Some of the things I'm growing

I will not be having a lot of time to post over the next few days. Many important deadlines are fast approaching (next week) and I will not have a lot of time to enjoy the garden or the allotment. Today I have received two scented geraniums (Attar of roses) through the post, from a mail order company based in Ireland. They smell wonderful. I have planted them in two pots I had ready from last weekend. I can't wait to see them grow and flower! Well, here are some of the other things growing in my back garden:

First up, is my little Calendula, I planted it from seed on the 12th of April 2009. I think it's doing pretty well. I have now moved it to my tomato basket stand (as part of my companion planting strategy!):

Here we have my 1 year old wild strawberry plant, with quite a few flowers. I'm determined this year the birds will not be having the strawberries!

Next up, are my new strawberry plants, they are the babies of one of my 1 year old plants, yes 1 plant has created six runners!!

This is one of my new purchases, Evening Primrose, I bought it on the 11th April from my local garden centre as an 8cm plant. It has grown quite a bit since then! Not quite sure what I will do with it yet...

Here is my 1 year old "Chocolate Peppermint", I cut it right back at the end of last summer and it has grown back again, however, it seems to have a considerable amount of green flies... not quite sure why....

This is my 1 year old sage, which I planted from seed last year. It has survived a very harsh winter and it tastes delicious... I'm actually infusing some olive oil with it!

More pictures should follow shortly. I can't wait for my three lavender plants to flower!

Dandelion flower infused oil and salve

Finally, my big day has arrived! Over Easter I was left home alone so I could concentrate in doing a large spell of writing... It meant my head raced around how I could put my new plans to practice. I wanted to infuse oils...

I had some olive oil in my kitchen cupboard (I always have several bottles). But I didn't have anything to infuse it with. I went outside and my garden held a little treasure. I had never thought of them as a treasure... but all of a sudden their beautiful yellow petals made me think about their ability to survive even the most unfavourable conditions. Whilst last Spring I thought of them as a weed... this time around they were the answer to my experimenting urge. I picked every dandelion flower I could find in my garden. I ensured they were no insects (which there were at first, quite a few!) and then I placed the flowers in an empty jam jar and covered them with extra virgin olive oil.

I placed the pot in my kitchen window. I thought I would leave them there for around two weeks, where they get the afternoon sun. However, I started reading about maceration (another word for infusing oils, I think) and some people advocate to leave them for 6 weeks, so that they are infused with sun light as well as the full cycle of the moon. I don't know how effective that may be for the maceration process, but the idea sounded appealing.

So, 6 weeks have passed!! I was so excited, I filtered the oil twice through muslin cloth, the deep yellow colour (see picture) was like a full sun, so beautiful! I decided to make my first ever batch of dandelion salve. I added some beeswax (which turned out to be too much, so I had to re-do the process by adding more infusedoil) to the oil in my pirex glass jug placed over a pan of boiling water (my rudimentary bain marie). Once the beeswax had melted in the oil I poured it into small amber jars, adding 15 drops of lavender essential oil for each 60 mls of dandelion flower salve.

Reading about it on the internet, it apears that Dandelion Flower Salve can be very good as a breast salve as well as suitable for muscular pain and even as a hand moisturiser and a cure for eczema. I tried it last night and it was so luxurious!!! Particularly relaxing as the combination of lavender with the sweet smell of the dandelion flower oil makes the experience very pleasurable.

However, the process can often have challenges. In some forums, there are comments regarding how prone dandelion flowers are to maintain humidity and therefore create mould in the oil. Therefore, they advise that dandelion flower infused oil may only be infused for about two weeks. I guess I was lucky. I picked my dandelion flowers after several days without rain and in a sunny afternoon. I managed to keep them in the oil for 6 weeks without any signs of mould.

Ener-cycle

This is the first post in my new blog. I'm completely new to blogging, but I have been thinking about it for quite a long time. It makes sense. I regularly read other people's blogs, and I must say I tend to enjoy reading most of them. I enjoy writing, although I think the more I do it, the worse I become at it. Well, maybe blogging will help!

I lead a very busy life... yet, I love finding time to do creative things, even if I'm not always very good at doing them. My partner and I took over an over-grown allotment 18 months ago and we try to do as best as we can with little knowledge. Recently, I have started making my own natural cosmetics and herbal remedies. Hence the reason for me starting this blog.

I would like this blog to become a record of recipes, ideas, experiments and thoughts that may help achieve the idea of 'ener-cycle'. What do I mean by 'ener-cycle'?

Well, I thought of creating a word which combined energy with recycling. By energy, I don't necessarily mean the energy we may save by recycling, rather, the energy we get by recycling. Let me explain. I'm a dreamer. I get several ideas a week which change my world for about 15 minutes. I don't carry out most of them (except for thinking about them in my head). I do, however, try to pursue those which involve recycling or my own work and effort, rather than economic expenditure. These ideas, and their implementation, give me energy. The process I guess is therefore an ener-cycling process.

So, let's see how far I get with blogging. I'm hoping to post something about my ener-cycling projects at least once a week.