No, no, no it will be -4 overnight apparently and I went and put all the Dhalia tubers in. The ones that don’t like cold and you are supposed to dig up every year and wrap in little blankets and keep in the potting shed.
I always do this. I have no patience and just wing it. Lockdown 3 has really fuelled this bad habit. One has sprouted little green leaves through the mulch and has no idea what is coming. I’ve dropped a clear plastic lid over it, so now it looks like Magneto in a miniature plastic prison.
Under wraps 
Tiny prisoner
Oh well this is a good test. I’ve put fleece, some woolly packaging that arrived with a box of perishables (good reuse brownie points) and weighed it all down. I guess this will be the proof that they can manage out there all year around.
I’m useless at digging them up. By the time I get around to doing it, I can’t remember where they are. Pots are OK. I’ve had a few in pots and old sinks here and there, but what I really want is MILLIONS of them!! A great sea of flashy colour like something out of Moulin Rouge.
I had a go at Dhalias last year; planting them in plastic mesh trays so that I could locate and pull them out again. That was a disaster. I did get some flowers, but when I dragged them out in the Autumn to wrap them up and store them, the tubers had all grown through the plastic mesh. It was like some horrible Fraken-plastic experiment gone wrong and I ripped them to bits trying to separate them.
Growing in a plastic mesh tray in the borders. Sorry Dhalias. Don’t know where I got this mad idea from!
This year i’ve given the Dhalias a large section of the veg patch. The soil is crazy heavy there. We tried rotavating it, which ended up with an endless task stabbing the rotatvator blades with a screw driver trying to free it from get clods of earth. I’ve dug it over a few times, but this ended with multiple visits to the chiropractor. I grew potatoes one year and they became entombed in the Summer with my garden fork twanging off the ground. Yes, yes watering more regularly might have been a good idea… We put in two raised beds last Spring (lockdown part 1 project). This has made it a lot easier to grow veggies. Those are covered up at the moment with loads of cardboard and I’m making a compost bin that I’ve diligently not thrown any weeds into. I’m assuming with enough compost chucked over the rest of the patch it will soften the soil a little bit.
This latest dig (there goes my back again) I shovelled in two barrow fulls of sharp sand thinking that might help. The dhalias went in and then I put a layer of garden wood chip on top and now that lovely duvet of fleece and woolies. I hope they live and prosper. I’ld love to have a cutting patch. We shall see…
On another note, these little beauties are coming through. One forced under a plant pot with a brick on top and one not. I love rhubarb. The garden is starting to wake up.
Wellies by the Door 