Happy Friday Y’all!

This is definitely one of my favorite times of year. Spring is gorgeous out here, but we run through it without breathing because the workload is so overwhelming. Winter has its charms, but it is winter nonetheless. Summer is nice, because the workload is the lightest and we get the opportunity to take a break, go away, and visit friends and family.

The cart loaded up with the last dahlias of the season and the first mums of the season!

Fall, though, is an opportunity to reconnect with the farm on a deeper level. Mandy and I still have full work days, some of them ending at 9pm, but there’s more space than there is in spring. It has the same welcoming temperatures and shares the attribute of fragrant blooms enchanting the air, like spring, but we have more space to stop and smell a garden rose. To walk the row of Breezys and watch the symphony of swallowtails, fritillaries, monarchs, buckeyes, skippers, and bumblebees as they dance from bloom to bloom or swirl up around each other, 30 feet in the air in a butterfly dance, before dropping back down to the nectar and pollen below. To stop in the welcome chill of the morning, shortly after first light, and trace the path of a skein of geese as they cross the sky overhead, chatting along the way. To sit in a field in the evening and watch the leaves blow in the distant treetops, as the baby guinneas puddle about, lightly chirping and pecking their way across the ground, the neighbor's dogs playing in the grass, and a slight breeze blows through you as much as past you.

Steaming the last big tunnel of the year today, in preparation for planting our spring flowers!

It’s Thursday as I write this, and I’m finishing up steaming the last big tunnel of the year today.  Very excited about that.  The first trickle of friends comes this afternoon.  The rest will pour in tomorrow.  You may hear us in the background if you come to the store this weekend.  The Farm Store will be open, and the last of the season’s dahlias will be in there.  If you do get to the Farm Store…look out those windows to the left.  Our seedling plot of dahlias is blown wide open, and it is beautiful.  We don’t cut those, because we’re cross breeding them, so it is filled with flowers and a joy to look at.

The dahlia seedling plot outside our Farm Store window (left) & cozy fall goodies inside the farm store (right)

Mum lovers, we just started listing this year’s first cut mums!  This is not plants.  This is flowers!  Enjoy!

Naw with the first mum harvest of the season – harry anderton & purple light!

I’ve gotta get back out to the tunnel, but I hope you have a wonderful weekend and get to soak in some of fall’s goodness.  If you are local, don’t forget Porchfest is happening this Sunday in Athens.  Never been myself, but it sounds awesome.  All kinds of different style bands playing on porches all over Athens.

Steve