Tadaaaaaa, finally! Got the dahlia bed finished and planted.

Here it is when I started digging. I had killed the grass and weeds but had to hand dig them up, otherwise they come back. Weeds here, including the ratty pasture grassy weeds that grow everywhere, are almost impossible to kill.

Gus the cat checking things out.

Looks a lot smaller than it actually is in this photo, it's pretty huge. I left a strip between it and the bed to the right so I can get to both. And I actually have a section left over at the end. I'm out of dahlias so I'll plant something else there.

looks good hart!!!! i bet that was a lot of work!!! but the pay off sure is beautiful.

Looks fabby hart! Can't wait to see it in bloom!

Lots of work, mainly the digging. I have to do that by hand because the tiller just brings more weeds up. And I still have to make the path. I'll probably put down pavers and some stones with weed fabric underneath.

Looks like a very nice dahlia home. I like your chicken collection and Gus too. Gus is going to love the shady overhang of a dahlia on a hot day.

I've been out trying to hammer in stakes. I got some nice bamboo but could only five seven. I had saved some nice sized branches from trimming my big crabapple but they're flexing too much to drive them into my rocky ground. I hope I can find some more bamboo - they worked fine. I even tried sharpening the ends of the branches but they just won't go in deep enough.

Gus and Tiger, my other cat, love to lay in the shade under my climbing roses, so I'm sure a dahlia forest will be heaven. Jello, my big scary (haha) pit bull is running in here now, pretending she's being chased by scary Gus and has to hide behind mama. LOL

This is a little bird I found gathering up cat fur from under the roses the other day. I shot this through the glass on the back door so I'm surprised it came out.

Industrious little birds. Every morning and evening the robins move in on top of the dahlia stakes to spot out worms or hopefully earwigs, that might be moving about the garden. I leave out goat undercoat and hairs each spring for bird nesting. It's always fun to find a nest later, lined in comfy goat hair. But you'd think cat fur would be counter intuitive to a bird, wouldn't you?

pooch, maybe the birds are using it as a cover. Cat smells only itself or another cat not birds...lol

LOL Now there's a plan! Birdy camo.

The robins use the crazy ole cats fur in their nests but then I think that they can take the crazy ole cat in a duke out. Cool about the little birds using it too!

This one is a tufted titmouse. They're pretty little birds with peaked tufts on their heads like a cardinal.

They are sooooo cutieputootie. We don't have tufted titmice here :( I wonder if they're hardy to zone 3a?

Doesn't look like their range goes up into Canada or further west than about mid US either. We have oodles of them here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tufted_Titmouse

Cute indeed. I'll buy the cat camo idea when I see a little bird with tufts of cat fur and whiskers glued to either side of their cute little beaks.

Too funny Pooch. I bet Bert my challenged Blue Jay would try that. He's constantly having an identity crisis.

LOL Poochella. Now that would be cute.

I finally got stakes up on nearly all of the dahlias. Not sure if I'm going to stake the shorter ones in the front. The little white wire fence is to keep out Tiger the cat (also shown, looking disgruntled to the right) who decided dahlia sprouts make a fine spot for a nap.

We have ignition, Houston.

Hooray! I am sure that once your dahlias are taller, that Tiger will love to have a wonderful shady siesta underneath them. Just break off some of the bottom leaves for air circulation and cat nappage places. I really miss cats 'helping' in the garden.

We had a heck of a thunderstorm last night and most of the sprouts are noticably larger today. Everything seems to like rain water so much better than my awful well water.

Tiger already has a "fort" under my roses. It's her fur the bird was collecting. It's nice and cool there since the garage is made of cinder block.

The crazy ole cat much prefers to crawl under the day lilies. I'm FINALLY planting out the dahlias today ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

Congratuations on the dahlia bed! Sure looks pretty and I know that you'll just love all of those dahlias gracing your house. I wouldn't be without them anymore. Guess I'm just spoiled!

Thanks, Doss. This dahlia bed has been on my must do list for a long while.

I hope you had fun planting, dahlianut!