All Tucked in and Ready for Winter

My it has been a busy week. The dahlias have finally been divided and are in storage for the winter. I always find this project worrisome. Will the tubers make it through the winter? Last year’s dahlias didn’t even make it to dividing. They were a total loss before I even got them into storage. I think, and this is only a think, that I hadn’t let them cure after digging them, then I washed them and then let them sit in the sun in the dirty room and that was a complete disaster. This year, they cured for about a week. Thankfully we had all that beautiful mild weather so they were able to hang out in the garden shed until I got to them early this past week. So here they are, all varieties individually bagged, labeled more than once by variety just in case I forget what they are, and now safe in the basement. My biggest fear is rot, but let’s keep our fingers crossed please.

All neatly labeled and bagged.

All the neatly composted beds, and I must say they are a beautiful sight, especially when they are covered by a hoar frost.

Frosty beds

They are now all covered with a layer of chopped leaves so now the beds are safely tucked into be for the winter.

Not nearly as photogenic, but tucked in fo the winter.

The leaves will break down into a fine tilth. That is the plan anyway, the earthworms will make lots of earthworm poo and they will be pretty ready for planting in the spring. Oh that time seems fo far away right now, but really only five long dark months. not far at all. I will just keep telling myself that.

And when one thinks of it, soon I will poring over seed catalogs, putting in orders and starting seeding. Not long at all. So even if the gardens are all safely tucked in, I will still have lots to do and to get you all excited about.

Until next week. Allie