These are the summer projects (big and small) that have made my most unforgettable summer memories over the past decade. So let's put on our shorts, assess how far down our kneecap skin migrated over the winter and then get to work.
During the summer there's a work stoppage on any indoor work at my house. I vacuum because if I don't things stick to the bottom of my feet, but other than that basic chore, my house really becomes more of a flop house.
If the days are long and warm, I'm outside with my good friend Mother Nature. I'm pretty sure she's bi-polar because she can snap moods in an instant.
Table of Contents
5 Summer Projects to Try
I chose these projects because I know how many people have tried and loved them based on reader comments and emails over the years.
Raise a Monarch Butterfly
Time Required - 1-2 hours
Cost - $0-$5*
*Cost doesn’t include lost wages from spending 5 hours a day watching a caterpillar instead of working.
You are just one click away from learning about how to raise your own Monarch butterfly.
Raising a Monarch butterfly is completely fascinating. If you live in an area where you have seen Monarchs in the past, you can raise a butterfly and help them from becoming extinct -they are currently endangered.
It takes about one month from start to finish and it's astonishing. It's a Stephen King novel all wrapped up in a chrysalis.
Your Butterfly Adventure begins with this first step.
Drip Irrigation
Time Required - 1 Full Day (for a large garden)
Cost at time of installation - $324 for a 40' x 40' garden. (approximately 0.20 cents per square foot)
Maybe not so memorable if you aren't a gardener, but if you even have a small garden, drip irrigation will go down as pretty damn unforgettable.
If you have a small garden, drip irrigation will save water. If you have a large garden drip irrigation will save you water, time, money and a lot of therapeutic sessions with friends discussing how you kill everything you grow. It's summer project #2.
By August the rain usually slows down, things dry out and shrivel up. Sadly it's also the time we're least likely to water the garden because by August we're all secretly wishing things would just up and die so we don't have to take care of them anymore. This only applies to plants, not friends or relatives. The fed uppiness with gardening is a short lived and usually only last for a week or so prior to the big harvest.
Drip irrigation, again isn't all that difficult, doesn't cost that much and can save you time. The benefit of being able to water your garden while you're working in it is reason enough to install a drip system (no overhead sprinkler to dodge, no hose to stand there with pointing at the dirt.)
When I installed my drip system a few years ago I wrote an entire tutorial on how to install a drip system from beginning to end. Only one other thing has done more to improve my harvest than the drip system.
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Espalier
Time Required - a few hours per tree.
Cost - Around $50 for the tree, $25 or less for the hardware.
Second year after planting apple espalier
Always wanted a fruit tree but figured you didn’t have the space? You do. Especially if it’s an espalier apple (or pear, or fig…) tree. They stay compact, look tidy, and yes—actually give you fruit.
I planted a pair of espalier apples a few years ago and they’ve done better than I expected. One tree has six varieties grafted onto a single rootstock, so it can pollinate itself—no second tree needed.
The only real trick? Wiring it to a fence or between posts to keep its shape. Here’s my full tutorial on how to plant and wire an espalier apple tree.
The espalier in it's 8th year in the ground.
The Hinged Hoop House
Time Required - 3+ hours
Cost - (around) $50 per hoop house
Who knew building a box with hinges on it would revolutionize my gardening. I know my hinged hoop house was met with a few suspicious eyes up at my community garden but one by one people started to soften to the idea of these monstrosities in the middle of the garden.
After living with the hinged hoop house for years I found a couple of areas that I could improve on so I updated it. I made it stronger and taller to accommodate my monstrous kale, red pepper plants and occasionally Brussels sprouts (ick).
Learn how to build the hinged hoop house of your dreams right here.
Pizza Oven
Time Required - 3-4 weekends
Cost - Anywhere from nothing to $200.
The cost depends on how much you can scrounge. You only need clay, straw, and firebricks to build a cob pizza oven.
My homemade, cob, woodburning pizza oven is a DIY that a lot of readers have done which surprised me because it's kind of a big project! It's led me to believe I'm not alone in my enthusiasm for cuddling pizza. I mean eating.
I built my pizza oven 2014 and in 2022 finally replaced it with a Gozney Dome pizza oven. (I forgot to cover my cob oven before winter and it crumbled.)
There are pros and cons to my cob oven and the Gozney Dome but I'd pick my cob oven over the Gozney Dome in most situations.
🍕 Learn how to make your own wood burning pizza oven
Good luck and have fun with your own summer projects. If you complete any of these send me a photo please. I like to see them.
→Don't follow me on Instagram Honestly, I'm pretty much over social media←
christine Hilton
I have raised monarchs a couple of times but last summer l planted Bronze fennel ( the leafy perrenial kind) and this attracted Swallowtails. So now l am doing both!
Karen
Swallowtails are more of a commitment so I avoid them. I don't need another habit-hobby. ~ karen!
Marian
Hi Karen:
Thank you for all the information you share. Your STUFF is both informational and a joy to read.
I absolutely love Canada. I live in Alaska so our climates are close. I am getting ready to install a drip system so will be back to read more later this week.
And just so you know I am totally embarrassed by our current president. I have lived in Alaska for 50 of my 70 years and here we count on our neighbors for a lot of products and your road system to reach the lower fourty eight States.
Marie
Ditto above, except I'm in CA.
Karen
Thanks Marian, I appreciate it. I know most Americans - at least my readers - have only shown support for Canada and my little blog in it. ~ karen!
Mary W
Somehow I missed the demise of your cob pizza oven. So sorry to hear that but was it snow melt or rain? In Florida I always thought I shouldn't try it due to such high humidity. Oh, maybe frozen snow that cracked it? That I wouldn't have to worry about.