How to Make the Most of a Summer Garden

One of our favorite things about a summer garden: the fresh herbs. We’re absolutely obsessed with enhancing almost every recipe with summer’s finest, from basil to mint and beyond. And who are we to deny ourselves the pleasure of those fresh flavors just because the weather gets cooler?

How to enjoy year-round: flash freeze! It’s a term that sounds intimidating, especially given all the rumors on the internet that you need to use liquid nitrogen to do it but trust us when we say you don’t–and that it’s actually, genuinely easy. Here’s how to do it:

• Cut your herbs
• Lay your herbs flat (some people like to use a rimmed baking sheet–just make sure they are not touching each other!)
• Put in the freezer (alone in a closed drawer, ideally, so no other flavors interfere)
• Remove herbs after 1-2 hours (make sure they’re frozen!)
• Place in an airtight container and return to the freezer
• Once you’re ready to cook–pop them out and they’ll be as good as fresh!

Rinse and repeat for all of your summer vegetables and berries!

If you’ve properly prepped your garden for the first freeze (using our tips, of course!), then you’ll likely have a garden bursting to the brim with gorgeous flowers. It’s easy to feel sadness at the first sight of a wilting flower come fall, but we firmly believe there are spectacular things you can do with flowers all year round.

How to enjoy year-round: press & dry them! Here’s how to do it:

• Lay flowers between two layers of wax paper
• Grab a large, heavy flat object (a coffee table book will do)
• Leave pressed flowers beneath book in a dark, dry area
• Check and replace once a week
• Flowers should be dried within four weeks–it sounds like a lot of time, but it takes about two minutes per week, and the effort is well worth the payoff.

How we use them: we’ll tie some gorgeous, dried flowers to twine, wrap it around an airtight container, and present our flash-frozen herbs, berries, or vegetables as a hostess gift anytime we find ourselves at a friend’s house for dinner. This gift never fails; there’s nothing like getting summer produce at peak freshness in the middle of winter!

Last but certainly not least, you’re going to want to handle your flower boxes. There are a few schools of thought on how to take care of boxes during the off-season. Some people like “capping,” which is when you place a granite slab of the same size on top of your flower box (on top of which you can place seasonal squash like pumpkins and gourds in the fall, and small spruce trees or pine garlands in the winter). Others prefer to maintain their boxes all-year round.

How to enjoy year-round with ease: you’ll need to compost your old flowers before you replace them with new ones. Here’s what to do:

• Dig up old plants with a large spade
• Line with plastic if preferred (here’s why!)
• Replace soil if needed (potting soil is fine)
• Add potted plants! (using potted plants instead of planting seeds means you don’t need to wait months waiting for your flowers to bloom)