Happy Friday my friends, goodness it’s been a busy last two weeks! Time at the beach with Joe’s great niece and nephew, then a seven day road trip with my niece and second cousin — 1,000 miles total…shew! I’m ready for rest….or not? The garden isn’t ready for me to rest yet…lots of seeds to harvest (Honey Wart, Calendula, Sweet Peas, Corn Cockle, Bachelor Buttons…and probably more!) lots of things to clean up!

As per 2020 craziness, the weather continues to be odd and makes things interesting in the garden. Thankfully Joe’s brother and sister-in-law took care of the watering for us while we were gone as I think it was rather warm and dry while we were gone. Lots blooming when we arrived back home.

When we got home it was fun to see all the things that were ready to harvest, unfortunately we had a heavy rain and wind blow through that night and next day, so some of my stuff was damaged – darn it! What am I going to do….? I’m considering giving up, and giving everyone’s money back and calling it quits – HOWEVER…..with the beauty of last night picking, the fact that I got 7 bouquets out of just half of the stuff that I picked from the garden is enough to make me just take a deep breath and just calm the heck down….geeze….it was a heavy rain, not the end of the world girl!

The Glads, Bells of Ireland, Gallarida, Pin Cushion flowers and Cosmos took the biggest hit. I’m sure that things will be just fine, but it’s tough to see things laying over. It’s not like I was super attached to the Gallarida….I’m thinking it would be a good thing to just get rid of them to make room for the Zinnia’s that I started by seed mid-June. The ones that made it into the garden two weeks ago look great and are already starting to put on buds!

I have no idea who I’m going to sell these flowers to, everyone is selling flowers – almost every street corner I see flowers for sale – okay, maybe not every corner, but I see a lot of roadside stands on my local neighbors page in addition to seeing them often when I’m out and about. My usual farmer neighbor didn’t need any today – makes me worry a bit that maybe he didn’t like the last ones…or maybe he’s just busy my dear – perhaps out of town or has something going on – it’s not always about me! I was surprised by how well sales were in July – and wonder what – if anything – August has in store for me!

I’ve enjoyed being able to do arrangements in color pallets this year – yellows & reds, pinks & purples, moody colors….definitely enjoyable and pleasing to the eye. I’d say that I will do more of that next year, but hey now, let’s take it slow – only 5 rows next year – 5 rows and 5 subscriptions….

This week I’m giving my subscribers a bit of a bonus to show my appreciation of their kindness and support! They’ve all been great to work with. Very appreciative-makes it nice when people appreciate my hard work!

July took an interesting turn of events in the business department. I had a lady stop by the stand and buy some things via the flower buffet. She sent me a message on Facebook, I told her that I hope she was going to love the Goditias as much as I do, she was super nice about it and suggested I reach out to florist to ask them if they’d be willing to buy. I told her I hated to bother the florist and I’m sure they have their people they buy from.

Oddly, I had just recently been in to visit a florist in the small town of Lynden just minutes away from my little town to buy some toffee for my husband for his birthday, so I thought – what the heck- I’ve chatted with her before, she knows me, so I’ll reach out. So I did just that – and she said she’d be interested in seeing what I had, so I loaded up and headed over.

What is even stranger is that the lady that suggested I reach out to florist happened to be the same florist – I didn’t know her name because her card didn’t have her name on it – so I wasn’t sure if she was the same lady that I follow on Instagram or not…it was all so very strange and happened right before I left on vacation so I still need a few moments to process the entire situation! After putting all the pieces together, and being super confused mind you – she ended up purchasing a decent amount of my inventory. I had a ton of Goditia on & ready to go, so she bought a bucket of that – and just like that – they are gone! She bought my beautiful white lilys….that just happened to be coming on just as I was leaving, so my investment for my subscriptions didn’t make it to my people, but they indeed did get used & bought by the florist at least! She also bought some Lisianthus which was at a discount because they were short. I had a price in mind when I went in, but she asked for less, which is fine, I’m new to this, and I wanted them used up. Live and learn! I don’t want to be the person who has too high of prices, if I don’t want to sell my stuff then I won’t bring it to her – easy peasy!

I came up with a price because I ended up with a price sheet from the local flower people around here, there is a group of us on Facebook – about 20 in the county – and those aren’t counting the florist or the bigger flower farmers that aren’t on that page….that only has about 230,000 people – that is a lot of flower farmers for only 230,000 people! My Lisianthus price was already less than the suggested list price, but then ended up being even less because of the length – I’m not too horribly worried about it. They are very pretty, but they don’t have a scent, which is kind of disappointing – but put it in a vase with something that does have a scent and it seems to trick me into thinking they smell nice-lol I’m a dork I know!

Several of my flowers are finished for the season – another reason why I am in a bit of a panic honestly….and the Glads and Dahlias are on a hot trail to being done soon too – my sunflowers are peaking also. Since I took a week off, it pushed my subscriptions to the second week in September….and two of my people skipped another week….so it should be interesting to see what I have – they just may end up with cute little pumpkins and corn – maybe some apples and pears too!?

Last nights storm was very fall like – it was dark early too….ugg, just as I thought summer had arrived here we are….but honestly…cool crisp mornings, the garden going to sleep, me crafting more….it’s not all bad!

And then there is the uncertainty of what the school year will look like – we were just informed that we are not going back in person – it’s all so odd. So I have no idea what is happening to my hours, what that looks like for me or my students that need hands on Braille. There is chatter about possibly having some students come in – who knows what that will look like. I know what it should look like – but who am I to have any say in any of it?

I hope you have a great weekend – thank you so much for stopping by! I’m working on my post about my oils. I was working on it before we left on vacation, so that should be completed soon enough!