week 28: come with me
this week on the little dream farm
If there was one thing that stood out on the farm this week it was the weather. Sunday afternoon I was at a nearby antique store when the two ladies who work there were discussing this really bad storm on the way. I knew it was going to rain later in the day, but not as badly as they’d mentioned—four to six inches in some areas overnight.
Parts of New York and Vermont experienced devastating rains and severely damaging flooding and all throughout the week via social media and the radio and our weather apps were more and more accounts of just how badly this storm affected so many towns not too far from where we live. It’s devastating to see and my heart goes out to everyone affected by the storms. Sadly, there was more rain in the forecast throughout the week and even more still all throughout today. I’m hoping those who experienced the worst of it are spared today.
Our farm sits at relatively high elevation—for example the very back field of our farm is at about 800 feet above sea level. You might think of it like the shape of a bowl or a valley, as it’s mostly hilly and high on all sides and then has streams that run through it in three different directions in the lowest parts. Even if we were to get flooding here on the farm, it would flood in those low-lying wet areas which more than likely would not affect anything of importance on the farm. We’re feeling extremely grateful, as we’ve had rain just about every day this week and more on the way all day today as I’d mentioned.
I put in some very busy, very sweaty hours in the Cut Flower Patch this week trying to fight back the weeds. Maybe if I’d gotten to them sooner it wouldn’t have been such a job but with the way the rain has been this summer I kept holding off from weeding and let the patch just sort of do it’s own thing. Chris and I did a decent job keeping up with the perimeter—we’d been out there a few times making sure we could walk around and access the Patch from every side, and each week I take the push mower around the borders to keep the grass nice and tidy.
But within each of the rows—boy do those weeds just have a way of taking over like they always do. While the landscape fabric helps tremendously with weed management, they still manage to grow up through each of the holes around each plant. Note to self for next year to take that seriously, because some more judicious weeding sooner in the season would have battled back the weeds to give all the flowers free reign to grow without that competition for resources.
For as weedy as it got, the flowers haven’t seemed to mind. By Friday evening I had all eleven rows fully weeded and then went through and cleaned up all the center aisles of the rows where I’d been tossing all the weeds as I went along. Not only does it look much better but the flowers will be better for it this week.
This is the part of the season where I can say without feeling badly: I don’t love gardening during this time of year. For as many romantic and dreamy and wonderful things there are to say about the garden, those words don’t come to mind for me in the dog days of summer when the weeds are out of control and while gorgeous (see, I’m trying), everything is like a jungle that needs constant attention. I remember feeling this was last year too when in the height of the summer it feels like no amount of sweaty, buggy, itchy hours you spend weeding ever actually gets the job done.
I’ve been trying to think of it less as going out to the garden to weed and instead looking at it as going out into the garden to spend time getting out of my head while I happen to be pulling weeds. That has helped, as this week I really needed the space to get out of my head from a few personal life things going on at the moment.
In the veggie garden, last year we had a little bit of loss here and there to beetles, rabbits, and woodchucks. This year, however, they’re seeming to have their way with the veggies. So far we’ve lost all the broccoli, some of the cabbages, the cucumber plants, and some of the Swiss chard. Chris suggested we get some higher fencing to go around the perimeter of the garden so the rabbits can’t jump it but the woodchucks will still make their way under it as they always do. I told him I just don’t want to spend any more money on the garden this year—it’d be hundreds of dollars in fencing for $5 veggie plants.
At this point in the season I’m more willing to cut some losses and create a better plan for next year. We’ll come up with better deterrents around the garden. Thank you to those of you who messaged us suggestions like coyote urine around the perimeter of the garden and cloches for plants—I think we may make some of our own because they’re quite expensive to buy! And certainly we can use some organic deterrents for beetles—I just simply didn’t.
Rather than being upset about it we’re just judiciously taking notes for next year’s growing season and taking everything as it comes. I’m grateful we have the space to garden the way we do, the means to be able to experiment like this on a larger scale than we were maybe ready for, and all the lessons that’ve come pouring in because we decided to go for it. All of those things are positives, and at this point in the season I’m hanging on to those!
So now, I’ll stop talking because there’s quite a bit of color in the Cut Flower Patch this week and if you look at it from far enough away it’s hard to appreciate what’s there. How about you come with me and I’ll point out some pretty little things along the way? Let’s go!
This week I think the Hollyhocks, Sunflowers, and Dahlias will all start to bloom and before you know it it’ll be a wave of color in the Patch! Seeing the plants all grown up like this is just something else! It feels like just a few days ago they were wee little baby seedlings in their trays under grow lights in the seed room and now most of them are waist high big plants! It’s truly unreal.
I’ll leave you with one of my Top 10 favorite photos of all time from life here on the farm…a double rainbow right over top of the Little Dream Farm.
Flower patch looking fantastic! 🙌🏻 I’ve been trying many things to keep critters out of our gardens. So far I tried pepper spray, nope. Store bought sprays, nope. Irish spring soap, nope. Coyote urine, nope. Actual chili pepper and paprika, sorta works but washes away quickly. I’ve heard eggshells are good for plants and help keep some critters away (you’d have tons of those!) and possibly cinnamon but haven’t tried that yet and feel like that’s expensive and just like the chili pepper you’d have to keep applying. So far the only thing that keeps critters away for us is motion activated sprinklers. And it’s actually pretty funny to watch 😂 we set up game cams to see how it worked.
I’m also in need of some gardening time to take my mind off things. We just lost our kitty of almost 18 years yesterday and I’m just devastated. 💔 She was my shadow and the bestest girl. I’m also walking our baby daughter as much as possible when the weather allows. Endorphins and all that. I feel like she held on long enough to hand us off, like ok kid I’m tired and I gotta go now, I showed you the ropes now it’s your turn to take care of them. 😢
The flowers are beautiful!