ode to lavender

by far, my favorite plant of them all.  lavendula.  all varieties, really.  it is beautiful, and hardy (mostly), and produces the most intoxicating and calming scent.  i've always said that i believe that if a heaven exists, it would smell like freshly baked bread, but now i'm beginning to think it may be lavender after all.  in these crazy busy runaround days of summer, all i need to do is run my hand through one of my (five!) lavender plants and inhale.  calmness wraps around me like a gentle wave.  {it's no wonder that a drawing of a lavender plant will be on our wedding invitation!}

i transplanted these lavender plants from our old apartment last spring after we moved into our house, and some of them are now in their third year, growing bigger and fuller each season.  they are my little garden babies and i love watching them grow, snipping their blooms and drying them to put around my house, or use in body care recipes.  to make a lavender infused oil, simply pick fresh blooms and place the flowers (either fresh or dried) only in a jar and cover with olive oil.  allow the oil to steep for 2-6 weeks before straining out the flowers through a cheesecloth.  you can use this oil as a massage oil, in the bath, as a moisturizer or headache reliever (simply rub a little bit on your temples) or in other body care recipes for lip balms or lotions.

[or you could use the blooms to make some of amy's hand scrub]

if you have any room left, i highly recommend adding a lavender plant to your garden.  you won't regret it.

herbal shampoo

for one reason or another, my gardening sensibility has always revolved around growing things that are useful.  to me, when speaking of gardening, useful most often means edible.  and this is probably why i have little interest in growing plants that are merely pretty to look at (though, this has been changing a bit in the past few years).  beyond edible, however, there are many other practical uses for plants.  plants can be used for medicinal purposes, in body care products, for dyes, among other uses.  and, as a bonus, many of these plants are also pretty to look at.

when we moved into my house a year and a half ago, i was not so interested in the two rose bushes that were planted in the perennial bed in our backyard.  aside from some childhood memories of my grandfather tending to his rosebushes at their old house in new jersey, i have no attachment to roses.  but then i started to think about what uses those roses would have.  and they survived the summer.  i picked the roses and dried them and have been using the petals as ingredients in bath soaks and batch after batch of herbal shampoo.

as you think of what you'd like to plant in your garden this year, maybe take some time to think of what you'd like to make with your garden at harvest time.  and plant accordingly.

rosemary rose herbal shampoo
{adapted from methow valley herbs}

ingredients:
8 oz boiling water
2 teaspoons of dried rosemary
2 teaspoons of dried rose petals
4 ounces liquid castile soap
3 Tablespoons aloe vera juice
¼ teaspoon of jojoba oil
30 drops of pure rosemary essential oil 

place the rosemary and rose petals in a jar and fill to 8 ounces with boiling water.  cover immediately and let it stand until the jar has cooled.  strain out the herbs, and pour the water into a bottle or whatever container you will be storing your shampoo in.  add the castile soap, aloe vera juice, jojoba oil, and rosemary essential oil.

*note: this shampoo is much more watery than the kind you buy in the store, so it takes some getting used to.  i've found that it works best to give the bottle a gentle shake before each use to make sure it's properly mixed, and then squirt a little bit straight onto my head (i used to pour some shampoo in my hands, lather it, then put it on my hair--this doesn't work so well with this type).

i will say, i've been using this shampoo for almost a year and it works great! i love not having to purchase shampoo every few months, knowing exactly which (very few) ingredients i'm putting on my head, and reducing packaging waste.  not to mention, taking advantage of the usefulness of my garden.