Last spring my clever husband built new raised beds for the dahlias out of scrap roofing material. We filled the bottom with cardboard to kill the grass and then layered in all the scrap wood and prunings from the fruit trees. This got topped with semi-composted sand and poo from the chicken runs.

We topped this off with bags of garden soil from the hardware store and by the end of April, the beds were ready. We just had to wait for the rains to stop. And boy, what a long wait that was — spring came so late this year.

Here we were in mid-June. At last the tubers were in and the black mulch had been spread about. Now we waited for blooms and worried about rot as it was still raining!

On July 2nd our first dahlia bloomed. Introducing Frank Holmes.

And we were off! Here are the beds in August:

And in September:

And in October.

And so many lovely bouquets were made and shared:

Still no rain in the forecast — joy! — at least fall is as pokey as summer was. Now I get to enjoy the beauty and relax a bit. As soon as we get the first frost, the work starts up again: lifting and cleaning and sorting and storing and checking throughout the winter and in early spring we start dividing and waiting for the eyes and then shipping and planting and off we go again!