|
|
|
|
Dahlias - weed control, and keeping moisture in the soil: There are a number of creative ways which you can use to provide optimal growing conditions for Dahlias, once the season is under way. While these plants need half to full sun, their roots prefer cool and moist. Weeds are not welcome since they offer unwanted competition for growing nutrients. This is a challenge, but there is a solution - use a mulch! A mulch will keep the sun's rays from getting to the soil, so it's cooler underneath. A mulch will dissipate the drops of water in a heavy rainstorm, to prevent erosion, and since the air can't readily get through the mulch mat, water is retained for the benefit of the plants themselves. A mulch will also keep most weeds repressed, although plants like bindweed seem to live charmed lives...they will often poke tendrils through even as much as three feet of heaped compost and come up smiling! However, the benefits of mulch are hard to deny. Mulches come in many forms. Some folks like the many varieties of bark which can be purchased at gardening outlets. You can get mulches for less, though. Both leaves and dried grass work well, and will eventually become a biological supplement to the garden. Some people have used newspapers lying flat on the surface, and while it isn't everyone's greatest visual pleasure, it works well. Some have cut strips from discarded carpets to lay along the garden walkways to achieve their ends. I have heard of shredded paper being used as well, and while I have not tried it as a mulch, I have tilled several bags of it into the soil. Having said that, I wouldn't overdo it, since chemicals are used in processing it, and they may have an unplanned impact. My personal favourite is shredded leaves. While whole leaves tend to wind up in the neighbour's yard, shredded leaves will tend to stay where you put them, especially if you give them a liberal sprinkling with the garden hose once you get them in position. The smell is nice too, always reminding me of fall days. Here is an example. My close second choice would be dried grass or hay. I shy away from fresh grass clippings, since they will quickly mould, and that's not ideal. There are cautions of course. Critters such as snails and slugs love the cover of mulch, and since they work best at night, they prefer you to water your garden in the evening so they can get around easier to their collective meals. So remember to water in the early morning instead, and make them earn their meals. The hot sun is something they don't like. You can also have something scratchy in a ring around your dahlia stems, like coarse sand, or even a light sprinkle of ashes. Some claim that coffee grounds will work too, so that is something I plan to try next season. I may need to get some of my product from my friends at Tim Horton's |
|
Send mail to
mg.thompson@sympatico.ca with
questions or comments
|
