Delightful dahlias
It’s a wonder our thumbs aren’t worn out by the time summer arrives, having literally ‘thumbed’ our way through hundreds of pages of plant magazines viewing the dahlia sections!
As you may have noticed, dahlias have now become something of an obsession with us, which does have measurable consequences.
New dahlia tubers do need extra planting spaces to properly show off their magnificent blooms. And whilst of course we do shuffle round our beetroot, carrots and even potatoes, making more room for these demanding plants and planning it all is not as easy as it sounds.
How did it start? Well, some years ago, we visited a friend’s allotment in Spondon, Derby. Not an inch of ground could be spotted through the dense coverage of his enormous dahlias. The height and stature (never mind the fantastic array of colours) were very impressive, which made us think about giving them a go ourselves.
We ‘erm-ed’ and ‘arhh-ed’ over the soft pastels of the more commonly recognised cultivars, but as our thumbs got into action, we discovered a whole new world of vegetation for our plots.
There were huge dinner plate flowers, so called as the heads are truly the size of dinner plates and, in comparison, the delicate, perfectly circular little pompon types whose flowers fit beautifully into teeny weeny vases for the home.
The shapes and sizes of these flowers are without doubt astronomical – though it’s worth noting that not all are attractive to our precious pollinators.
Our quiet introduction to these prestigious blooms was short lived as we quickly moved from the pastels and common varieties into the more vivid and blousy types viewable through the heady summer months to the first frosts in October. Value for money? They certainly take some beating!
Dahlias thrive best in well-drained soil enjoying hours of full sunlight. They are both hungry and thirsty plants and enjoy buckets of well-rotted (and much converted) horse muck to nourish them whilst in the ground.
However, these hard-working beauties are sensitive to the cold and whilst they can be kept over winter in the ground, many tubers rot in the wet soil.
After the first autumnal frost, the foliage will naturally die back. An indicator to chop the foliage to the ground and dig up the tubers to try keeping them dormant over the winter months before inspecting them again in spring.
Around April each dried tuber is potted into fresh compost before being watered and moved to the greenhouse to soak up the new spring warmth until the first green shoots emerge!
As the possibilities of spring frosts disappear the emerging plants are ‘released’ from their (by now) tight fitting pots into the soil to deliver months of stunning displays for others to admire and for us to cut the blooms to give away.
As people ask, ‘Why do you give the dahlia flowers away?’
Smiling we always reply, “Because we can” (and love to do it too!)
Kitchen herbs on the plot? It can be done! Photo: Potty Plotters Herbs
Growing kitchen herbs on the plots has always baffled us. Surely, they are better grown at home in the garden where they will be used directly, as by the time they are picked and transported from the allotments they usually look fit for the bin, not the table!
So how do we combat this? A few of our favourites include lemon balm. This citrus scented, green leaved herb is not only much-loved in the kitchen, but in fresh bouquets too.
A couple of years ago a friend gave us a small lemon balm plant. We loved it. But, two years on, we question how much of a ‘friend’ that ‘friend’ was! Lemon balm (we now know) spreads worse than garden mint! It keeps us fit though – as we dig it out of the plot!
Fresh garden mint of course is a firm favourite in the kitchen. The freshly picked stems are the perfect enhancement to a pan of simmering new potatoes, or the leaves scattered with raspberries on a summer fruit pavlova – but in the garden, be warned!
Keep the plant restrained in a bucket or container as once let lose in the soil, there’s no controlling those strong, deep roots which quickly take over any piece of land proving nigh on impossible to eradicate.
We do find that the one herb that does retain its posture when picked is rosemary. The heavily fragranced woody stemmed plant is a favourite on the plot and plate. It is easy to grow from cuttings and needs very little care. It grows happily in dry, clay soil and lives for years almost unattended.
Meanwhile, we grow basil plants from seed every spring before setting the plants inside our greenhouses to act as a greenfly deterrent – proving that basil isn’t always fawlty (faulty!)
‘Broadly’ speaking, broad beans are usually the first edible bean crop to appear in the year. After weeks of growing in the mucked beds, they produce long, green pods packed with fat broad beans perfect for the plate, hot or cold.
After cropping, most gardeners are quick to remove the beanstalks ready to dig over the ground for the next crop but, where space allows, we cut the stalks to around eight inches and leave in the soil.
At the bottom of the chopped stalks, new shoots will shortly appear supporting a second crop of smaller, sweeter beans!
Before you think about throwing away everyday plastic containers consider if they can be reused. It’s amazing (once word gets out that we recycle) how many people join in with reusing.
About four years ago a plot holder delivered us a pile of square, green coloured, shallow, plastic containers that had previously held bedding plants. They were perfect for us to use as mini seed trays for acroclinium, zinnias, beetroot and physalis too.
A quick rinse in autumn, packed away for winter and out again in spring. Let’s not denigrate plastic, let’s get better at reusing it.
How many times do you buy a lettuce to keep it in the bottom of the fridge ‘just in case’ only to throw it away and replace it the following week?
Should we start a ‘cruelty to lettuce’ campaign or just improve knowledge on poor planning? Regardless, there are few who haven’t had this runny lettuce experience in their lifetime. So how about trying this?
Grow a small batch of lettuces from seed. When big enough, prick out into individual pots and keep a couple of pots on the kitchen windowsill to pick fresh, dry, tasty leaves as required!
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