The season starts here

For the past few years i've regarded this time of year as the start of a new season in order to combat any depression over the shorter days and longer nights. With this in mind I've made a start on tidying up the garden and getting things more organised in the potting shed (my garage....more on this in a later posting).

After a couple of huge bonfires i've disposed of the last of the debris from the two large trees that I had felled a few weeks ago, as well as a load of other rubbish knocking around the garden. I can now see the wood for the trees as it were.

Despite the first frost of the other day the dahlia tubers showed no sign of going to sleep but I got them up anyways, cut the central stalk back to 6" and the tubers are now drying out in the garage, upside down to allow all surplus moisture to drain away. I always take great care with my labelling, tying a label to each tuber with thin gauge wire.

Next weekend I shall turn my attention to getting my tomato greenhouse emptied and thoroughly sterilised with Jeyes Fluid. After this year's tomato fiasco I want to make sure I stage tomatoes at Malvern next year so a scrupulous clean up, inside and out is called for, as I have a little bit of mould on several split fruits. I lost interest in the crop after accepting I would not be staging any tomatoes at Llangollen, otherwise the plants would have been managed a lot better than this.