Get the helmet and goggles out. It’s time to store the tubers.

How many truly different ways can there be to tackle a gardening job? I’d say few, although that doesn’t mean that I’m not constantly on the lookout for ways to do things better.

Which is why I was flabbergasted when I saw a method of cleaning dahlia tubers that was completely unlike anything I’d seen before, much less thought of.

The gardener who shared this revolutionary — to me, at least — method spent most of the time getting dressed for it. Overalls, a grubby jacket with the hood pulled up, goggles that you might wear in a laboratory and a respirator were topped off by a helmet with a flip-down face shield and represented the most elaborate outfit I’ve ever seen anyone wear for a gardening job. It was the kind of get-up — somewhere between Walter White in “Breaking Bad” and a horror movie villain — that will certainly get the neighbors talking. 

But what came next was mind-blowing. She proceeded to fire up an air compressor and blow soil off a clump of dahlias.

The outfit was, perhaps, extreme, but the method was ingenious. This job is one that most gardeners use a hose for. It’s messy, with soil flying everywhere, making a mess out of wherever it lands, but it’s also a cold and miserable job on the chilly days of fall after frost has nipped back dahlias and it’s time to dig. It’s so unpleasant that I’d rank it at the top of the “Worst jobs of autumn” list.

And it has other drawbacks as well. Storing dahlia tubers is a finicky balance between humidity and temperature. Best stored at about 45 degrees, tubers also can’t be too dry or they risk desiccation, or too wet, when they will rot. Adding in more water to the operation by washing them off after digging means they will need additional drying time before they can be packed away. But if you forget about them while they dry for more than a couple of days before packing them away, they might dry out too much.

The air compressor method, which employs a large garbage tub to blow the soil into, solves many of these potential issues. It makes so much sense and yet seems so unexpected that one wonders how someone came up with this idea. 

One possible explanation occurred to me when my husband’s eyes lit up when I told him I’d need to use the air compressor next weekend. The one we have, he said, wouldn’t be up to such a task and this could be just the excuse he needed to replace it.

Either way, next weekend I’ll be ready with my lab goggles and respirator to try out what might be the most genius gardening hack ever. If nothing else, I’ll certainly amuse the neighbors.