by Hannah Tangeman
The blustery fall wind could not dim the intense dahlia display at Hall Street Gardens this week. Every imaginable color and sizes too large to believe, are only a vague description of the rows of dahlias blooming with abandon waiting to fill vases for the farmers market.
Charlene Ford, the proprietor of Hall Street Gardens, if forced to choose between flowers and vegetables would pick her lifelong love affair with the dahlia.
Long before she grew anything else, they were her flower of choice and the loyalty lives on in her farmstead.
So much of Charlene’s breath taking garden is full of insanely colorful flowers but the practical side of her business fills the rest of the space. Rows of tomatoes that in May barely peered from their wall of waters now tower over the frames designed to support their growth. Yellow, red, orange and yes, even, blue tomatoes grow with enthusiasm.
Visit the Lassen Land and Trails Trust farmers market at the Railroad Depot Saturday mornings from 8:00a.m. to noon, for vegetables and flowers picked within hours of sale for unrivaled freshness. The food demos from Every Blooming Thing will inspire you to can or preserve the bounty of the county, at 10:00a.m.
