Natural Herbal Beauty

When your liver works well so does the rest of your body, for the liver is your body’s chemical centre. It is responsible for clearing excess hormones, getting rid of chemicals that could undermine the immune system, and cleansing the toxicity that builds up from too much alcohol, poor food and taking drugs of all kinds. The liver’s ability to deep-clean the system helps protect your whole body from premature ageing and degeneration.

The trouble is that the modern world is literally full of potentially dangerous chemicals. We take them in through the chemically fertilized and highly processed foods we eat, through the air we breathe and the water we drink. (more…)

EASY HERBAL SOAP: Place 2 tablespoons finely chopped lemon verbena or lavender into 2 tablespoons warmed glycerin. Place in a warm area for several days. Strain and finely grate 12 tablespoons of unscented soap or soap flakes and melt in top of a double boiler. Remove from heat and add the scented glycerin to the melted soap. Add 1 tablespoon of honey. Mix well. Pour into greased molds. Allow to set until the soap is cool and hardened.

Now that we’ve taken the steps needed to care for our skin properly, here are some recipes that will take care of special problems and needs. (more…)

Many people have pets and many more already have the pleasure of keeping a garden.

DEER REPELLENT: Mix 1 /2 tablespoon of dried blood to each gallon of water. Use this as a spray to keep deer away from plants and shrubs. This will also work to keep rabbits from the garden area. Just spray around the edge of the garden. You can find dried blood at your garden store. It is a fertilizer made from evaporated blood and nonfatty refuse from slaughterhouses. (more…)

An understanding and imaginative spirit has led to the planning and planting of scented gardens designed to give pleasure to the blind. Two that I have visited are at Hove and St. Leonards, Sussex, and it is good to see how they are appreciated.

In planning such gardens, the site should be sheltered but not under heavily overhanging trees. Access should be easy, and if steps are necessary in the design, handrails should be provided, continuously with the rails employed to go all round the garden. On these, braille labels are placed in front of the various groups of plants. (more…)

It may be possible to have a small herb patch in the town garden. In general, those herbs with smooth but moderately tough leaves, which would not get as choked with grime as very fluffy or felted leaves, should do best. The chief problems that beset plants in towns and cities are the acid-content of the grime deposits; the same effect to make the soil sour; and in many cases poor overworked soils and lack of sun.

Such soils would be benefited by a dressing of lime at ₂ lb. to r lb. per square yard, preferably a few days before planting; and by the addition of some compost or available organic compound. (more…)

Plants for Paths. To give an aromatic scent when trodden, the plants advised for paving may be planted to form a path, mixed or of one kind only.

Knot-Garden Beds. As a central feature, a bed planted in knot-garden style lends distinction. The simplest form is a wheel with the spokes made of compact herbs such as hyssop, rue, santolina or curry plant (kept clipped) or thymes. The segments between are filled with carpeting herbs such as chamomile, or low-growing kinds such as chives, savory or marjorams. (more…)

The herb garden can be anything from a yard-square patch near the kitchen door to a formal and decorative garden 200 feet square. One great aspect that needs to be stressed is that a herb garden can be both fascinating and decorative as well as purely useful.

Secondly, it may be formal or informal in plan. The herb border outside Dunster Church in Somerset is a pleasing instance of an informal border, planted with a varied collection of scented plants, reminiscent of the way in which the herbs would have been grown in the old monastery gardens. (more…)

It is entirely appropriate that the scented plants and the herb garden should be considered together. Some plants, for instance lavender, have aromatic leaves and scented flowers. It is, however, more usual to find the two qualities separatecistus and southernwood have strongly aromatic leaves, but the flowers are not endowed with fragrance.

Generally speaking, the aromatic qualities are more subtle than those of fragrance. In some plants the air around is impregnated with the aroma, as with sweetbriars and pine trees; (more…)

This poetry brings the wise king close to us in sensitivity and appreciation, for it is an experience now to go into a vinery in flower, when the first trusses of grapes are forming, for the unique and exquisite fragrance.

Ahab, that hard and ruthless king, had a single-minded wish to own Naboth’s vineyard, to turn it into a herb garden, and the resulting conflict of interests led first to cynical crime and then to tragedy foretold to Ahab, ironically, in his projected place of peace, the herb garden, where the prophet found him. (more…)

Please be as considerate when field-gathering as you are when harvesting in your own garden. Don’t pull plants out by their roots and don’t leave a mess behind you. Always leave several plants of a given species to insure sufficient growth for future harvests. When gathering leaves and blossoms only, snip them off between your fingernails to minimize damage to the plant. Pinching is preferable to cutting because the pinch acts to close the broken stem and helps seal in the plant’s vital juices. You may, when necessary, scissor tough stems when gathering the entire herb, but leave at least one strong growing stem so the plant can heal itself. If you are gathering roots, please dig them out carefully. When possible, divide the root clump and replant a portion of it to insure future growth. (more…)