"The Dahlia you brought to our isle your praises forever shall speak. Mid gardens as sweet as your smile and colour as bright as your cheek." -Lord Holland (1773-1840) ( Whig, Lord Privy Seal for a time)
DAHLIAS were named after Anders Dahl, a botanist, born in 1751. I have never planted Dahlias. Ever. So this will be an experiment. I just hope they live. I hope I remember to take them out of the ground when fall comes. Otherwise rot rot rot.
"Flowers are happy things..." -P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975)
I've learned that the good old earth has to be free from frost. Dahlias like a warm, protected spot, in which to thrive. I planted mine at the front of the house where there is lots of light, and protection, good irrigation, and warm loamy soil.Dahlias seem to like our Pacific northwest coast weather. Moist. Cool. Warm. Happy.
Full sun most of the day. Not shade. I read that morning sunlight is best, but the way it works here, sunlight on the front of the house from 11 am to 10 pm in the summer. And it has the most protection from the weather. SO in they went.
"I've always felt that having a garden is like having a good and loyal friend." -C.Z. Guest (1920-2003) (Socialite, columnist etc.)
Don't plant any tubers that are wrinkled or rotten, and if any are sprouting green growth that is a really good sign. Means they are healthy!
Plant with stumps facing upwards ( you will see the stumps, or stems, above the tubes hanging like cow udders. Plant just above the dirt line.Tubers down below in the hollow you made in the dirt.
Dahlias will start blooming about the beginning of July, depending on the weather. They don't need a lot of water to get going, and over watering can cause them to rot. And we don't want that.
Their biggest pests are SLUGS and SNAILS. I'm going to use slug traps filled with non-alcoholic beer. That usually does the trick. I hope.
Tall Dahlias might need some staking as they grow. I used tomatoe cages for the ones at the back, near the wall. Ones in the middle of of the bed I will have to watch.
Best not to overfertilize Dahlias. It seems they like to grow under their own steam. Having never grown them, I am curious to see if this is true. Like I said: This is an experiment.
Once all the Dahlias were planted, I marked their places with a popsicle stick. If they grow and do well, then I will be so happy.
By first frost in the fall, their leaves will turn black. Where we live, I would not like to leave them in the ground, even though some gardeners say it would be possible. Better to dig them up, make sure they are dry and store in dry sand, or styrofoam peanuts. Preferably in a cool place, but not a freezing shed or extra cold garage. Keep them loose in a box with the sand or whatever you choose.
Some of the Dahlias I planted sound rather wonderful: Caribbean Fantasy,Blue Boy,Optic Illusion,Mystery Day, Thomas Edison, etc. So now they are planted. So let the experiment begin....
"The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there." -George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Photographs 2017: Campbell River, B.C. ( M. McConachie Woods)
"I say, if your knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life...." -Calvin and Hobbes
Today was THE day to put in a veggie garden. I haven't grown veggies in dirt for eons. But now was the time to do it. Spencer, visiting as usual, came along to inspect. Quality control expert. I'm not sure why I don't plant veggies. I just am so into flowers mostly. So this will be a great experiment to see what grows. And what doesn't.
Last fall I ripped apart the last of the sunflowers and over-wintered the seeds, plus I added a few packages of Velvet Queen heritage sunflowers. Held onto them for months. Today I sowed those seeds in the centre of the plot. Added huge tomatoe cages as support.
This year, I decided that we needed some sort of fencing. Chicken wire. Cheapest and easiest. Not sure if the deer that ramble through would come up the hill, but they might.
We get deer roaming through here all the time. Dark loamy jelly beans as calling cards.
Using the Chicken Wire and Bobbexx on the grass and bushes I hope to keep the critters out. Have not really had a problem with them before, except in the fall. Deer love to eat apples from the trees at the top terrace.Bobbexx is a fantastic deer repellent. Doesn't harm the deer. Bobbexx contains fish oils, meat meal, garlic and cloves. Smells kind of yuck. You can't spray it on any veggies or fruit...
First thing to do was to make markers with tall garden stakes at various corners of the dirt.
Stakes were threaded through the wires, then tied off. Not sure how it will hold up on windy days.
We ended up doing two sides, attaching one part to the fence, leaving an opening right up at the compost so I can get in to weed and so forth. I thought about complete shutting off the top side, but would make it so difficult to get by.
"Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil,getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity." -Lindley Karstens
At the end of the day, the ground was all dug up , and chicken wire fence supported with extra wooden stakes tied across the top.
I wonder if it will last to the end of the summer into the fall.......
A
lso curious to see if the one deer that comes here, every other day, will even bother with it.
By the time dusk rolled around I had planted a gazillion sunflowers. Not sure how many will grow.
Lettuce. Enough lettuce to make Peter Rabbit chubby. Beets, Swiss Chard, Radishes, Heirloom Carrots, Bok Choy, Cabbage, Romain lettuce and a couple of other things.
I must admit, not all that fond of cabbage so I put it at the top of the entrance into the plot. So if the deer want to nibble they can eat the cabbages. I won't mind in the least.They can have them all.
Spencer had such a hard day of supervising that he crashed out for a nap on the porch. I could hear his snoring as I passed by....
"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." -Mahatma Ghandi
2017
