farm notes 6.30.23

Our driveway up to the house is a little on the steep side which creates two "hillsides" - one that is a pain to mow (pictured below) and one that is mostly a pile of rocks with some Sumac trees. If I'm standing in the garden, this is what is between me and the house. It's unruly and wild, which I mostly love, but I'm also always looking for another place to plant flowers.....We moved a lot of rocks and got half of this side tidied up this year. We turned the rocky ledge into the beds you see, using the rounder rocks for bed edges and the flatter rocks for a little walkway in-between. I'll start the small section behind it next spring when it's easier to play with the brambles. So. Many. Brambles. I'm envisioning a low-maintenance cottage style full of perennials and biennials, maybe even a spot to sit as the garden + peony beds are the view to the left of the photo.Bertha on a hot day after a dip in the creek and a good roll in the dust. She's a true farm dog. Ha!Aaaand the meat birds have arrived! It's our 4th year raising Freedom Rangers and we really love these birds as a homestead protein. My least favorite day every year is chicken processing day, but I sure appreciate a freezer full come winter and I feel good knowing they had such a good life.Lastly, I'm growing dye plants for the first time this year. Two types of indigo, dyer's coreopsis and sulfur cosmos. I don't imagine I'll have much time to play with dye plants with all the wedding related projects we have going on, but it's still fun to see how they grow and I'll definitely dry some flowers to save for later...xo,s