By the middle of July here in the Mid-Atlantic, the garden stops asking permission and takes over. If you've got a linden tree nearby, you've probably caught the smell before you saw the flowers: honey and hay, drifting down from a canopy usually too tall to notice. That bloom doesn't last; each tree holds full flower for about two weeks, and a lot of trees here are hitting that window right now - or slightly past it in my area.
Meanwhile the tulsi you put in after last frost is finally bushy and fragrant enough to pinch back weekly, and if you've got Oregon grape somewhere, its berries are just starting to blue up — though the root everyone actually wants won't be ready to dig for months yet.
Three plants, three different clocks. Here's where each stands this week- how to harvest and prepare the herb and how to use it for your benefit: