Happy Friday!

It’s another dispatch from your friends on a crispy southern farm. Dahlias are our big thing this time of year, but with this dry heat consistently stuck in the upper 90s (some low 90s this week…yay!) the plants get shocked into metabolic stasis. They don’t really grow. They don’t really produce flowers. Even the heat tolerant varieties we’ve been selecting and cultivating for 15 years are on strike. Without the storms that cool the earth and drop nighttime temps into a range they can work with, they just get stuck in plant purgatory.

The ones we have that are near the woods and are exposed to morning and evening shade, are actually doing quite a bit better, which is lovely, and if you are growing in a southern garden, yours might be doing okay too thanks to a shadier and cooler microclimate. I hope so.

As a farm though, most of our plants are in the middle of a field. No shade. So, we had to postpone some of our first dahlia deliveries unfortunately. If that happened to you, my apologies, but we are confident that we’ll be able to get you on the back end. I’m seeing a bunch of days in the low 90s coming up and the forecast shows nights dipping into the 60s too. Dahlias originated in the mountains of Mexico, so they are genetically predisposed to needing cooler nighttime temps. Most of their growth actually occurs at night too. The upcoming evenings will be good for our plants.

Meanwhile, with our constant irrigation, the weeds are still growing. They don’t seem stressed by the heat. Mandy and the field crew deserve some serious tenacity awards. It is not a pleasant time to be squatting on black landscape fabric, hand pulling weeds for 4 hours at a stretch down a never-ending succession of 150 foot rows. Hats off to them and every person on a roofing crew right now. Stay hydrated out there.

But, the chrysanthemums are looking healthy and weed free.  They are super tolerant of the heat and are doing great.  We just had a meeting planning a fun little mum show this November in Comer.  It will be very unorthodox and cheerful in every way and followed up by a musical performance by one of the most amazing singers we’ve ever witnessed.  Aslyn will close out the mum show with a set on her piano, surrounded by tons of heirloom chrysanthemums, as we celebrate the day with libations.  We’ll keep you in the loop as details get established.

We are already getting excited about spring poppies. We started taking soil samples into the UGA Ag Extension so we know how to amend our beds for best results. You can figure out your soil's nutrient composition and how that correlates to the ideal needs of your intended crops. You can assess pH range (critical for nutrient uptake) and even organic matter content, which is also very helpful info. If you’re a grower at any level, you can really benefit from these very cheap tests. The most basic nutrient assessments cost about $9.

Some of you have mentioned this newsletter always goes to your Promotions folder. Here are some ways you can fix that and make sure it goes to your inbox each week:

For Gmail (Desktop)

Drag this email from your Promotions tab and drop it directly into the Primary tab.

For Gmail (Mobile App)

Tap the three dots in the top right corner of this email, select Move to, and choose Primary.

For Apple Mail

Tap our sender name at the top of this email and select Add to VIPs.

For All Other Email Apps

Reply to this email with a quick 'Hi!' or add steve@3porchfarm.com to your Contacts list.

In that vein…Google has added a personalization feature to help you customize what shows up at the top of your searches.  Click here and add 3 Porch Farm as a Google Preferred Source – be sure to put a checkmark in the box!  Doing this will tell Google you value us and our content as a trusted source when it comes to flowers and organic growing.

Okay, that’s enough talk about tech stuff. Back to fun stuff.

Our Fall Plant Sale is up on our site for you locals looking to grow some veggies.  Limited time only, so hop on there.  The Farm Store is open again Thurs-Sat. Be sure to check out our fun list of stuff to do in Comer if you’re coming by, so you can make a day of it.  There really are some stellar spots to visit just a stone’s throw from here.

It appears from your feedback that y’all love the Linda-isms as much as I do, so I’ll leave you with a couple more.

“Sounds like you got more than you can say grace over.” (you’re busy)

“Love walks out the door when money flies out the window.” (relationship advice)

That’s it for me today. I look forward to a newsletter in which I complain about the rain and over abundance of flowers.

Have a great weekend!

Steve