JAN'S COUNTRY GARDEN

Monday, March 14, 2011

Tomorrow is the last day for International orders to be placed!!

March 15, 2011 is the last day tubers can be ordered from the garden. Inspection will be done on Thursday by Tobin Gilbert from the Washington State Department of Agriculture. He will be issuing Phytosanitary Certificates to go with each order Thursday.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Snow photo from a couple of days ago...

We've had intermittant snow the past week. The official record last Friday was 9.5 inches. I keep checking on the dahlias and they are doing fine. The temperature has been in the mid-20's but the little space heater in the potting shed keeps it at 40 degrees. I've started one flat of dahlia tubers and about 8 flats of a variety of flowers and vegetables--all are kept on a heating cable at 70 degrees.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Another month of WINTER has passed!

Here we are, waiting for Spring so we can start planting dahlias, and here comes another blast of SNOW to calm us down! More than an inch outside and still falling...

I've been going through the big bins of dahlia tubers putting all the tubers in their own little individual boxes so I can start filling orders.

Soon the Potting Shed will be filled in every possible space with boxes like this! Then, it's planting time (That's AFTER I get all the orders filled!).

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Storing dahlia tubers successfully in optimum conditions!

This is just a few of the boxes that the tubers are stored in for the winter months.

Tubers stay nice and plump. It is easy to lift a package of tubers to see if any are rotting so it/they can be removed.

A list of the tubers is placed on the outside of the box.

Another box of stored tubers.

Place a total of 4 paper towels on the bottom of the bin to catch any excess moisture. Replace the paper towel when you check the tubers each month.

Place a total of 4 paper towels on the top of the tubers. The paper towel will stop the moisture that collects on the lid of the bid so it doesn't drip on to the tubers causing them to rot.

Saturday, January 22, 2011