This summer is going by so quickly! I can’t believe we are already entering August and the tail end of summer. As I prepared this edition of our monthly recap post, I enjoyed looking back at all the photographs from July. The central theme for the month was travel. We were away from the farm for nearly half the month! This is not always easy when the peak of your business is during the summer months. But, as parents, we wanted to ensure we enjoyed much-needed family time while school was out. So, we left our farm in capable hands, and off we went! But, between trips, there was plenty to do on the farm and much beauty to enjoy. Let’s dive in and look at what’s been growing in the garden this month.
As I said, we traveled quite a bit this month, taking a family vacation to Maine and a trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the CubingUSA Nationals, a speedcubing competition. My son qualified and competed in this competition (Yup, it’s a thing!). These were very different trips, but both were thoroughly enjoyable, and I was grateful for the time together as a family. I always miss the farm and flowers when I travel, but I seem to find other gardens to visit wherever I go! In Maine, I saw the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (if you missed my blog post about the Gardens, click here). In Pittsburgh, I enjoyed the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens (look for a future blog post soon). I even found gardens on a rooftop in the middle of the city!
Back at the farm, whenever we returned, I found an explosion of growth. The hot, rainy weather we’ve experienced in July has launched the garden into high gear. I couldn’t believe how much the flowers (and weeds!) grew each time we were away. At times, there were more flowers than I could use, so I harvested and dried those for future projects.
Plenty of bouquets and special orders headed out into our community this month. Our Berries & Blooms CSA concluded, and we loved sharing our blueberries and flowers with members each week. And, as always, we delight in sharing a portion of our harvests with Abloom, a non-profit that distributes them to local institutions such as food pantries and nursing homes.
As for edibles, July has brought us blueberries, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and beans, to name a few. Our blueberry season is ending, and while we are sad to see it go, we have stockpiled our freezer for winter enjoyment.
In the garden, we’ve been harvesting blooms such as zinnias, Cerinthe, bupleurum, alliums, statice, sunflowers, ammi, poppies, nigella, veronica, hydrangeas, and our first dahlias of the season. Seeing these flowers growing happily in the gardens has been such a pleasure.
We welcomed many pollinators to the farm, and the bees happily whistled while they enjoyed the many flowers in bloom. Seeing them on our farm always makes my heart happy. And speaking of pollinators, I have completed my pollinator projects and have submitted my last form to get my Pollinator Stewardship Certification. I hope to get confirmation soon that I have earned my certification.
Looking to August, we have one more quick trip scheduled to take a few college tours (how is that possible?), and then I will be able to focus on the late summer flowers, including our Late Summer/Fall CSA, which will be our last CSA of the season. I’m so looking forward to what August will bring. That’s what’s been growing on in our garden; what’s been growing on in yours?
THISTLE BE THE DAY 