The veggie garden/raised beds area is coming along. Our new strawberry raised bed is starting to produce greenery and flowering after a few short weeks of being planted (bare-root plants). Shout out to Indiana Berry, where I purchased plants online. I have been pinching off the flowers as instructed for the first year to not allow berries to go to fruit this year. Apparently, waiting until the second year to allow fruit produces stronger plants and more fruit the second year. We have some lettuce and peppers forming. Tomato plants are getting larger. The rest of garden looks great.
We also harvested our rose petals in June! We got a bumper crop this year and they have already been air dried and are up for sale on our website e-commerce and Etsy stores. They smell so sweet! We use rose petals here in our sachets and also in our lavender-rose botanical soy candles.
Our wildflower garden is growing well. I have planted a new larger section of direct sowing. It’s up in the air right now how well it took. We will just have to wait a bit further into summer to see if it succeeded. The part of the bed in it’s third year is growing well and full of daisies and other wildflowers. It appears that deer have taken to bedding down in the middle of the field at night. It look a bit “squashed” in the center, but the garden is meeting it’s intention which is to provide habitat for wildlife and a naturalized area in the garden. It is full of bees, butterflies (including Monarchs) and also rabbit and deer enjoy hiding in the garden. Another critter named Murphy (our beagle mix) loves the field. He makes a bee-line straight for it smell and walk among the flowers. I do believe we have a hedgehog that is quite large. I have seen him once or twice by the veggie garden and it appears he uprooted a few strawberry plants. We will have to plaace some Repel All, which is a repellent for rabbit and such critters. We sprinkle it around the perimeter of the garden and the smells deters them away.
My Granddaughter and I have put our Fairy Garden/ homes. This is a wonderful activity to do with the child in your life (or even for adults). I really enjoy doing it and our granddaughter loves it too. We purchased the little wooden doors and windows for our trees through another Etsy seller based in Novia Scotia last year. He does wonderful hand-crafted work. Emma and I designs our Fairy homes a small grove of two Eastern White Pine trees. We used gravel from our driveway to create a walking path and a solar powered garden lamp for lighting. We used marigolds and pine cones for shrubs and flowers. We also have a fairy home at our log cabin in Northern Michigan. Great project to do with children!
We packed a lot activity into May and June! My blog has turned into more of a monthly or quarterly newsletter of sort. I find I just don’t have time to blog weekly. I have begun sign up on our contact page for a newsletter. My plan is to send this content via email list and other updates. I will still also post it on our blog. However, some people do prefer to just have updates to their inbox, which I can appreciate. Take Care!
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VACATION NOTICE: July 3rd-6th. No orders will be shipped during this time.
HARVEST 2020 NEWS: First batch of English Lavender 2020 Harvest is dried and we are still harvesting more! Grosso, long-stemmed, will be a ready later in July.
IMPORTANT NOTICE – SHIPPING DELAYS/MATERIAL DELAYS: Due to COVID-19 and increased demand for certain products/materials and increased online ordering shipping for ALL CARRIERS are delayed. Please allow extra time when ordering. I send most items USPS Priority mail 1-4 days. However, the carriers are NOT always keeping to these timeline. We will send a tracking number so you can watch the progress of the item in transit. On our end, creation of products is also being delayed due to supply chain issues. Many items such as spray bottle, hand soap bottles, and other items are just out of stock due to the increased demand.
BOUQUET SIZING:
Large approximately 16 length x 10-12 wide.
Medium bouquet approximately 12-14 length x 7.5-8 wide
Small/flower girl is about 10 inches and 4-6 wide
– These are approximates. Cottage Garden bouquet is slightly larger than other designs
Currently we are out of ammobium – small daisy like white and yellow flower used in our flower designs. This is on order with a supplier (our zone is too cold to grow this variety). I should have shipment in Mid-July to End-of-July. I am also out of Nigella pods. Again, not in bloom quite yet. I have been subbing these flowers for others.