I took this photo out one of our windows this morning. Frost has finally hit the Mulvihill garden so the season really is coming to a rapid close. It's amazing that our first killing frost took so long to get here, considering the fact that our average first frost date is in mid-September.
This means that Mother Nature has made up for our chilly, damp start to the growing season. Thanks for doing that, Mom! While the late frost didn't make up for the crummy eggplant, pepper and shallot crops, we sure got a lot of squash and tomatoes... crops that were looking very iffy a couple of months ago.
If, like me, you grew dahlias for the first time this year, we now need to wait 7 to 10 days before digging them up for storage over the winter. I interviewed Master Gardener Kay Loibl earlier this year about digging up and storing dahlia tubers. Here's what she told me:
"After you dig them, wash the big clumps thoroughly, lay them out so they can dry. Once they're dry, you can divide them at that point.
"If you're not going to divide them, put them into styrofoam coolers lined with sheets of newspaper. You can store them in vermiculite, peat moss, sand or sawdust shavings.
"What we do is divide them with a box-cutting knife and save 3 of the best tubers of each plant. Then we loosely wrap each tuber in plastic wrap. Never store tubers in sealed plastic bags or plastic containers. Keep them in a cool, dry place for storage." The ideal storage temperature is 40-50 degrees. Then we put them in a cooler in our garage. If it gets really cold, we bring them in."
I hope this information will help.
