From my Heart to the Drying room
Good morning, friends!
This email is arriving a little later than usual this week. With the long Labor Day weekend, we planned our day around family time first—then tackled some garden chores that had been sitting on my to-do list for about two weeks! We brought in a great haul of string beans, and I’m stubbornly holding onto our tomato plants for another two weeks. After that, we’ll clear some space and get a few cool-weather crops going.
Do you feel like you have one foot in summer and one foot in fall? I certainly do!
Around the Farm
Last week was FULL!
A Little Back-to-School Joy
Last week we sent out our petite Meet the Teacher bouquets—little bundles of locally grown flowers went into classrooms to bring joy to a brand-new school year. Thank you for celebrating teachers and supporting local flowers at the same time.
a bucket filled with Meet the teacher bouquets
A Meaningful Moment
Last week, we were asked to create a funeral arrangement with flowers and foliage grown locally from our farm. This isn't a request we often receive, and I was truly humbled that our flowers were chosen to be part of honoring and remembering someone so deeply loved.
The monarch caterpillars have also arrived in abundance! We have found so many in our raised garden beds. We are on the hunt daily, retrieving baby caterpillars after we find little holes in the milkweed they’ve been munching on.
Meet Our Chief Egg-xecutive
Garrett has officially added “Egg-xeutive” to his farm resume. His half dozen + one—have made their debut. “Because around here, a little extra is pretty wonderful”
Last Tuesday, Chris met with the Visual Communications students and staff from Delaware Tech, and many of the students came out to visit the farm and experience our space. When we were nudged to start Gathered Bloom, we prayed that the Lord would use this field for His glory. We are incredibly grateful that we were selected for this semester project, and we're excited to work and learn alongside the students and staff.
From My Heart
This season has me thinking a lot about how growing requires faith and trust.
We plant tiny seeds. We water, tend and wait. And even after watching God provide, I find myself trapped with questions, Will this work? What comes next? What if I miss the planting window? What if there aren’t enough flowers…pumpkins? Am I doing enough?
But then I look at this plant and remember where it started—a tiny seed we started in our kitchen in December 2025.
I wanted eucalyptus for our Fall workshops and Christmas wreaths. I could have bought plugs, but the seed was available, the grow rack and lights were ready...so we tried.
We planted. We watered. We waited. We trusted.
Now, months later, we're harvesting that eucalyptus from the field and carrying it into the drying room, preparing it for the wreaths and dried flower workshops that we imagined during the frigid temperatures of the season, months ago.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” — Galatians 6:9
Maybe you're waiting too? Waiting for an answer. Waiting for a door to open. Waiting for something you've prayed over to change. Or wondering if the work you're putting into something will ever bear fruit. Sometimes faith looks a lot like planting a tiny seed when you can't yet see what it will become—and continuing to tend to it while you wait.
Fall at Gathered Bloom
That photo above is a sneak peak that drying season has officially begun! Flowers that fill bouquets are also being harvested in the intention of taking on a whole new life in some of the projects we have planned for fall.
We currently have four fall workshops in the works, and I cannot wait to share the details with you soon!
We are also honored to welcome back the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition for a special gathering for breast cancer survivors.
If you are a survivor and would like to join us, you can learn more and register here:
Come See us this Friday…Let’s Celebrate Back to School!
For many of our families, today is the first day of school, or some of us have been in that routine for a few weeks now. That means by Friday, we think everyone deserves a little something to celebrate and maybe some time just to be together. Wind down from the week, stroll the rows of blooms and check on the caterpillars.
We have just ONE opportunity to visit this week, and we'll be spending it with our friends from Marmy's!
Come spend an easy Friday evening with us after that first week back. Cut some flowers, enjoy time together and celebrate making it through those first few days of a brand-new school year.
Friday, September 113:30 pm - 7:30 pm
As we return to school and summer gives way to fall, we are reminded how quickly these seasons pass, you'll see it today too in that last year vs this year's first day of school photo. Seasons are fleeting.
Thank you for continuing to be part of it all.
With gratitude,