I volunteered to work at the Washington State Test Garden at Pt Defiance Park,in Tacoma when we lived in Washington. I was a beginner but I was really good at dead-heading during our weekly work day. More experienced club members worked with tying up, and other more advanced skills and they worked directly with the park team on things like applying insecticides, or the watering system. I learned a lot. And I enjoyed listening to the chat about showing and other dahlia subjects. We usually had at least 5 people doing the regular maintainance and I know the person in charge spent more time there...sometimes stopping by mid week to check on things. She also worked directly with the park people. I beleive they were in charge of the watering, use of insecticides or fungicides, etc as it was considered part of the park.Marilyn Walton was head of the dahlia team and very patient with me, even if I DID NOT show dahlias. I learned a lot and enjoyed my time away from a demanding family, spent with dahlia people!
