Gardening diary week 46 - bee blog
November 11th - November 18th
If you have large stocks of dahlias and a light sandy soil some of you dahlia tubers could be left in the ground as they will very likely survive the winter. If you need to be sure of keeping your stocks or want to increase a particular variety then dig them up and cut the tops off two or three inches from the tuber. If they have very large stems then you could push a screwdriver right through the middle of the stem to allow the sap to drain out, brush off excess soil and carefully dry the tubers and store in a frost free shed. After a few weeks you can put them into a box of moist peat for the remainder of the winter. They need checking over every few weeks and you are likely to loose a few before spring arrives. In the spring you can see new growth emerging around the base of the old stems. Once you are happy your dahlias have survived the winter and you can see new growth emerging you can split you tubers into pieces taking care to ensure that each piece that you split off has at least one growth point on it. Alternatively you can bring your dahlias into gentle heat early in the spring and then when you have shoots a couple of inches high you use them to make cuttings. Link. and another and another. There is no shortage of online advice for taking dahlia cuttings.
I re-sighted the pond under the peach tree. I have now cleared the whole area directly under the peach tree during this year as it is now quite an impressive sized tree and I can get under it's lower branches to work with not too much difficulty. I may cut a couple more branches off next year. The spring cauliflower that I have planted under it will not grow to their maximum potential there. I don't mind that as their maximum is very big and smaller heads are really easier to cook.
Saturday/Sunday November 18th/19th 2006 It rained for three hours on Friday night but Saturday and Sunday were both still bright sunny days until the evening on Sunday when it began to rain again. I’m still clearing up the end of my allotment where I had the fire last week.
Frost black dahlias November 18th Planted out more garlic four inches deep after digging up potatoes. I need to dig up all the remaining potatoes now as we have had rain nearly every day now for what seems weeks and the slugs will finish them off if I don't dig them up first. Somehow it is a lot harder to dig up the main crop potatoes than it is the earlies.
Urban Jungle Sell exotic and jungle plants including cannas, gingers, bananas, tree ferns, palms, bamboos and aroids by mail order and from their nursery in Norfolk.
