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Mayday! Mayday! It’s Mother’s Day!

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(No, this is not a Damascus Rose, this is a beautiful Gardenia flower) Family, flowers, dinners, gifts-All a part of the special day for moms or anyone caring for family or friends. My mom passed way a year ago but I still feel excited about Mother’s Day.  My mother loved flowers, and I still try to keep a bouquet of flowers in the house to brighten up the place. This month I’m trying my hand at making a Damascus Rose oil. This is a beautiful flower with a wonderful scent, I hope to capture some of it in the infusion. Below, you’ll see the items I used and how I attempted to make the oil. I’m using the slow method, letting the rose infuse in the oil for 6 weeks. There are faster ways of making the oil-using the double boiler method, etc., but I’m going to try it this way, we’ll see what happens. I have my Mason Jar, oil (Fractionated Coconut Oil) and Damascus Rose Petals-From Mountain Rose Co. With the amount of rose petals I had-117 grams, I made two batches of infused rose oil. I...
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April Madness

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  Spring is here, gardeners itchin' to sow and get plants in the ground for Summer beauty.  Some of us have already started seedlings indoors. Hopefully for me, my plant babies will do well out in the wilderness-garden. Some pictures of my “kids”, Below, Marigold seedlings.                                                     Beets, Lavender and Brussell Sprouts Bacopa Green thumbs, let’s pray for a refreshing Spring and a wonderful Summer. Thanks for hanging out!
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Yes, You Can Sow It And Grow It In Winter

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  Last month I enjoyed attending a winter sowing class. Our teacher Izzy showed us an easy way to start seedlings in the dead of winter, with few supplies-milk/water jug, soil, tape, scissors, and something pointed/drill.   Check out Izzy’s site for more information and examples of winter sowing.  Izzy’s link Take a look at my venture into winter sowing. Hopefully success this spring, will keep you up.  After class we took our bottles outside to the demonstration garden. The seeds will spend rest of the winter there. Springtime hopefully will bring seedlings! My table’s seeds ready to go outside. Most of the seeds planted are NJ native plants, they’ll be used to this wacky weather. At home, I placed my seed houses on the back porch, the seeds I used, Blue Vervain, Skullcap and Dang Shen (Codonopsis pilosa). Have fun trying this out! Thanks for stopping by.
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Slap-Happy Gardener

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 HAPPY HOLIDAYS!  If you don’t know it yet, I am a slap-happy gardener. I enjoy being in God’s nature, always trying my hand at growing herbs/plants to heal and keep the body moving. Sometimes my planting experience is a success, sometimes not, but the goal is to create teas, tincture, and topical items that soothe, heal and energize body, mind and soul. Today’s project has me working with Goji Berries and Chrysanthemum flowers. Organic Goji berries and Chrysanthemum flowers are easily accessible at health food stores and online.  I used my nut grinder to grind up the Goji berries and chrysanthemum flower tops. Thank goodness for AI I am able to do formulations for making tinctures- me and math have a complicated relationship, lol. Now all I have to do is make sure the herb/fruit infusion stays mixed by giving them a shake twice a day. After about 6 weeks, voila! tinctures I can use daily. Goji berries and Chrysanthemum flowers are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TC...
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Layer Up!

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 Nothing like a cold, winter day, Brrr! I remember back in the day, before we would go outside, Mom would tell us to, "Layer up!" put on socks, long underwear underneath our pants, hat, scarf and gloves. We would be burning up inside the house but once outside, there was no stopping us. Nowadays, I use the word layer as a part of a herbal protocol. When I am going through cold, flu, I try to hit it at every level. Recently I started feeling a little under the weather-coughing, stiff neck, runny nose. I looked around the house, asked myself, "What do I have that I can start using now?" Like the story in the Bible about the woman and the jar of oil (2 Kings 4-KJV), I used what I had. To perk up my immune system, I started taking 2ml Echinacea (E. purpurea) 3 times/day, for about 4 days-Echinacea is used for acute onset of bacterial or viral infection (colds and flu).  To address my coughing, I combined White Horehound and Wild Cherry Bark Tea-both very good for the re...
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Bacopa and Rosemary, Together Again

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                A few weeks ago I planted cuttings of Bacopa.            Bacopa now. It was much bigger. I cut a lot of it to dry and make tincture.                                        I cut fresh Rosemary-on bottom hanger, hung upside down to dry. Lavender at the top drying for another project. Bacopa (Bacopa monnieri) from my mother plant. After some weeks of patiently waiting, I had a nice bunch of fresh plants to work with. As mentioned before (Blog, "Remember What? Who?), Bacopa is a medicinal herb used to enhance cerebral functioning. I decided to pair Bacopa with another herb...Rosemary! The spice? Yes! In herbal medicine, Rosemary is indicated for impaired circulation to the brain, specifically for symptoms of depression or cloudy thinking. The pleasant aroma of Rosemary also helps alert the mind and improves...
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Right at My Back Door

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Evening Primrose in all of her glory. Harvesting Evening Primrose flowers, pods and seeds for my infused oil. Evening Primrose seeds. The pods and flowers drying on the rack-It took about 2 weeks for the pods to dry. So we meet again, Autumn is here, time for harvesting what is in the yard and putting garden stuff away…or not. There are always projects to do and garden/plant events to go to. This month I attended a retirement party for the Coordinator of the Union Co. Master Gardener Program. It was a beautiful event, lots of folks came out.    Me and our Coordinator  at the party, she will be greatly missed.   Ok, back to the activity. Beeswax, a double boiler and infused Evening Primrose Oil (Oenothera biennis), 3 things I have not worked with…Well,  better now than never. For 2 weeks I air dried Evening Primrose pods, seeds and flowers (See pictures above). I thought to myself, “Why don’t you make something different with the infused oil, maybe a salve”. A sa...
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