Happy Friday! I seen a FB post about looking forward to Friday while in this crazy times of everyday being a damn Friday, it made me chuckle, because it is so true! When this all first started I did indeed work on the weekends and well past my normal hours and even started earlier than my normal hours, but the last couple of weeks I’ve been better at putting things away that are work related and not worrying about it so much until Monday morning, or until my normal hours. It’s been tricky!

Okay on to my 2 truths….which really all my blogs are true….but these two things in particular might surprise you….and are rather ridiculous!

Number one — I hate having dirty hands. I’m not a nail salon type person, but there are occasions where I will go with my daughter and get a nice pedicure, but honestly, my hands are used to office work, paper crafting, sewing and baking. I hate the feeling of dirt on my hands, I hate the dirt under my fingernails, it drives me nuts. I wouldn’t say that I have perfect hands, but I use them a lot and lately with all this weeding and planting in the garden there is dirt stained on my skin, in the crevices of my nails that just will not come out no matter how many dishes I wash, no matter how many showers I take, no matter how much I scrub. I haven’t been wearing gloves because it is difficult to feel what’s happening with the seedlings or with the weeds, but it’s going to change this week. I’ll see if I can find a glove that will allow better movement and some more feeling so I’m able to protect my hands. Also, I’m going to the store today to find some of that Gojo soap my dad used to use when he worked on cars.

It’s such a dorky thing to be driven crazy by, and being a flower farmer you would think it would be fine. I’ve heard people talk about how much they love the feel of dirt…not so much for me. Even the dirt that I start my seeds in kinda drives me crazy, I often times get tiny slivers from it, but again, I can work better with no gloves – what a silly thing to complain about with all the things going on in the world and I complain about dirt under my nails and staining my skin. Ugg…there are people who don’t even get showers, and here I am complaining about dirty hands. There’s lot of people who would trade me for my “problems”. I don’t ever take for granted my morning showers or my hot soapy water when I wash dishes, I know how precious it is! But my dirty hands – my stained hands…drives me batty.

Second truth….

I don’t love every flower equally. I know, I know….I’m not supposed to pick favorites with my “little kids” but it’s true, there are flowers that I don’t care for and really don’t want anything to do with. I even have a color preference….but I still plant the colors I don’t care for as much – and still plant some new-to-me flowers to try.

One of those is Stock. I tried it my first year, and it didn’t do well, but well enough to have three, and I used them, but wasn’t over joyed by them. I decided to try this year – mostly gave in to peer pressure because people rave about it and how wonderful it is. For starters, it’s a one & done type flower….and it doesn’t do super well here, my stems aren’t the 18-22 inches that a lot of people get, they are more like 10 inches, which is usable in vases, so I need to just get over it! I did manage to get 10 this year, out of the 30 or so I started. I’ve already snipped one off and brought it inside, and it’s nice, but underwhelming to me. Not sure if I will do it again next year, we’ll see!

Another one is Black Eyed Susan, even the name bothers me – so ridiculous to not like a flower because of it’s name – but that’s not solely the reason, it’s also the color. It’s a good thing we all have different color preferences, what a boring world this would be if we all liked the same color! I admire people who can stick to one color, know what they like and go with it. My first year I grew flowers I had a ton of purple and pinks – didn’t intend to, it just happened! This year I branched out more and actually bought orange cosmos and yellow cosmos–which honestly I am looking forward to. Carol Lee had some very nice sounding flowers on her page also, that I think I will branch out and try next year that are out of my color scheme-I’ll have to go back and read her posts to remind myself which ones they were! I also tried Calendula this year, which is orange and yellow, but I grew it to use it salves and oil and to dry it for pretty food decoration-I would have liked it better if it was pink!! See…ridiculous! And it turns out this year I had some issues finding a white flower — the Polar Bear Zinnia was not a true white flower, it was like a dirty light grey, I didn’t care for it & the Queen Annes lace was messy. I also didn’t do as much purple & pink, which I hope I don’t regret-I did more reds, oranges, and yellows.

I’m sure that a walk through my garden this summer will be interesting, even I will be surprised lol! I’m not super great about keeping track of what is where and what things are called, things have died and I’ve poked in extra of what I have, and not keeping track of it could come back to haunt me when I discover that everything pink I planted died and I wasn’t keeping track! “Que sera sera”…that is what my dad said when he was diagnosed with Cancer….what will be will be…it seemed odd to me at the time, but I’ve said it often since then. If dad could have that attitude about Cancer, then indeed for goodness sake, I could have that attitude more often about my “issues”.

Okay, enough of all that….I’ve gone on and on about dumb things — here’s an update — some good news! It’s been super warm the last three days-80’s for us is usually the end of July beginning of August temps! I’ve spent 4 and a half hours weeding this week, probably have another 4 to go before I have to loop back around & start over! 🙄😳. I have a beautiful tan on my back, but my legs are as white a copy paper 😂😂

• the Gromphs did better than I had orginally thought, they certainly are very rough around the edges, but the root system did really well so I have hope they will pull together. They did really well when I was out weeding and disturbing all the stuff around them. I gave them all haircuts and was very thankful that I didn’t have 163 of them to trim – I think I planted about 60, of those I think 50 made it, and I have have probably 20 in the greenhouse I planted from seed that look really good and are ready to infill!
• The Cress, Yarrow and Black Eyed Susans that turned brownish red when I planted them, all pulled together are are a lovely green now-shew!!!
• Lisianthus, Honeywort, Zinnias, Pin Cushions, Asters, Balsam, Stained Glass flower, and even my Godietias are looking good!

Well, today’s entry went on and on about things that have nothing to do with the garden – thanks for stopping by & putting up with my nonsense! I hope you have a fabulous weekend! Hugs to you!