The Wildflower Meadow

This year, my favorite place on the farm has to be our wildflower meadow.  Last year, we attempted to create one, in the same spot, but it didn't take.  Instead it was filled with a few flowers and lots of silt grass and weeds.  This year, we have lots of flowers and a few weeds!  

It's such a bright, happy spot!  The rudbeckia has done crazy well, cosmos are starting to come up and I love the pop of blue from the bachelor buttons. 

Bryce gave me the birdhouse for Mother's Day.  We mounted it on a cedar tree trunk that we had on the property.

 

 

It's so nice to see the bees and the butterflies loving the space!

Our Lavender

Our lavender this year did so well!  We've been very dry this summer, and while nothing else appreciated the heat and lack of water, the lavender sure did.

Two years ago, I planted four and a half rows of four different varieties of lavender and this was the first year that we got a beautiful, full harvest.  We planted Folgate, Grosso, Royal Velvet and Melissa, a white variety that is great for culinary purposes.  The smell around the entire garden is amazing and the bees couldn't be happier!

I planted the rows right outside the garden fence.  Fortunately, deer don't bother lavender (at the time we didn't have a deer fence around the property). 

I love to use lavender in cooking!  So far we've made lattes, cookies, ice cream, lemonade and cocktails!

Gretchen came over one morning and we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours harvesting wheel barrels full of lavender!  

We've sold a fair number of bundles through The Flower Frog and I have lots drying in barn!  I'll continue to sell those and debud many after they are done drying to use for culinary purposes.  I love the fact that lavender is basically season-less because it drys so well!

4th of July

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy 4th of July!  We were, as most were, pretty low key.  On the night before the 4th we went to another families pool, ate dinner and then watched Hamilton together, all while being pretty socially distant from each other.  I made a pie that I thought turned out super cute.

On the 4th, we took a hike to a swimming hole that's been on our list to check out for a while and that was super fun!  We had it mostly to ourselves and it was nice to get out and do something beyond the normal.