From free moves this week up to the deep plays.
Scatter calendula through the vegetable beds. It draws pollinators in and lures aphids and whitefly onto itself, away from the crops you want.
Let it self-seed and it will turn up in the right places on its own next year.
Pick fresh petals and stir them into rice, butter, soup, or salad for a warm golden colour. It is the cheap stand-in for saffron's colour, if not its flavour.
Pull the petals from the green base. The base is bitter.
Let some flowers dry to curved, claw-like seeds, then collect them. One packet becomes a lifetime of calendula, resown for free each spring.
Store dry seed in a labelled envelope somewhere cool and dark.
Dry the flowers, infuse them in oil over gentle heat, strain, and set with beeswax into a salve. A simple, gentle skin balm for cuts, chapping, and dry hands.
Dry the petals fully first. Any water left in them will spoil the oil.
Calendula crops heavily for a small cut-flower patch or stall, and the more you pick, the more it flowers. Pair the blooms with the dried-petal and salve lines.
Cut just as the flowers open and keep picking to keep the plant producing.