Dahlia Gardens

Kym asked me to share some photos of my dahlia gardens and, as I’m always looking for blog fodder AND hoping to encourage more dahlia growers, I’m happy to oblige.

To set the scene: my house is an L-shaped farm house on the corner of what is basically Main St. in my little town, and a side street that is a dead end. On the side of my face which faces the dead end I have my front door, which has foundation beds around it and window boxes. On that same side I also have my kitchen door, which has a small porch (currently being rebuilt by Dale) and a walkway to the street. My raised beds sit on either side of that walkway so technically they are part of my front yard but I tend not to think of them that way since it’s by my kitchen door and not my front door. Hopefully that makes sense.

I have 3 raised beds of dahlias between the walkway and my driveway and one raised bed of zinnias on the other side of the walkway – but today isn’t about the zinnias, it’s about the dahlias. Each bed is 4′ by 8′ and Dale built them based on these instructions. As you can see in this photo, the beds are in a grid patter and far enough apart that the lawn mower can fit in between the.

In each of the dahlia beds I planted 8 tubers back on Mother’s Day. Some were new tubers I bought from a couple of local flower farms near me but most were tubers I dug up last November and stored in my basement all winter. By this point in the season the beds are pretty crowded as the dahlias are hitting their peak now. They love warm days and cool nights and will continue to bloom so long as the weather holds. I’m often picking decent bouquets right into October. I stake them with bamboo sticks and garden twine and, as you can see, the one on the left there is needing a little boost!

Some of the plants are quite tall and the flowers reach almost to the top of my head! And some are lower and more of a bush variety, like that Totally Tangerine one in the bottom left corner of the bed on the right. This photo also illustrates that the 3 dahlia beds are to the right of the walkway and you can just glimpse the zinnia bed to the left of that walkway.

And now I’m standing on the walkway and looking towards my driveway. You can see the bit of porch that Dale is working on. And you can also see that one tiny dahlia plant in the right hand corner of the left bed. It’s La Luna and is the same variety as the one just to it’s left but for some reason this particular plant has struggled all season. Gardening is a crap shoot and this is a great reminder that it’s not always a huge success. It’s also why I plant so many tubers and usually 2 of each of my favorite varieties.

The dahlias hadn’t been picked in over a week since we were away and before I went to work on Tuesday morning I went out and picked 50 – and I could have picked more. People always say that growing dahlias is hard but it’s really not. They need plenty of sunshine, consistent watering, and good fertilizer – Dale works a bag of manure into each of these beds every spring and I think that really helps. The tricky part is dividing the tubers in the fall and then storing the for the winter. These flowers bring me so much joy, though, that it’s worth every minute of work and worry.