Summer Farm Update: June - August 2026
Every year and every season I learn something new and grow as a farmer and business owner, and this summer taught me something very important: what I do and don't want the farm to be when it is 100+ degrees for weeks on end. This Spring was beautiful. We had wonderful temps, plenty of rain and the farm and plants was doing amazing. But like all good things, they come to an end.
I spent the month of June finishing up the lavender harvest, hanging the lavender bundles up to dry, and starting to process the dried lavender. I am so grateful that this year the lavender harvest came in in a perfect stagger. Once one variety was dry on the racks and ready to be processed, another was ready for harvest and ready to take it's spot. That made this year's harvest soooo much easier to get done without having any of my lavender go to waste in the field. I still had some waste, but not like last year, which I am grateful for.
July I spent finishing up processing the rest of the lavender and turning my attention back to the dahlias. Yeah, that was fun. But on the bright side I know which varieties do good with a ton of weed pressure. If that should be listed as a good thing. Dad and I spent several days pulling weeds, laying down the irrigation lines (yes I know that should have already been done), and getting fabric down between the rows to help with the weed pressure.
Out of the 4.5 rows I got planted I have decided to only keep maybe 3 of them and that will probably change by the time I need to dig them up. Honestly at this point I just want to get the tubers, I gave up on getting any good flowers out of the plants this year. But I have plans for next year, so we will see that next year brings.
August brought me lots of dead plants. When the temperatures decided to go from spring to summer, it played havoc on my potted cuttings and seedlings. I now have a nice big pile of pots with dead plants in them. I was really hoping to start my fall planting when the temperatures started cooling off some, but there was no way I was going to be able to keep the plants watered enough to handle the heat.
So, up with the old and down with the new. We had to rip out the fabric that I had down, and I mean that literally, there was no saving it. We put down new fabric and got the 100+ plants of yarrow in the ground. What I am going to do with that many plants I have no idea, but I will figure it out. I really need to make a note for myself that I don't have to start every seed I have of something when I start seeds, but that may be a lesson that takes me years to learn.
As much as I would love to get everything done now, I have come to accept that one step at a time will get things done. It may not be as fast as I want it, but it is faster than if I try to get multiple things done at once. See, I am learning. Slowly.
What really amazed me is that we was able to prep the ground to get the lavender planted. I really thought we were just going to have to really dig out each hole for the plants by hand one at a time, but the Lord was looking our for us because the disc worked amazingly as well as the tiller. That helped out so much, and after we got the fabric down my cheapy little drill auger bit worked like a charm digging out the holes for the lavender. I never thought that bit would last as long as it has, but it's still trucking after digging several hundred holes for us. That was by far the best investment (and cheapest) I have every made. I might only have 75 of the 300 lavender plants that I have to plant in the ground but it's a start.
This year might have been a rollercoaster ride in terms of weather, but it has taught me that taking my time and getting things done right the first time will save me hours of labor later. That may sound like a simple thing, but it is hard to follow when you have a list of to-dos that is a mile long and growing every day.
And, of course, no farm work can be completed without the supervision of my farm boss. She even wanted to make sure that the farm update was up to snuff.
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