We had a recently had a visitor who came to Rudha Mor and gave us some general advise and tips for the maintenance and development of the walk. As we were walking around she spotted a tree in the arboretum which looked a little unhealthy and she suggested that we cut it down. So this week James decided to take it down. It is always sad to see a tree go but of course it is for the health of the other trees and some of the trees in the arboretum are a little close so this may make room for moving a tree or two.

With James’ newfound love of Dahlias this time of year means digging up the dahlia tubers and storing them for the winter. We get large boxes and line them with newspaper and lay the tubers in them making sure they all have a little space. In the spring when they start sprouting you can then split them. At the beginning of the year we counted over 100 tubers so by next year we will have well over 200!! Slightly overwhelming but they do make great cut flowers for arrangements. We did decide to leave one small bed of tubers in the ground to see how they do, however the deer came along and ate off all the tops so hopefully the mice won’t also get at the tuber!

The repair to the main path between the garage and the barn is still happening as there was tremendous damage and with all the rain that we have had work is slow going but during the process a lot has been learned about the drainage system and how it has been changed.

After creating our fancy onion bed we decided that we would try it again on one of the first beds we made using old railway sleepers. I started by weeding it as it hasn’t had much attention since we pulled all the veg at the end of the year and I then filled it with some extra soil to bring the level right up to the top edge of the bed. I covered it in mypex and stapled it down but we will hold of putting any holes in it till we are ready to plant it out. The plan is to put purple sprouting broccoli but plans do change!