This is part of a new series of blog posts for beginner gardeners. These posts may be a little shorter and more specific in nature.
Before I get into the list of things to do, I wanted to mention that in some regions, you can do these things in June, and even within one region, seasons can be unpredictable. In a hot year, I end up doing most of my July chores in June!
Weeding is a constant task, but there are ways to kill two proverbial birds with one stone here.
First, some of your weeds are edible. Think of Sorrels and Docks, Dandelions, and Lambs’ Quarters. When you pull these weeds, tell yourself that you’re harvesting food, and then make a salad. Lambs’ Quarters are delicious in the summer, but Dandelion leaves can be bitter this time of year, so I would focus on the roots or some flowers. Clean the roots up and dry them for use in broths, or roast them and make flour from them. Pull the petals off some flowers and sprinkle them in your salad.
These Dandelions probably have bitter leaves, but the flowers and roots are fine. Remember to NOT eat the Daffodils!
Another job that you can do while weeding is mulching.
Mulching is vital when temperatures get hot, as the mulch slows down water evaporation while it adds nutrients to the soil. When you pull up weeds, just lay them on the ground, and they’ll die and become mulch, allowing the nutrients present in the weeds to get absorbed back into the soil. There are a few weeds that I wouldn’t lay on the soil right away: blackberry canes and bindweed (morning glory), for example. You don’t want them to take root again. I also recommend that you pull weeds BEFORE they set seeds, so you aren’t planting weed seeds in your garden. You can pull off the seed heads and throw them in the trash if necessary.
While you’re at it, add ollas if you don’t already have them.
What is an olla, you ask? It’s a vessel made of unglazed terra cotta, which you insert into the soil so that the top is just above the soil level, fill with water, and cover. This is an indigenous technique for saving water. Some ollas are large vases with covers, and these can be expensive, especially if you have a large garden. You can also take a regular terra cotta plant pot and plug the hole in the bottom, then sink the pot into the soil, fill with water, and cover the pot with the terra cotta dish that would normally sit under the pot and collect water.
Another way to do it is probably even cheaper: buy hollow terra cotta stakes and insert them into the soil (just like the others, the lip or top of the vessel should be just above the soil level). Then take an empty wine bottle and fill it with water before inserting it upside down into the hollow stake. Whichever technique you use will save you water by keeping the moisture below the soil surface, thus slowing down water loss through evaporation. Just check the wine bottles to see if they need refilling.
After I gently push these ceramic stakes into the soil until the lip is just above the surface, I'll fill a wine bottle with water and put in upside down into the stake.
A wine bottle of water inserted in the stake will help keep the soil moist below the surface.
And now some fun, tasty, and pretty things:
You can still harvest raspberries and serviceberries, maybe even a few strawberries (if you have everbearing strawberry plants). The harvest may be smaller, as the season approaches its end, but you can still make hand pies with a small harvest ( link here: https://nettlesandrosespermaculture.com/recipe/hand-pies/ ) or simply eat the fresh fruit. I especially love serviceberries. They are a native plant here in the US, they’re resilient, their flowers are a favorite with pollinators (especially native pollinators), and they’re delicious, especially Amelanchier alnifolia.
Freshly picked serviceberries
If you have a mulberry tree in your garden, or even in a public space near you, start harvesting from it in July!
Mulberries are an underrated bush or tree. The leaves are edible (salads, for example), and the fruits are not only delicious, but also packed with vitamins and all good things. And if you happen to raise silkworms, their main food is mulberry leaves.
When you pick some, you’ll find you have to snip off the stems as close to the fruit as possible. Don’t worry about the stem inside; it isn’t noticeable when the berry is eaten. I like them raw, dried and used in trail mix, and mixed with other berries in a cobbler. I have three mulberry trees: one very large one, one weeping mulberry (which has yet to produce), and one dwarf mulberry (which produces a vast amount of fruit). If mulberries grow in your area, it’s worth seeking them out and foraging. If you can grow them, do so, but check with your local extension office first, because some are invasive.
A bowl of delicious mulberries for breakfast
If you have a lot of blueberries on the bush, pick them and freeze them. I love to eat frozen blueberries – my husband adds cream, but I love chomping on the pure frozen fruit. I also like them with plain yogurt for breakfast, or sprinkled in a salad, or baked into hand pies. They’re also tasty in muffins or muesli (if you’re drying them, don’t dry them so much that they become like rocks!)
There are also a lot of flowers that you can harvest! If you have roses, pick the most fragrant ones, first for bouquets. Once the bouquet starts to fade, pull off the petals and air dry them. Rose petals are delicious in a black tea. You can also grind up some dried petals together with pink salt, for a lovely scented salt. Try adding roses to a potpourri mix, for example, with lavender, or sew a few sachets with fabric scraps and fill them with rose petals.
Roses are delicious in a liqueur, or an elixir.
You can add roses to a brandy, along with hawthorn berries, cardamom, and a fruit, such as a pear or plum. Plums like cloves and cinnamon, while pears like lighter flavors like nutmeg. I don’t use expensive brandy for this. Add a little honey to taste and mix it in well. Let it sit on your counter for a few weeks and taste it. When you like the flavor, strain out the solids. This will store for a long time. I like it as a delicate treat on a winter day. Just a little glass does the job!
I grew these roses form cuttings of my mother's roses, which makes them extra special. They smell wonderful!
Elderflowers ready to be picked. They have an intoxicating aroma.
June is the time to pick Elderflowers!
Have you ever had elderflower sorbet? There’s a recipe on my website: https://nettlesandrosespermaculture.com/recipe/elderflower-sorbet/
There are other recipes for elderflowers: elderflower simple syrup https://nettlesandrosespermaculture.com/recipe/elderflower-simple-syrup/
Elderflower muffins https://nettlesandrosespermaculture.com/recipe/elderflower-muffins/
and a blog article about The Magic of Elderflowers https://nettlesandrosespermaculture.com/2022/06/15/the-magic-of-elderflowers/
You can use elderflowers in teas as well. They’re delicious and have an amazing flavor.
Try making an elixir with roses and elderflowers! That’s next on my list. Finally, you can infuse an oil such as sweet almond or jojoba with rose petals, to be used later in a soap or cream. The oil should infuse for a month or so – always make sure that the petals are submerged, or they can spoil.
Calendulas in flower.
Calendulas too are flowering in July.
To make sure that you’re saving some seeds for next year, don’t pick ALL the flowers. Leave some of the flowers with the deepest orange color. Once you’ve picked some flowers, try infusing them in some oil for salves, creams, or soaps. Calendula is wonderful for the skin. To infuse the oil, let your picked calendulas dry out for a few hours, and then stuff them into a clean jar. Cover them well with sweet almond, olive, or jojoba oil, and let infuse for a month. Make sure the flowers stay submerged during that time.
After a month, filter out the solids.
To make a salve with this oil –
melt one part beeswax with 4 parts infused oil over a double boiler (in a pan on top of a pan of hot water). When the mixture is melted and well mixed together, pour it into tins or jars. Add a few drops of essential oil of choice right away, before the salve solidifies. Lavender and Rose Geranium are good choices. Rose oil is too, but it’s very expensive, as is jasmine.
Sometimes it’s a good idea NOT to harvest something.
One such thing is artichokes. Don’t forget to leave some for the bees! If you don’t harvest an artichoke, it will open up and become a beautiful purple flower, and bumblebees just love it. I’ve found artichoke flowers just full of frolicking rolling bumblebees, as well as some smaller pollinators. One of the most important things we can do in our gardens is make sure we feed the non humans as well as the humans.
An artichoke in flower is stunning, and the pollinators seem to agree.
