didn’t take me too long to lift the roots and I removed as much loose soil from around the tubers as I could without doing any damage to them.
I’d planned to empty one of our compost bays and add the material to one of the beds dug over last week. There wasn’t as much good compost as I’d hoped. The material on top of the heap had remained dry through the long hot summer rather than breaking down. I added all the suitable material I could find to one of the beds dug last week. There was enough to cover about one half of the bed.
Sue thought that the bed she had dug over would be better left uncovered for the winter weather to break it down for next spring.
The weed control fabric has been rolled up and left at the end of the bed.
Once we’d finished digging beds and lifting dahlias it was time to do a little harvesting. We needed a cabbage and as all our late summer cabbages are now finished we cut our first Kilaton autumn cabbage.
Once we’d dug a few carrots and picked a few spinach leaves it’s was time to get our dahlia tubers loaded into the car and head home.
I’m planning on drying the dahlia tubers off in the greenhouse before storing them in potato sacks in the garage over winter. This method worked well last year so I’m going to give it another try this winter.
Perhaps the weekend weather won’t be as bad as it’s forecast to be and we’ll be able to get some more plotting done.
Of course there's a video to go with the afternoon's jobs.
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With the protection of the house, our two dahlias are singed but still in flower! (As they are either side of the front door there is no missing them)
ReplyDeleteOur plants at home are more protected too. I’m sure temperatures are always colder at the allotment than at home.
Deletedo you have to mow the grass between the beds yourself or do the council do it Martyn?
ReplyDeleteThe only thing the council do David is collect their money.
DeleteYes that sounds familiar
ReplyDelete