July on the Farm: Peaches, Petals & Perseverance

​Weather & Mood
July, as always, flew by in a flurry of exhaustion — sunscreen and sweat, biting flies and bug spray, heat rash and hot nights, and even hotter days.

In Season: Peaches, Weeds & Woes
The Lori Anne peaches showed up at the supermarket (yay!), the sweet peas I started in February looked terrible this year (nay 😞), and the goldenrod and weeds? Absolutely ridiculous.
Honestly, I should be the spokesperson for Lori Anne peaches — I tell everyone about them and truly can’t get enough. They’re everything a peach should be and find their way into just about everything we eat while they’re in season. Some favorites this month:  

• Peach Basil Flatbread Pizza (with fresh garden basil!)
• Peach Bacon Bruschetta 
• Peach, Basil, Tomato & Hot Honey Paninis​

Peach Bacon Bruschetta

​The sweet peas were a heartbreaking loss. I think it was a mix of factors — planted too late, too much rain early on, not enough water later. I harvested one small handful, and now I can’t even look at them when I walk by. It’s depressing. These were seeds I started on Valentine’s Day, full of hope.
Alas — as a gardener, I’m no stranger to defeat. Or perseverance. I’ll try again next year.
The weeds, on the other hand, are thriving. I think the wet spring gave them a head start, and they are everywhere. I’m holding out hope that later this season I’ll look across the flower field and it won’t appear like I’m exclusively growing goldenrod. (Fingers crossed.)

​Wildlife Visitors
A new batch of baby bunnies arrived, and they are everywhere — and just the sweetest little things!  Despite eating, well, everything.  
Meanwhile, the Japanese beetles made their grand entrance on July 4th. They are also everywhere… and decidedly less sweet.
A goldfinch had a collision with our sliding door at dusk and I found him shortly after.  I held him for over an hour and still he wasn't ready to leave.  It was dark so we kept him overnight to recover and released him early the next morning.  He flew into the maple tree with ease and is hopefully living his best life!

Goldfinch rescue

​What’s Blooming
The Russian Sage was a bit late, but most of the summer perennials were absolutely stunning. Some of July’s stars included:

• Apple Mint
• Globe Thistle
• Yarrow
• Echinacea
• Ninebark
• Hydrangea
• Chocolate Lace Flower
• Gooseneck Loosestrife
• Mountain Mint
• Silene

I delivered a lovely batch of bouquets to some email club members — it was nice to see the system working and to meet some flower-loving folks. I had a blast making those arrangements!

July bouquet

​Project Spotlight: The Lilac Move
We moved (with help) a huge lilac from a crowded spot in the west bed to a wide-open, sunny spot in the west lawn. I've been watering non-stop for over three weeks, praying she survives. Her name is Anabel. I bought her at a local plant sale in 2014 for $10. She’s been moved three times… and still managed to outgrow her space.
She was crowding other trees, and her beautiful blooms couldn’t be seen or appreciated. I also had to move an Arrowhead Viburnum (probably just as old) to make room — and that’s been getting its fair share of water, too.
To round out the lilac update: I finally planted the three larger lilacs I bought in May — no more standing the pots back up and watering them twice a day. Ten smaller lilacs are still waiting to be planted in their temporary homes in the flower field.
The watering of all the things is a full-time job in this heat. And the plants are visibly struggling.
(I’ve kind of got a lilac thing going on. I have visions of becoming a mail-order lilac nursery… but that’s a story for another post.)

Anabel Lilac in her new spot

​Garden Notes & Family Time
The chipmunks ate every single currant off our bush this year. Luckily, my mom picked some from a local farm so we could make our yearly jelly quota. I can’t function without red currant jelly — it’s my secret ingredient for muffins all year long.
I also completely missed the peak bloom of the drumstick alliums, one of my seasonal favorites. The bees are thrilled, but I’m disappointed — something to do better next year.
From July 19–26, my sister, brother-in-law, 10-year-old niece, and 6-year-old nephew visited from North Carolina. We had such a great time — picking flowers, playing croquet, yard-saling, eating ice cream, and mostly just trying not to melt in the heat.

The Peach Tree Incident
The large peach tree near the pergola was heavy with fruit this year — the best yield we’ve had in four years, despite its ongoing fungal issues. On Thursday, July 24, with everyone still visiting, a huge branch broke off under the weight.
I spent three hours in the blistering sun harvesting peaches, sawing branches, and pruning what I could reach. We had a ton of fruit — small, but promising. I was thinking of preserving them for the off-season. We made jam during the last bumper crop, but this time, I thought canned peaches might be more useful.

Update: Every single peach I picked rotted quickly. Not sure if it was the heat, the storage conditions, picking them too early, or the tree’s disease — probably all of the above. A sad, wasteful end to what had felt like a small win.

Broken peach tree branches

​Looking Ahead
​The last days of the month were spent trying to keep cool inside while cleaning and resetting the house after a week of small children, sticky fingers, overflowing fridges, and the chaos that comes from having more than two people in the house.
Soon, I’ll be back outside all day, every day — sweating my a** off, trying to whip this place into shape and make things more manageable for next year. I may not have the energy, but future me will be grateful.
There’s still so much to do:

• Potted perennials to plant
• Transplants to transplant
• Weeds to weed
• Weed barriers to lay
• Edges to make
• Trees to prune

And on and on it goes.
“Gardening is the work of a lifetime — you never finish.”
And it’ll probably take me at least that long.