Tending the Summer Garden: Water, Weeds, and Working With Nature

Early summer gardening isn’t just about growing…

It’s about tending 🌿

In this episode:

🌱 Making fertilizer from weeds

💧 Keeping thirsty plants hydrated

🐛 Identifying common garden pests

🌼 Natural pest control & companion planting

🌎 Building a resilient garden ecosystem

Because the healthiest gardens work with nature — not against it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Early summer is where the garden changes its voice. Spring is hopeful, tender, full of beginnings. But early summer? Early summer asks for commitment. The seedlings are no longer fragile little promises. Now they are growing fast, stretching upward, flowering, demanding water, nutrients, and attention. The days grow hotter, the soil dries quicker, the pests arrive. And suddenly, garmin hmm Wow. And suddenly, gardening becomes less about planting and more about tending. This is the season where gardeners learn one of the oldest truths. A garden is not controlled, it is guided. Today we're talking about early summer garden care, how to nourish plants naturally, create fertilizer from weeds, conserve water during heat, and work with nature instead of constantly fighting against it. Welcome, witches, pagans, heathens, spiritualists, and anyone interested in living sustainably. This is Old Ways, New Days, where the old ways meet the good dirt. I'm Kayla, and I'm Noel. And each week we explore the sacred art of living close to the land. From compost to covens, chickens to charms, we're reclaiming self-sufficiency, seasonal living, and ancestral wisdom. Whether you're stirring your cauldron or your soup pot, this is a space for wild-hearted folk walking the homesteading path with intention, magic, and muddy boots. Hi Kayla. Hi now. And another sweltering day. I know, and I and the summer isn't even here yet. Right. Gross. And the air conditioning is on, but you can't tell. I know. But you know, my fiance did demand that I finally turn it on. So I know. Which makes me wonder if it already blew the fuse. We could always check. Yes, we could. But that would mean stopping sharing all this wonderful information with our listeners. I know. I mean, yes, I could pause and come back. What? Pause? We don't do that. No, we do a straight shot. Right. And then edit all the bloopers. Yeah, and then it's not like we don't swelter out in the heat anyway when we garden. Right. This is a cakewalk. Yeah. So of course, when I left for New Jersey, I'd put in all of my seedlings. And I, you know, covered them because I knew we were gonna have frost. Mm-hmm. And then my cat sitter forgot to water them. So they all died. So they all died. So good intentions. I know. Yep. Well, I knew they would die if they stayed in the house. Right. So I figured it's outside, if it rained, at least they had an inkling a chance, an inkling of a chance to make it. Um they did not. So I just ended up purchasing flats. And you know, that's what comes with the territory of gardening. Right. You know, you gotta take the good with the bad and the failures with the uh successes. So yeah, so I bought three strawberry flats or well not not a whole flat, just a plant. Um and they were doing great. Checked on them this morning, they were fine. Get home from work and it looked like something ate them. Well, you did show me some pictures of some beautiful deer running through your backyard. But they were in a planter. It doesn't matter. In the front. By the garage door. Yeah, you'll you're gonna need some fencing. I I did find something and put it over it. Alright. Hopefully that'll deater in the way. Yeah. Because I noticed I I don't see deer. There are deer in the neighborhood. I've never seen them in my yard, just I think because I'm on such a busy corner. So they clearly come at night when I'm sleeping. But I noticed when I was unwrapping my bushes that I had put burlap around, that the one bush I did not wrap had nibbles on it. Had nibbles, like it lost maybe a third of its volume from last year. I mean, it's just a choke cherry, so the cherries are super super bitter, so it's more for birds so that they don't pick my sweet cherries. Um but yeah, I was I was surprised, I was like, oh, that seems a lot smaller. But yeah, so hopefully they leave my tomatoes alone. Yeah. So far they have. You have a deck? Yeah. Okay. You may have to put them up on the deck. So these are all the wonderful challenges that you get to now experience. Choo-choo! Yeah, I don't know if that's gonna come through. It might. Well, if it doesn't, the choo-choo that I made did. Yeah, they're they're not supposed to blow the horn. There's literally a sign that says no horn. Well, unless somebody was being stupid down there and going like these opposing the kids, yeah. I mean, it's uh well, it is Wednesday, right? So uh, because we are recording this early so it can go up tomorrow. Um yeah, to it would be old car day downtown. So nice. I'm sure there's lots of little kids wanting to look at all the old cars. I'm assuming they've started already, considering how quickly the temperature rocketed in the month of May. We just had snow not too long ago. Right. But now we just need rain. Mm-hmm. Alright, so we are talking about so we're gonna do two episodes that are kind of similar. Like about, you know. But right now we're gonna start with early summer. Yes. And understanding the early summer shift of things. Right. So by early summer, most gardens are entertaining a phase of rapid growth. Plants are developing fruit, expanding root systems, pulling heavy nutrients from the soil, requiring consistent moisture, and this is also when stress begins to show. Leaves yellow, plants wilt, pests appear seemingly overnight. But many of these issues are connected. Weak soil leads to weak plants. Weak plants attract pests. So the real goal isn't just eliminating problems, it's building resilience in the garden ecosystem itself. Most people pull weeds and throw them away, but many weeds are actually nutrient accumulators. Their roots pull minerals deep from the soil and bring them upward. Instead of treating them like waste, you can turn them into fertilizer. Weed tea fertilizer is one of the oldest gardening tricks in creating a liquid fertilizer from weeds. Good plants to use are dandelion, comfrey, plantain, nettle, lamb's quarters. Uh, plants that you want to avoid are any poisonous plants like poison ivy.

unknown 8:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Any seed-heavy invasive weeds um unless fully submerged and decomposed. So um, like all the creeping charlie that I'm trying to pull up. That's heavily, you know, seeded and rhizomes and would not make a good no. I have a lot of nettle if you want it. Okay. Like a lot of nettle. But you also have, what did you say? Uh burdock. Oh no, I have burdock in my yard. What do you have? The really invasive that tree. Yeah. That I told you you need to hire goats to eat. Yeah, I I can't think of the name right now. It's just completely out of the head. Yep. It's a b uh. I I'm a blank right now. It'll come to me randomly and I'll just blurt it out in the head. So if you hear it blurt it out later. Like that's what it was. So, how to make a um compost tea? You want to fill a bucket halfway with chopped weeds, cover with water, and let steep for one to three weeks. It will get horribly smelly, just a heads up. Stir it occasionally, it will smell strong, very strong. That smell means decomposition and nutrient release. So, how do you use this? You want to dilute roughly one part weed tea to ten parts water. Uh, that way you aren't burning the tender roots or leaves of your plants. You want to use that around tomatoes, squash, corn, or any heavy feeding plants. Uh, these this is a free, mineral-rich fertilizer from plants and that many people already remove. So while I'm weeding all those dandelions, while I'm pulling all that nettle, yeah. Make some compost tea. So if there's one thing that transforms summer gardening, it's mulch. Mulch holds moisture, regulates soil temperature, prevents erosion, feeds soil life, suppresses weeds. In hot weather, bare soil dries quickly and becomes stressed. Covered soil stays cooler and healthier. Best mulches are straw, grass clippings that are chemical free, leaves, wood chips around perennials, pine needles for acid-loving plants, and just a little tip: keep mulch slightly away from plant stems to prevent rot. So when I was weeding the other day, and I have I have wood chips everywhere because I do a free chip uh it's a called chip drop. Um, I think it's nationwide, but it's arborist when they have to cut down a tree and they have to wood chip it. They have to pay a disposal fee. But if you apply, they will just drop a full load of wood chips in your yard wherever you tell them for for free. Maybe I'll have to do that. Yeah. Because I'm gonna get rid of all the pea gravel that is in front of my home. Yeah, that would be yeah. But um, so most of most of my wood chips, like 90% of my wood chips came from an arborist. And when you have that tree that was alive when it was cut down, and most, you know, 90% of the time, it has all those bioorganisms, you know, that are co-habitating with it. So I'm pulling up all these weeds and I'm just seeing the micro rhizomes of uh fungi and all these things, little threads that are the nature of life, which I feel har horrible to disrupt, but I also need to take the weeds out. There is something deeply powerful about growing your own medicine. Not the kind that comes in a plastic bottle from a pharmacy shelf, but the kind that begins with soil under your fingernails, sunlight on green leaves, and a the quiet patience of the seasons. For thousands of years, people all over the world turned to plants first. Long before modern pharmaceuticals, families kept small plots of healing herbs close to the kitchen door. Plants for fever, for cough, for sleep, for calming the nerves after a long day's work. Those gardens weren't just practical, they were sacred. Medicinal garden is one of the simplest ways to reconnect with that tradition, even if you only have a patio, a balcony, or a few containers in a sunny window. That's why we have partnered with a medicinal growing kit that's perfect for beginners and seasoned plant lovers alike. This kit comes with carefully selected seeds for classic healing herbs, like chamomile for calming teas, calendula for skin healing, lemon balm for stress and sleep, peppermint for digestion, lavender for relaxation. What we like about this starter kit is that it removes the overwhelm. You're not standing in a garden center staring at hundreds of seed packets, wondering where to begin. Instead, you start with the plants that have been traditionally used in herbalism for generations. With your seed kit, you'll also receive a copy of the herbal medicinal guide from Seeds to Remedies. This guide will show you how to turn these 10 plants into tinctures, ointments, salves, poultices, decoctions, infusions, essential oils. All in minute detail so you can follow the guide even if you've never made an herbal medicine in your life. And if you're someone who practices earth-based spirituality, herbal magic, or simply wants to reconnect with older ways of caring for yourself and your family, growing medicinal herbs can become part of your seasonal rituals. Planting seeds becomes intention, harvesting becomes gratitude, and every cup of tea carries a story from the soil to your hands. If you're interested in starting your own medicinal herb garden, check out the affiliate link in the show notes. Supporting the link also helps support the podcast and keeps episodes like this growing, because sometimes the most powerful medicine is the kind you grow yourself. Keeping thirsty plants hydrated is very important. Some plants become extremely water-demanding in summer, specifically tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, corn, and pumpkins. But watering more often isn't always the answer. Watering deeply matters more than watering constantly. For best watering practices, you want to water early in the morning. This is reduces evaporation and fungal disease risk. Watering deeply. Shallow watering creates shallow roots. Deep watering encourages stronger plants. So to know that you're doing a deep water, you actually want to see puddles on the top of your garden. And if you see a puddle forming, then you know as it soaks in, it'll really get far deep down. Yeah. And you want to focus on roots. Avoid soaking leaves when possible. Ancient and low-cost water conservation tricks. Olas, which are unglazed clay pots buried in soil, slowly release water underground. These were historically used across Africa, China, Latin America, sunken containers, bury partially perforated containers besides plants for slow root watering, and shade cloth, especially useful during extreme heat waves. So pests are part of gardening. A completely insect free garden is not necessarily a healthy one. The goal is balance, not total eradication. Aphids, tiny soft bodied insects clustering on stems and leaves. Signs are curling leaves, sticky residue, an activity, natural controls are ladybugs, strong water spray, neem oil, um companion flowers like calendula, slugs and snails, especially active in damp areas. Your signs are holes in leaves, slimy trails, natural controls are crushed eggshells, copper barriers, beer traps, hand picking at dusk, because that's not fun. Squish, squish, squish. Yeah. Yeah. Beer. I tried the beer trap thing and it's hit or miss. Ow! I know you're purring, but come on. You don't need to knead my leg when you're wearing shorts. So you want to squash the bugs. The major issue are squash and pumpkins. Squash bugs. Squash bugs are a bug that you want to squash. Squash bugs. A major issue for squash and pumpkins. The signs are wilting leaves, bronze colored eggs under the leaves, and control, remove eggs manually, grow nasturtiums. Nesturtiums nearby. Early detection is critical. Cabbage worms. Small green caterpillars on brassicas. Their signs are holes in kale, cabbage, broccoli. Your natural controls are floating row covers. Hand removal. What she said. BT if necessary. Sorry, my my boy cat is uh is being very aggressive right now. Because he wants the plant. That has gotten very long and leggy because you know it doesn't have enough sunlight. For a plant that's a shade-loving plant. Perr perr purr. Yep. Yep. And plant in my boo. Alright. Companion planting and ecosystem gardening are traditional um traditional gardens were rarely monocultures. Plants were grown together intentionally. Some combinations naturally repel pests and improve soil, attract beneficial insects, and help. Helpful pairings would be tomato and basil, which is also really good together just to eat. As your cheesecrucs. Marigolds, traditionally used around gardens to deter certain insects. Nasturtiums act as a tap crops for aphids and squash pests. They're also really good in salads. If you can, you know, get the bugs off of them. I wish everyone could see the face Snell is making. You don't eat flowers? Not usually. Flowers everywhere. Pollinators and predatory insects need habitat too. So the emotional lessons of summer gardening is summer gardening teaches flexibility. No matter how skilled you become, something will fail. Weather will surprise you, insects will appear, plants will struggle sometimes, and yet the garden keeps going. That may be one of the deepest lessons gardening offers. Resilience is not perfection. It is adaptation. It is learning how to respond instead of panic. To observe instead of dominate. The healthiest gardens become eventually become ecosystems. Birds arrive, pollinators increase, soil improves year after year. You stop fighting nature, you start collaborating with it. This is where gardening shifts from hobby to relationship, a living exchange between soil, water, plants, insects, and humans, each affecting the others. So early summer is a season of tending. Not just planting. Not just dreaming. But showing up consistently for what is growing. The weeds become fertilizer. The pests become teachers. The heat becomes a reminder to slow down and pay attention. Because gardens are not billed in perfect conditions. They are built through care. And perhaps that's true for people too.

unknown 21:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

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