Erin's Acre

Today I'm talking with Erin at Erin's Acre. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters.  I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Erin at Erin's Acre  in,  I want to say around Faribault, Minnesota. Good afternoon, Erin. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you doing, Mary? I'm doing good. Is Faribault close enough? Faribault is close enough, yes. We do have an example address. Cool.

00:26 Alrighty, I know how the weather is because we're in the same state. It's been a lovely day. It is a lovely day. It's very warm for October 2nd. Yeah, I would just assume it not be, but we're going to have that next week, supposedly. So that would be nice. I see a 34 degree out there next week is a low.  So we are coming to an end.  Yeah, I saw that too. And I was like, well, there goes the good basil that's left in the garden.  Right.  And in my farm, uh my flowers run

00:56 July, I guarantee July through September and you know, any extra days into October are just bonus for me.  The first, the first frost will take me out. I don't have, um, hoop, hoop tunnels or anything like that. I'm  everything's outside. And so that, that first frost will take me out and I grow a lot of dahlias. so usually by  the second week of October, I'm ready for, let's move on to the next,  the next phase here and start clean up and getting ready for next year.  Yes, ma'am.  Um,

01:25 I have a question about dahlias, but I usually say, tell me a little bit about yourself and your place. But first the question about dahlias. Okay. When do you have to have those out of the ground? When do you have to dig the bulbs out? So after the first frost, you can start cleanup as far as, you know, cutting down the dead greenery stuff that's on the top. They do recommend a real hard freeze to put that tuber into the dormant state. And then you dig.

01:55 You know, Minnesota weather in October  can be all over the place. It's freezing rain. We've had snow. I've had to dig snow off to dig the tail, your tubers up.  Um, but you know, a real hard freeze, um, is great. And then if you can get some warm days to do the digging and pull them up after that is the best.  And then the other question I have is, will they bloom  until the first frost or do they kind of have a life cycle where they're kind of done? They do slow down. think, um, you know, our temperatures.

02:24 Those cooler nights  will slow them down and just the hours of daylight too.  And I'm sure you've noticed we're really losing daylight fast right now But they will keep going  I've got oh I've got one variety called Baron Katie and she is my first to bloom and my last she will Keep turning out blooms until the last  last last moment. Okay. Well, we grew dahlias two summers ago just as a  shit and giggles thing, you know  grins and giggles  and uh

02:54 I  didn't love them as much as people seem to.  They were pretty, but they're not my thing. And so my husband said to me that September, October, he said, do want me to dig the bulbs out? And I said, nah,  I'm probably never going to grow them again. And he said, are you sure? And I said, yes. He said, what about the gladiola? It's because you have to dig gladiola bulbs out too. And that was the year we tried those too. And I said, nah, just leave them.  said,  you really like.

03:22 He said, you really like perennials, don't you? said, yes, I do. They are a lot of work. Yeah. And we don't really have a good place to store them. I mean, I could probably figure it out, but I'm just like, it's expensive. It's an expensive hobby.  And I also wasn't really excited about the gall situation with, you know, if they have gall on their, their roots. It's hard to cut, to cull and cut what you've been saving. Yeah.

03:50 Yep. So I was like, it is way too persnickety for me.  am  not, I'm not into it. So we didn't do it, but they were very pretty. got t