Berries, Gardens, Waterfalls: June and the Start of Summer

As I am writing this, the sun is traveling its longest path in the sky, marking the Summer Solstice, bringing all the lively, strong energy of summer with it. All the plants have exploded with leaves and flowers, the birds are maintaining their nests and raising their chicks, the deer are having babies, and the days are longer and warmer. This is perhaps my most active season, as I’m sure many outdoor or gardening enthusiasts can attest to. With longer days, I’m outside even more, hiking, tending to the garden, foraging, swimming or just basking in the sun.

Peter and I started the month on another trip, visiting the Finger Lakes. This trip was the perfect balance of active and relaxing. We saw several waterfall attractions: Taughannock Falls, Watkins Glen, Ithaca Falls and Horseshoe Falls; kayaked on Lake Cayuga; and visited so many wineries! Of all the waterfall parks, Watkins Glen was my favorite. As soon as you stepped through the cave onto the trail, it was like a portal into another world. No outside noise, only the rushing water, in a narrow gorge, endless waterfalls carrying magical energy through the canyon. We walked up stairs and over bridges, under waterfalls, the mist gracing our hands and fingertips. A fairytale wonderland, straight out of a story book.

Another favorite moment of mine was kayaking on the lake. We rented kayaks, forgetting our own at home — oops! — and spent an hour exploring the moody, cloudy shoreline. A wide variety of homes dotted the shore; luxury mansions with incline lifts to carry people up and down the cliff to/from their boats; tiny cabins right on the sand; abandoned shacks, crumbling to pieces; and my favorite, a small white cabin with a yard, birdhouses, and weeping willows. I could picture myself sitting there everyday, sipping tea and watching the birds while listening to the waves, taking breaks to kayak or swim.

However, there was a constant reminder of climate change and how it changes life for all of us, literally hovering over us on the trip. Smoke from the Canadian wildfires made for hazy conditions, and even forced us inside on our last full day, exploring an art museum to avoid the terrible air quality. Some of our photos show the apocalyptic color of the sky, which was the same back home, too. While we enjoyed our trip, we were reminded that climate change is going to continue to affect us all, getting worse every year. An important reminder that we need to act quick to improve our resiliency, and heal what parts of our planet we can, so we can continue to enjoy the gifts and natural wonders that Mother Nature gives us — and show her the love and respect she deserves.

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Speaking of the gifts Mother Nature provides, June brings signs of exciting growth at the cottage! Everything is lush and green now, and at the start of the month, there were endless wildflowers. The middle section of our woods is where our wild blackberries live, and their flowers were in full majestic bloom! Pictures and videos will never do it justice, never capture the full magnitude of these blooms, fragrant and buzzing with hundreds of bees, thousands of flowers surrounding you in all directions, as far as you can see. I imagine fairies dance here in the night, just as the bees dance and sing there in the day. Now, at the end of June, the flowers have fallen off, and little berries are forming, green and small. I can’t wait for when they’re ripe later this season, when we can taste their juicy sourness, and thank Mother Nature for this abundant gift we’re so, so lucky to have growing so prolifically in the wild.

I’m also seeing signs of wineberries, a more common and just as delicious forageable food. These are invasive, while the blackberries are native. If you see wineberries, pick as many as you like, to help control the invasive population! These wild raspberries are so common, you’re bound to find them anywhere!

This is also the time of year when trout are jumping in the river, and that wonderful musky scent of the river is at its most potent. I’m looking forward to lazy days lounging at the river’s edge in the trees’ shade, and adventures in the kayak!

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Along with wild food, now is also the time where cultivated food begins to be most abundant. If you’ve been following Sincerely SC or my Instagram for a while, you’ll know that I grew a container garden for several years at the cottage. Now living in an apartment, I’ve switched to a balcony garden and, most recently, a community garden plot! I signed up for our town’s community garden waitlist in the winter, but hadn’t heard anything by the beginning of growing season, so I planned a balcony garden. With a few pots and several railing boxes, I adorned our corner with seeds and seedlings. Lettuce, spinach, parsley, oregano, lemon thyme, and nasturtiums line the railing, while lemon basil, Thai basil, Genovese basil, and sage rest on the ground underneath. I also brought my chives from last year with me, and placed them on a tall plant stand to create different layers and depth in the garden, and for easy picking. The railing boxes are also easy to pick from, and I’m enjoying their height.

The biggest inconvenience with the balcony garden is that we actually don’t have a door — instead, we have to climb out our window onto the roof and over the railing to access the garden. While the view of the hills and sunsets are incredible here, it makes watering very difficult! So, I came up with a hilariously elaborate watering system.

First, I place a 5 gallon bucket outside the window. I then fill it using a watering can, taking water from our sink. This takes two trips between the sink and window. Then, I climb out onto the deck and use an old Harney & Sons tea tin to scoop water out of the bucket back into the watering can, so I can then water my plants. It’s crazy, long, and inconvenient, but it works, so I’ll keep doing it!

My balcony plants have grown so quickly, and they’re all thriving and nourishing us now — they’re probably very happy with the wonderful view! Inside, I tried growing lemon balm, rosemary, sage and oregano on the windowsills, but only the rosemary and oregano seem happy. Lemon balm spoke to me during a tea meditation at Well-Sweep Herb Farm last month, and I felt called to work with it. Maybe I’ll try to grow some in my larger plot…

While in the Finger Lakes, I got a surprise email: the community garden now had a plot for me! It was already so late in the growing season, but I accepted it, and when we got back, I eagerly got to work. I was greeted by an 8×8 bed overrun with weeds, and four-foot tall cornflowers. All the free compost provided to gardeners at the start of the season had run out, and the new compost had not decomposed into usable soil yet. It was a very hot, sunny day. But, determined to plant my seedlings as soon as I could, Peter and I spent one full Saturday digging up weeds, buying new compost to top-off the bed, and getting my seeds and seedlings in the ground. It was long and tiring, and I was sore as hell the next day, but we did it!

Already, only one week later, and the plants are looking happy and strong – grape tomatoes, frying peppers, zucchini, sage, rosemary, chamomile, beans, and the cornflowers from the previous owner, all growing, surrounded by the creative plots of other garden members. What excites me most about the community garden is just that — the community. So far, everyone I’ve met there has been wonderful, kind, knowledgeable, and generous. There is a lot of diversity, yet we’re all united by one thing: the plants. I’m excited to learn and be open to new ideas, spurred by this community of micro-farmers, trying to make our community and world a better place, one seed at a time.

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I hope your summer is off to a great start, too! Feel free to comment about what you’re growing this year, what summer adventures you’re having, or anything else you feel like sharing!

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