Dahlia season 2023

Dahlia season 2023 is over and I thought I'd take a look back at a few of my favourites from this year's collection.

Some of the dahlias are from last year and a few are new ones that I bought last autumn.

Fuzzy. 
This was its second year and it did much better than in 2022

Mikayla Miranda.
This was a new one for this year and it was stunning, I can't wait to see it come back next year.

Café au Lait Twist.

Another new one for this year, I fell in love with café au laits last year so was very keen to add a few more this year.

Labyrinth Two Tone.
Again another newbie for this year, but completely perfect.

Islander.

The original Café au lait. 

One of my favourites for this year definitely has to be Café au lait twist. Everyone is different and perfect in their own way. I think I'll be buying another just in case my one doesn't overwinter well.

The biggest bloom this year came from Penhill Watermelon.
Which is an XL Dinner plate variety.

Dark Spirit.
The only non-pinkish Dahlia I had this season. 

I loved having a different bunch of flowers in the house every week during the summer.

Eveline.
A pure beauty.
The first and last to bloom.

This has been my second year growing Dahlias and I have loved every second of it.

I have dug up all the tubers, and they are drying out in the greenhouse before I store them away for winter.

We are having a big garden makeover during the winter, taking away all the raised beds, replacing the lawn with new turf, and making borders.

I am going for the complete cottage garden look.

I have already pre-ordered more dahlias for next season, and I have flower seeds overflowing in my seed box.

The above Dahlias are a mix of Farmer Gracy and The Rose Press Garden tubers.  

 

Hens and Flowers

Dahlia season is in full swing and the garden is just popping with these beautiful blooms.

At the end of last season, I dug up all my tubers and stored them over winter, I wasn't sure how they'd hold up so I went a little crazy and bought a few more (when I say few it was a fair few.) just incase they all went rotten.

Thankfully they didn't, I think about two rotted away but the rest stayed in good condition, so I have ended up with 21 Dahlia tubers in total.

One didn't make the bloom.

It just didn't end up doing anything and doesn't look like it rotted so I'm not sure what happened with that one.

The main ones that have opened up so far are ones from last year, the new ones are taking a little bit longer to open, but I can see that there on their way.

Café au lait is definitely one of my all-time favourites. I have some other dinner plate varieties this year, so I cannot wait to see what they look like.

Eveline is one of the new tubers for this year and she is just beautiful!

Copper Boy has come back even stronger this year and I've had loads of flower heads already.

The hens are happy to be back out and about, they are still suffering from feather loss and a meanie in the flock but slowly their feathers are re-growing and with the extra vitamin boosts and high protein treats they are getting I am hoping by the end of the summer their full fluffy bottoms will be back!

Another bloom that is doing better this year is my sweet peas!

Last year I think I got one flower head and just a load of leaves. I sowed a fair few back in the autumn and they have done ok, but the ones that have been really successful are the ones I sowed by seed directly into the ground in the spring! They are beautiful and full of sweet scents, every time I pass under the arch I get a great sniff of perfume.

Even though the girls are busy growing back their feathers, we are still getting around 3-4 eggs a day.

Lovely orange yolks and healthy shells, so I know they are feeding well and are happy.

Last year I fell in love with cosmos so I made sure to overdo it with the seeds this year, and get a few varieties and they haven't disappointed.

I have them planted up by my greenhouse and in one of my main Dahlia beds.

I'll be sharing more of the garden flowers, once they are in full bloom.

I'll also be sharing what's growing in the greenhouse in a week or two.

x

 

Our Garden in Bloom

Thankfully the weather has been amazing during the lockdown, so we've been spending a lot of time in the garden.

I don't normally tend to do much in the garden as it's usually Jons domain but this year I've decided to really get stuck in, the tulip bulbs that I planted last year in a bid to do something came back to life at the start of lockdown and they really encouraged me to get out and get muddy again.

Jon has always been a keen gardener and when we moved to Norfolk one of the first things he bought were his polytunnels! 

He is definitely green-thumbed, Last year due to our breakdown in our marriage nothing much was done and he didn't grow any veg, only what sprouted from the old compost that he chucked in one of the polytunnels and the house was on the market we turned the garden back into just grass mainly to help it appeal to more people.

This year with us working on our relationship and the house no longer on the market, Jon has been back in the tunnels, but with the lockdown on I have been helping out making sure nothing gets ruined whilst he's not around.

The boys are enjoying helping out planting up new vegetables.

Here's a list of all the vegetables we are currently growing in both the tunnels and in a veg bed outside in the garden.

Savoy cabbage,

Red cabbage,

Leeks,

Aubergines,

Cucumbers, 

Bell Peppers,

Hot Peppers,

Winter squash, 

Marrow, 

Giant pumpkins,

Pumpkins,

Onions,

Potato, 

Tomatoes,

Kale,

Rainbow Chard,

Courgette,

Lettuce,

Sage, Basil, Rocket, Spearmint, Dill and Wild Garlic.

We've planted extra this year as we're really hoping to be able to keep ourselves fed just from our gardens.

I'm a vegetarian so I could happily live on what's in the garden, the boys are all meat eaters but also enjoy their veggies minus Rupert who will only eat an apple once a month.

Luckily for him, we also have three apple trees in the garden. So maybe he'll be eating more of them by the end of the summer.

Indie keeping me company whilst I pot up new seeds.

My tulips and my climbing Rosebush

Apple blossom

I love walking around the garden and seeing new flowers opening up, one of my favourites is the pink clematis that we bought on a whim from Wilkos a year ago, this year it's really taken off and it's starting to cover some the fence nicely.

Baby lavender plugs planted up.

I love lavender so Jon bought me lots of baby lavender plugs, which myself and the boys all potted up and popped in the polytunnel to keep it safe until it's big enough to place outside.

We had lots of dandelions in the garden so we picked them all and tried to make dandelion honey, but it didn't turn out quite right, so I'm waiting for more to grow and then ill have another go.

The boys enjoying the weather.

Tulip bed

The wildflower part of the garden 

Along with doing more gardening, I spruced up our old garden bench with 3 coats of sage fence paint, and it really made it look good as new, though if you were to ask the boys what colour it was before they'd have no idea.

Noah only recently spotted the apple tree in front of the first polytunnel the other day, and it's was one of the first things we planted in the garden 3 years ago!

Planting up the sunflowers.

New flower seeds that arrived yesterday.

I love being able to pop out and grab some fresh herbs from the garden, I do the same with the lavender, sometimes the herbs are used for cooking other times they are used for herbal uses.

Onions sprouting.

 

I have found myself spending most of my free time just sat in the garden enjoying the peace.

I can no say I'm not just an indoor plant kinda lady, but I fully enjoy getting mucky in the garden!

The boys having lunch on the newly painted garden bench.

Are you enjoying your garden more during the lockdown?

xxx Stay Safe xxx