The Garvey's Gardens Podcast · Sydney Garvey + Audrey Estrada

#86 - August on our Flower Farm!

·39 min·2 clips

By the end of August, the farm is in what Sydney calls “sloggest.”

1. The Garvey's Gardens Podcast focuses on August work on the flower farm, especially heat, weeds, and succession planning. 2. Sydney Garvey and Audrey Estrada host together, and Sydney’s farm management perspective drives the checklist while Audrey helps translate the work into everyday garden terms. 3. The episode asks what still needs to happen in August before frost, seed drop, and the next planting window. 4. Sydney describes August as “sloggest” and says the farm is trying to beat the heat by harvesting early and staying cool later in the day. 5. Bindweed gets repeated attention because it wraps around stems, spreads fast, and has to come off during harvest. 6. The farm is also clearing weeds before they set seed, then throwing the material into a dump trailer instead of compost. 7. Sydney says the East beds are being cleared so more perennials can be planted in September and October. 8. The checklist item she highlights is to clear tired beds for fall plantings, and she says listeners can download the full 12-month checklist at garveysgardens.com. 9. Harvesting is only one part of the schedule, because Audrey also helps weed, clear beds, and tag dahlias during the summer. 10. Sydney names early dahlias like “Early Golden Scepter,” “Creamy,” “Holly Hill,” “Chris Kringle,” and “Blizzard” as varieties she tracks for division. 11. She explains that some dahlias come back bigger every year after overwintering, which is why she wants to divide and replant favorites. 12. Sydney describes “Creamy” as a butter-colored dahlia that fits the farm’s neutral palette better than the harsher yellow of “Golden Scepter.” 13. “Cecil” is Sydney’s absolute favorite dahlia, and she says she wants eventually to make whole rows of selected varieties. 14. She says sun-up harvesting matters because by around 8:30 the work shifts to showers and getting out of the heat. 15. Sydney uses alarms for everything, including an 8:30 alarm that tells her to stop harvesting and go inside. 16. She explains that 14 dahlia rows, each about 40 feet long, require updated notes, counted stems, and matched flower heads before labeling is complete. 17. Fertilizing gets a detailed explanation, including liquid Neptune’s Harvest, weekly goals, and the idea that August is usually the end of feeding season before frost. 18. Lisianthus are described as rose-like flowers with no thorns and no scent, and Sydney notes they need multiple blooms per stem before harvest. 19. The tone is practical and conversational, with repeated back-and-forth between Sydney and Audrey about what is blooming, what is finished, and what needs to be cut next. 20. Listeners who manage gardens or small flower farms will get the most from this episode, while people looking for a light recap with no farm logistics may skip it.

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