Herbal Mosquito/Insect Repellent

From the Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable, by Juliette de Bairacli Levy. (Click on header to see book)

Insect Repellent Oil

Powdered Herbs:
Wormwood
Tarragon
Rosemary
Rue
Thyme
Basil

1 Cup Sunflower or Almond Oil
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Large Spoonfuls of Powdered Herb Mixture

Grind dried, whole herbs in a coffee mill until powdered. Mix together equal parts of each herb. In a clean glass jar add 2 large spoonfuls of powdered herb mixture to oil and vinegar. Place the capped jar in a mound of sand in full sun and let stand for 5 days. Shake jar well each day. After 5 days, strain the oil from the herb powder through cheese cloth and pour into a clean glass jar. Add the same amount of herbal mixture to the liquid and discard the used herbs. Repeat this process once more, leaving the third batch in the sun from 5 days to two weeks. Keep the jar covered at all times to prevent loss of vital oils.

Apply to skin with a damp cotton ball or cotton cloth.

Random Useful Tips

This will be an ongoing list of hopefully helpful bits of info as I think of them. It goes without saying that growing techniques and gardens are as multitudinous and individually unique as the people who create them. There is not one right way. If it resonates with you, test it out!



--Improve compost by keeping a chamber pot for your kids and/or yourself. Empty the pee onto the compost pile for heat-adding nitrogen. To increase microbial activity and diversity of compost, empty your used dishwater onto the pile. You can even throw on a bucket of pond water now and again if you have access, to really diversify.

--Don't be afraid of straw or wood mulch to cover your beds. Garden centers and many avid gardeners, in my experience, discourage the use of straw because it can contain grain seeds--I suppose there may be a slight risk of spreading viral grain diseases, I don't know--If grain seeds sprout they are very apparent and usually in small numbers. (They look like thick grass.) Just pull them out if you don't want them.

I have been told that there has been a school of thought around for a while that believed decaying wood to be bad for your vegetables. However, now the science that once warned against wood has discovered that decaying wood adds extremely beneficial microbial, nutritional, and fungal elements to soil. Both wood and straw mulch help retain moisture and add these helpful microbes, nutrients and fungi as they decay. (Thanks Becka!) Try thinking of your soil in your garden as a forest floor: A place where layers of organic debris grow and die, stuff falls from trees, creatures die and everything decomposes, creating a rich nutrient self-sustaining bed for little seedlings.

--For FREE MULCH, contact one or more local Arborists in early spring and request a truck-load of wood-chip mulch. Do it as soon as you see their trucks and chippers out and about. You may have to wait a month or two, since the mulch is given to their tree-trimming customers first. Keep in mind that this mulch is irregular in size and contains leaves and some sticks. But for free, it does the job. It seems that the leaf content actually helps it decompose faster--like a self-composter. We had a truck load piled in our driveway for several days and we could see the heat coming out of it!

--I recently got a tree planting tip from a master gardener at the Farmer's Market. When you are planting trees make sure that any roots that have begun to grow in a circular manner around the bottom of the pot are cut so that every single root hangs straight down. If any roots are left growing in that circular motion, the tree could live for 15 years, then die suddenly without ever knowing why.

Garden Progress

I have been so busy with the garden that I have had no time to write about it. Now that she is fully planted-out I can begin to share some of the details of the techniques we have used. When we first moved in to our rental duplex the back yard was covered with layers of cottonwood leaves and old reedy and viney plant material from past gardening activity. I wish now that I had left all that wonderful carbonic matter and sheet mulched the entire area to plant into as Spring progressed. However, not being very familiar with that technique, I raked-up as much of the dry leaves and vines as possible and, along with some horse manure I attained free-of-charge through Craig's List and as much green material that I could find through the steadily warming days, made compost.

After several weeks I used the compost to amend our clay soil, creating vegetable beds rather randomly, or more hopefully by the quiet instruction of the natural space I was practicing to commune with. Some beds were dug, but the intense work started to seem to resemble a subtle facet of bio-dysfunction. Though my questions and apprehensions were preponderant to my knowledge and skill level in these matters, the information I was subconsciously seeking I stumbled into at a local coffee/book shop. Gaia's Garden practically leapt off the book shelf into my voracious page-turning fingers. In those pages I found detailed written instructions and diagrams for sheet mulching--essentially, layering cardboard(cellulose), straw, leaves, manure, green material, kitchen scraps, etc., on top of existing soil, allowing the materials to compost right where you plan to plant your vegetables, all WITHOUT DIGGING!

So from then on I have used this layering of carbon and nitrogen materials between layers of cardboard--beginning and ending with layers of cardboard and topping off with straw or wood chip mulch--planting directly into the mix by using a pointed trowel-type tool, whose name eludes me, to pierce through the top layer of cardboard. A handful of compost is added to the small hole made when planting-in the vegetable babies. Then the straw or wood mulch topping is pushed back in place around the base of the start. This method, like all permaculture methods, conserves water by holding in moisture very well--even in our arid Colorado climate--and creates what I like to think of as a loving blanket for tender young plant roots that protects from cold nights, scorching sun and wind, simultaneously releasing--at a much more natural rate than digging--essential nutrients for plants while actually building layers of rich soil! And all with free materials we already had in our yard and abundant by-products easily gathered. This is the first time in my life I have not bought soil for my garden. 'Tis a beautiful thing.

Here is a list of the food we are cultivating in the garden this year: potatoes, onions, black beans, edamame(edible soybean), corn, squash, tomatoes, three varieties of string bean, peas, asparagus, strawberries, carrots, beats, raspberries, blackberries, currants, cucumber, lettuce and field greens, two varieties of kale and spinach, celery, oats, buckwheat, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, garlic, artichokes, aubergine, hot peppers, fennel, holy basil(Tulsi), dill, basil, thyme, sage, parsley, chamomile, horehound, Gala apples, Italian plums

Homemade Face and Body Lotion

Rose Lotion


This is a beautiful, sweet-smelling effective lotion that you'll want to put everywhere! I usually double the recipe to use liberally. Its great for children and babies with such simple natural ingredients, and keeps very well.

4 T Almond Oil
4 T Rose Water
1 t Beeswax
1/4 t Raw Honey
5-10 drops Rose or Lavender Essential Oil(optional)

Use a fine cheese grater to grate the beeswax and measure out a teaspoon by pressing the grated bits into a measuring spoon coated with a little almond oil. In a clean glass jar, melt the beeswax with the 4 tablespoons almond oil in a pan of shallow simmering water.

Into a blender, measure out the 4 tablespoons rose water. Add the honey and essential oil--if using--and blend briefly.

When the oil and beeswax mixture has cooled, but has not begun to solidify or become opaque, pour slowly into the rose water mixture while blending by taking out the center cap of the blender lid.

Scrape out emulsified, white creamy lotion with a rubber spatula and store in clean glass jar or lotion dispenser. Keep at room temperature.

This recipe comes from The Encyclopedia of Herbs and Spices by Andi Clevely, Katherine Richmond, Sallie Morris, and Lesley Mackley.