Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Staking the Dahlia Walk at Biddulph Grange Garden on 29th May 2022

Eight of us met Leslie in the Biddulph Grange car park at 10:00. Some were delayed a bit by the traffic jam of the classic car show at Capesthorne Hall - I’ve never seen a powder blue VW Beetle before! The job for the day was putting stakes in so the gardeners could plant up the Dahlia Walk, one of the major flower displays at Biddulph.

The gardeners had already done some preparation work for us. The tulip bulbs from the previous display had been dug up, the guide posts for the first row stakes were in place and the rest of the stakes needed were in bundles.

Stakes were hammered in and string used to ensure a straight line and a stick to evenly separate the rows.




Most sections have two tiers of three rows in a 9-8-9 pattern, the pattern ensuring full coverage when the dahlias are in flower.

The gardeners will plant the dahlias in a few days time so we ‘tickled’ or turned over the soil to make it look neat and easier to plant.

As a cook would say ‘here’s one I prepared earlier’. This picture shows the Dahlia Walk in full bloom in 2019.

We had a very enjoyable day and the weather was good enough to eat lunch outside, Leslie providing biscuits as she did last year. We had plenty of opportunity to talk to the visitors and some of those who had never heard of the Dahlia Walk were already planning a return visit.

Well done MNTV!

Jean


PS Paul Walton, Head Gardener, was please with our work. On the Thursday after our visit he wrote:

"Just a quick email to say a huge thank you for your help on Sunday, with all the stakes going in this allowed us to get the plants in on Monday/Tuesday
Please pass on my thanks to the team
very best wishes

Paul 
Head Gardener
Biddulph Grange Garden"

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