Happy Friday y'all!

  Wondering how many of you saw the Harvest Moon/Super Moon/Lunar Eclipse celestial triple feature the other night.  We caught the moon over our neighbor's field the night before and it was gorgeous, but unfortunately had full cloud cover during the main event.  I hope a few of you got a glimpse and it was a good one.

  We got our friend and studio lead back on the farm and shipping off flowers to your homes this week.  Kali worked as a floral designer in Atlanta for many years before we kidnapped her for some farm work and rural living 4 flower seasons ago and she's been living on the Broad River and working with us every shipping season since, making sure you get beautiful blooms and our cat gets its huge ego stroked.

The new workshop is almost done.  I got the electrical completed and the interior walls finished today.  Having Sarah back in the tunnels and Kali back in the studio is allowing me the time I need to get it wrapped, so I can finish up soon and prepare the tunnels for Fall plantings.  It's so nice having good staff to share the load.  So many plates spinning.

  For you newer mum growers, remember to spray hard for aphids before bud break.  We use Pyganic right before bud break to knock them back and then follow up with a gentler mix each week until harvest.  If you are growing organically, you are going to have aphids, so it's important to have a solid strategy to prevent them from being on your flowers when it's time to harvest.  Check out our organic and successful approach here.   It took us quite some time to figure it out, but since then, it's been working well for us for years.

A few of you have been writing in wondering when the mums will flower…they are a late fall flower, so depending on the variety and your latitude it'll land somewhere between October and November.  November is our biggest harvest month here in North Georgia.

Order taking for the local bulb sale starts this Saturday!  If you're looking for beautiful spring flowers in your landscape or garden, this is the sale for you.

  For those of you coming out to the farm store, we FINALLY HAVE DAHLIAS!! So the farm store will be stocked with them.  We plan on listing bundles for shipping early next week.

  Thanks for your patience on those dahlias folks!  It's just been a really hot and more importantly a really really really dry summer.  For reference, in a normal sultry southern year, we have to mow the grass every week on the warm months (May-October) or we get buried in knee high grass.  That's upwards of 24 times a year. This year, I think I used the mower twice…and even that was more out of nostalgia than out of any extreme need.  We have a certain amount of influence on things out here, but this whole project is done in tandem with nature and it's an uneven partnership.  Some things we just can't fix and have to leave it up to forces beyond our influence.  And so it goes…

  Comer is alive again on Saturdays, so we're gonna get a pastry at The Comerian, eggs at the market, a sandwich and a drink at Comer Coffee, and pop over to the Soldier of the Sea distillery in the afternoon for a cocktail, burger and live music.

  Don't forget to pop down by Neat Pieces Antiques and say hey to Jimmy while poking through the treasures.

  This week's tidbit is a tip of the hat to a new Comer business that you mycophiles will be happy to learn about.  Andrews Acres is a mushroom growing business that uses organic practices and state of the art equipment to grow gourmet shrooms like lion's mane and oyster mushrooms.  I just inspected them for Certified Naturally Grown and was pleased to see their very cool operations.  They are beginning to sell to restaurants and are often set up at markets, including our little Comer market on Saturday, so check them out to see how you can get your fill.

  We hope you have a great weekend and find time for smiling.

Steve