Stakeout: preparing the Dahlia Walk on Sunday 2nd June 2019

The gardens at Biddulph Grange are nationally famous, and one of the main attractions in the height of summer is the Dahlia Walk.

At its peak, hundreds of dahlias line the walk, and the team of gardeners are currently busy bringing on the plants in the greenhouses, ready for planting out. Our job was to put in stakes for every one of those plants!

Growing dahlias in the greenhouse

We worked to a careful plan of how many stakes were to be put in each bed, and how far apart they had to be. It took a bit of working out initially, but once we'd figured it out we soon hit our stride.

Neil and Lisa measure the required gaps

Each bed had three rows of stakes, with the height of the stakes increasing from front to back so that the smaller plants can go into the front and the taller plants at the back. At lunchtime we enjoyed the luxury of our own mess room (handy when it started to rain) and a fine array of biscuits and treats laid on for us by Leslie, the gardener.

The Dahlia Walk almost fully staked

By mid afternoon we'd finished the stakes, and dug holes next to the stakes in some of the beds ready for the plants to go into. We then had half an hour looking round the gardens before home time.

Group photo at the end