…from the gardens

Hello, friends. In just a few days, we’ll be flipping the calendar page to August. Oh, 2020, what an unexpected ride you have been. Around here it has been hot. Over 90° (32°C) every day for weeks now, and all of the humidity. It’s times like these when the only way you can stand to be outside is if you’re in the water or sitting in the shade. It’s hard weather or working and lovely weather for gardens, so long as there is ample water anyway.

Our gardens are doing well. We have learned a lot this year. Lessons that I had learned in the past, but had forgotten. For example, use cages for tomatoes, rather than posts, and trim the branches lest you end up with a tomato jungle rather than a tomato garden.

We’ve also had an unexpected surprise in one of the gardens in the form of an unplanned pumpkin patch. Apparently, the seeds from the pumpkins that we threw into the compost last year were quite hardy. One day we saw a couple of pumpkin vines coming up all on their own and now, a couple of months later, we have a full-blown pumpkin patch. If you know anything about me, you know that this is the best news ever because pumpkins are basically my favorite thing in the entire world. Thank you, Mother Nature.

J. has been bringing in the most beautiful bouquets from the flower gardens, as ever. I’ve been bringing in bundles of sage and lavender for drying and making. Sage bundles for smudging and lavender sprigs for essential oil rollers. Speaking of these things, J. and I are working on an entire line of goods + products from our little homestead that will be released soon. Including honey and candles from our bees, herbs from our gardens, eggs from our chickens, and other handmade goodness. If you’d like to know when the shop is live, you can subscribe here for updates. It should be very soon.

I’ve really had so much going on lately and so very many thoughts swimming around in my head. Even though these are crazy times that we are living in, there is still so much beauty hidden away within it all. It is my fervent prayer that you, my friend, are able to access some of that hidden magic too.