.

These July reflections are part of the Seasonal Reflections series — a year-long practice of living with the rhythm of nature.

July means harvest. The first great wave of abundance brings us fresh food for the table—and enough to preserve for the months ahead. Fruits, vegetables and herbs pile up and wait to be processed. Herbs dry on racks or hang in bundles from the ceiling; bowls of currants, raspberries and gooseberries are ready to be cooked into jams, and the first tomatoes are patiently waiting to become tomato sauce for the winter months.

👉 In these July reflections, we’ll explore seasonal living in July — from the garden and kitchen to simple ways of making the most of early summer.

As much as we need to preserve July’s abundance, the garden is calling us back at every time of the day. We rarely go back inside, except to store our harvest, quickly check the time or seek shelter from a passing summer thunderstorm.

Our life now happens outdoors, in the vast green rooms of our gardens: at the campfire, on a patio, on a pond or paddling pool, in the vegetable garden or the orchard where we snack like mad on as many fruits as we can eat.

July is the month when the walls of the house seem to disappear. Meals move outside. Conversations move outside. Work moves outside. Even sleep sometimes moves outside. We only return indoors to preserve the harvest, escape a passing thunderstorm or fetch something before stepping back into the summer again.

Some nights I find myself with all the harvest treasures in the kitchen – the days are too precious to waste on kitchen work now. Then, I cook jam and ferment garlic or make pesto that I freeze in portions.

As a little girl, I dreamed of growing so many fruits and vegetables that I would have enough throughout the whole year. And now I’m living that dream. What a luxury!

Nature in July

The village I live in is surrounded by meadows and fields. In June, I could watch the farmers making hay, and now, in July, they’re beginning to harvest the first grains. Winter wheat and barley are ripe now, and all of a sudden, the harvesters are everywhere.

The edges of the fields and tracks are blooming with wild herbs like Saint John’s Wort, yarrow and mugwort and in the gardens, roses, delphinium and lavender paint the scenery.

In the vegetable garden, beans are ready to be harvested now. I make a bowl of salad for us every single day, and the first tomatoes and cucumbers are ripe as well.

It’s so satisfying to take a stroll through the greenhouse and snack on sun-ripened, warm tomatoes right from the plant.

Afterwards, I “check” the blueberries to see whether they’re ripe as well. They usually are.

To be fair, the salad bowl I mentioned is mostly for my boys, as I’m usually well-fed when I come home from the garden 😏.

July Garden Tasks

Apart from harvesting, which is a huge task now in July, watering and feeding come closely behind in second place. All the heavy feeders like cabbages, cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini and peppers need plenty of nutrients now to produce fruit and thrive. For that reason, we must feed them every 2-3 weeks, at best, with some liquid fertiliser which provides readily available nutrients. Homemade comfrey or nettle manure are an inexpensive way to transform weeds (or wild herbs, if you prefer) into something useful.

There are, of course, rainy summer days, but usually we have quite a dry and hot summer here in Bavaria. That said, I check the soil in my garden daily and water deeply every 2 – 3 days during dry spells.

Talking of checking: pests and diseases are always on my watch list. The earlier we spot them, the higher our chances of defeating them. This is easier with pests, but also many diseases can be, if not cured, then at least contained so that they don’t spread.

Sometimes, after very hot and humid days, a thunderstorm forms. So let’s step inside, watch the spectacle from within and see what we can do indoors.

Seasonal Living in July: Kitchen and Home

Preserving season is in full gear in July. Raspberries, currants, blueberries and gooseberries are ripe now and crave to become jams. Herbs are at their most aromatic now and are perfect for harvesting before they begin to flower.

The classic way to preserve herbs is by drying them, but there’s a lot more: I make lots of pesto, for example. Other herbs, I mix with olive oil and freeze them in ice cubes to add later to sauces, soups or pasta. If you want to learn more about how to preserve herbs, this article will teach you six methods to do so.

The first beans are ready to be picked, and the harvest is usually larger than we can eat right away. Great ways to preserve them for winter are by canning them in jars or by blanching and freezing them.

Zucchini can now get the upper hand in our garden, and as soon as we turn our backs on them, they sprout more and larger fruits than before. I love to put all this abundance in a jar of zucchini pickles, mixed with homegrown peppers and onions. Check out the recipe for zucchini pickles here, it’s delicious!

If you cultivate pickling gherkins in your garden, now’s the time to get them in. Gherkins are best harvested when they’ve not yet reached their full size. You can either pickle them in a vinegar brine or you ferment them. Find the recipe for pickled gherkins here and the one for fermented gherkins in this article.

July Self-Care Ideas

July is the peak of summer – and if we were to split a year in half, July is diametrically opposite to January. Remember that time? Like seeds, we had stored our energy tightly within ourselves, waiting for the right time to germinate and sprout again. Now, in July, we distribute that same energy outwards in bursts of productiveness, joy and pure summer “high”.

Although we feel more energised now than in January, we must make sure not to burn out – figuratively and literally.

Self-Care for Body…

It’s often a challenge in July to get a good night’s sleep. When temperatures have been high for several days, our houses not only absorb that heat but also keep it in. My family and I sleep with all the windows and doors open at night, but I know that’s not possible for everyone.

It’s all the more important then, to get some sleep during the day. And what better way to enjoy a nap than outdoors!

I often head to the river Lech right after work and jump into the water to cool down. Afterwards, I take a short nap in the shadows. There’s nothing more refreshing than sleeping outside, well cooled after a swim and drifting off to birdsong.

In the heat, it’s important to eat lightly, too. Salads, pasta dishes, pizza and quiches with lots of vegetables are now a good, light source of nutrition. And don’t forget to drink!

… For Mind…

Seeing as I’m working in a school, July is a very busy month for me, what with the school year coming to its end.

Apart from looking after my body and making sure I eat healthily and get enough sleep, I also need to calm my mind. Look, I’m kind of an overthinker, and my brain has at least 50 tabs open at the same time. On normal days. In July, it’s about 130. What helps me calm down mentally is working with my hands: weeding, watering the garden, chopping beans, fermenting gherkins, spinning wool I got from my garden neighbour and trying to make cords to bind my tomatoes.

It’s not about doing nothing. It’s about directing all that energy into my hands, letting my thoughts settle while the work gets done.

In the evenings, I love reading. It’s mostly light books now, cosy crimes (I’m a huge fan of the “Nosey Parker” series by Fiona Leitch, for example), but also non-fiction. I’ve recently started to re-read “The Golden Thread” by Kassia St. Claire, a wonderful book about how fabric changed the world.

And there are the open airs in July! Here in Augsburg, we have the “Fronhof Konzerte”, a series of concerts in the beautiful gardens near our cathedral. The cool thing about them is that you CAN buy a ticket and sit near the stage, but you don’t HAVE to. Because right behind the fence, there’s an open meadow where people sit on their picnic blankets (sometimes sharing a pizza and some wine) and listen to the wonderful classical music performed by the orchestra and singers. If you happen to be in Augsburg in July, attend these concerts!

…And Soul

Go outside every minute you can. If it’s really hot during the day, we can sit outdoors for a long time in the evenings and sometimes even at night. On very hot summer nights, I sometimes sleep on the balcony. It’s a marvel to watch the sun set and experience the lighter darkness outdoors, the sky illuminated by millions of stars.

In the morning, I get woken by bird song long before I can detect any sign of sunrise, but the birds with their fine radar know when it’s time to start singing. If you’ve never slept out in the open, give it a try. It’s one of those experiences that stays with you.

July is also a great time to invite friends over for a barbecue or garden party. Anything outdoors that lets us soak in the sun. To minimise the effort, ask everyone to bring something to eat, like a salad or a dessert. That way, no one gets overwhelmed or burned out, and everyone can enjoy the gathering with minimal effort of preparation.

July is what we waited for

Even though it can be demanding, July also invites us to enjoy it to the fullest. Now is the summer we dreamed of during those long, dark, cold winter months. All the energy that we had bottled up then can’t help but burst out into the open now!

We don’t just live in more light—we seem to become lighter ourselves.

The days may already be getting shorter, but we don’t notice it yet. This is the feeling of “endless summer” we crave so much throughout the year.

Let’s soak up every minute, get outside as often as we can, pause from time to time, look around and be grateful for a wonderful time. Autumn will come soon enough. Let’s make the most of these wonderful summer days while they last.

If you’d like to walk through the seasons with me, I’d love to welcome you to the Seasonal Simple Life newsletter. Every few weeks I share new seasonal inspiration, recipes, gardening tips and simple ways to slow down and enjoy the time of year we’re in.

Come along, and let’s celebrate each season together.