At last, we had a decent day on Monday. Most of the week had followed a similar pattern either dull or wet and dull. It felt good to see a little bit of sunshine. It was the mildest day of the month so far as the temperature reached 10.8°C or 51.4°F.

Our wet days have been showery rather than really wet. The week’s rain added up to 10.6mm (0.42in) which is about what we might expect for a week in December. However, the incessantly wet, damp weather means allotment jobs are out of the question until we get some drier weather.

One job we needed to do at the plot was to lift our dahlia tubers. From past experience, we know that they don’t like to spend the winter in cold, wet soil. The tubers are now pretty large and took a bit of lifting out of the ground but the soil in this part of the allotment wasn’t too soggy.

The roots had as much excess soil removed as was possible without damaging the tubers. The tops were cut off and removed to the compost heap. The tubers were then moved into the plot greenhouse and placed upside down to allow any moisture to drain out of the cut back stems.

For the coldest spells of winter, usually January and February, the tubers will need some extra protection against the cold. My plan is to bring the tubers home and store them in the garage where unless we get some extremely cold weather they should avoid being frosted.