What a summer

What a wonderful summer! Weather was great, no fire smoke till early fall. Lavender flourished! Learned so many things this year. I suppose as this little farm keeps evolving, I will continue to learn and evolve with it. I started out a little behind due to the fact that I still had a LOT of debudding to complete. Meant to do it during the winter months. But alas, I didn’t. Also, started a new project, making bears from old or used quilts and put lavender inside them. Originally, was going to sell them, and actually did sell a few. But, what gave me so much more pleasure was donating them to families with babies in our NICU. A gentle squeeze of their bellies and a soft aroma of lavender was activated.

I learned that Queen Anne’s Lace, which I planted for the cut flower year, is an invasive nightmare! It spreads and spreads and spreads… you get the idea. And Queen Anne’s Lace is actually a wild carrot!! So getting the whole thing out of the ground was a challenge. I battled it all summer…. Sheesh.

Before I cut the lavender to dry, I was able to supply several weddings with fresh cut lavender. HMMM that was kinda neat. Also because I was lazy last summer and waited to cut some of the lavender to hang it had seeded and there were (are) hundreds of live plants to pot. HMMMM sold a bunch of live plants!! I am thinking of that being the focus of next year. I let all of it go to seed this year and then cut it. Didn’t dry it as I have several big buckets of buds. We will “harvest” the new plants and have live plant sales throughout the summer. I can give tips and do’s and don’ts for planting and growing your own lavender.

As always, this farm is a work in progress. But I think I am finally getting to the longer term plan. Maybe……