Chaos reigns, need to be more organised!
Well what a summer it has been, hot hot hot hot and all my good intentions to be more organised this year have slipped - I am too easily distracted by the comings and goings of the family and other demands on my time. There are however flowers in the field which now need to be sold. At last a wholesale list has been created, better late than never, which will be winging it’s way out today or tomorrow to those florists who have requested it, and the flower shed is stocked every weekend with beautiful freshly cut flowers, and may be the odd bit of excess fruit and veg. Courgettes are a go go. Attending the award winning Kendal Farmers Market (we won the Countryside Alliance Local Food /Drink award) with many other fantastic traders continues to be fun and I love chatting to new and old customers. There feedback is lovely, this year I sold a few excess vegetable plants and hearing how they get on is fab.
Even though it is now creeping into autumn the field there are still many beautiful flowers including rudbeckia, snapdragons and zinnias, amongst other things, to compliment the limited number of dahlias that are beginning to strut their stuff. The very welcome rain has certainly helped increase the number of flowers, the weeds are growing well too! I’m thinking of doing another pick your own on Saturday 19th September, which I will advertise on Facebook and Instagram. Key your eyes peeled.
The job in the meantime is to sow seeds for next years flowers. It is always a process filled with hope, and am particularly hoping that the little plants will survive the many challenges they will face. This year there were marauding slugs, which destroyed most of my early plantings, voles, which dug under and ate many of my dahlias and the weather. It also goes without saying that my lack of attention, on occasion, when they need it didn’t help. They always get the best start that I can provide, in soil blocks inoculated with load of good homemade concoctions to speed them on their way to strong healthy plants. The challenge is planting when they are ready, before they get stressed by being inside too long, yet big enough to fight off their predators. Also on the list of flowery things is to make use of a shepherds hut which I have in the field to create with dried flowers. I need to get them out of the house - they take over if I let them. There are some lovely bits of wall in the hut that can be used to display my wreaths. If you can cope with a short walk across a potentially wet field you could always come and have a look.