Old post that somehow never got posted, from May - has good ideas

Read my blog 5 days a week because I'm full of it! Well, full of creative ideas, actually :) Today is about gardening, herbs, & flowers.

I'll start out by sharing an idea I came up with years ago. I plant some of my herbs in the glass carafes from automatic coffee makers - the ones I'm going to try to keep alive over the winter in the house. Currently I have 2 so I kept a peppermint & a spearmint plant alive in them over the winter. You can leave the carafes outside during the normal growing season or have them indoors for convenience, to harvest as often as you wish. But, I learned the hard way not to leave them in a vulnerable place outside. The rest of the ones I'd collected had delicate lavenders in them & the lawn guy broke them all with the weed whacker! They were on a wall, not in the grass so I thought they were safe. Now I keep them on the deck with the plastic planters I've bought. Even those aren't safe anywhere around someone wielding a weed whacker! Anyway, these carafes look really neat in your kitchen or dining room with your kitchen herbs in them! They'd even make a nice gift with any plant in them, for the elderly or as a "welcome to the neighborhood" or housewarming gift. Whenever I see one at a yard sale, flea market, or Good Will, I buy it. You can also find very inexpensive jars or baskets in such places, to dress up a plant you've rooted from your own or bought.

Now to gardening. In addition to lavender, rosemary, & chamomile as mentioned yesterday, I always grow sweet basil (my favorite culinary herb after rosemary), peppermint, spearmint, & flowers. Depending on space, time, & money, I also grow other basil varieties, lemon thyme, lemon verbena (which I absolutely adore), lemon grass, & other herbs. I don't cook much anymore so I usually dry my herbs & use lemon verbena, lemon grass, lemon balm, & mints in teas. I do manage to use all my basil & rosemary in summer recipes - usually pair all my basil with fresh tomatoes, use rosemary when I grill. I used the last of my rosemary to make flavored vinegars & olive oils last year! I haven't used my vinegar yet but loved using my olive oil so much that I'll make more this year. Here are the recipes I used:

*Rosemary Infused Olive Oil - 1 c. olive oil & 5-6 fresh rosemary springs (5" long)
Combine both in heavy saucepan, cover & heat on medium-low for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cool to room temperature. Transfer sprigs to 4 oz. bottles or cruets, add the oils (makes 2) & seal. You can refrigerate it for up to one month. (I used a canning jar so I could just spoon out the amount I need.)

*Rosemary Vinegar - 2 1/2 c. white wine vinegar, 6 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary, plus some whole springs ---
Bring vinegar to a boil in a saucepan, pour over the chopped rosemary in a jar. Cover & leave to infuse for 3 days. Strain, pour into a clean, dry bottle, & add a sprig of rosemary for decoration & further flavoring.

In addition to essential oils & their properties, I'm very interested in the medicinal benefits of herbs & have some books, have taken a course. When I formulate, I bring that knowledge with me also. As time goes on I'll probably work with herbs more. My problem is: I like to self-grow the herbs I use & I haven't had the garden or physical capacity to do that. I know where to buy quality essential oils but not where to buy quality herbs for product use in bulk.

My favorite flowers are roses, lilacs, violas (miniature pansies), & snap dragons (because I love to snap their mouths!). When my only son was sent to Iraq for his second tour of duty, I planted lots of yellow flowers in all the varieties I loved. It was my version of "tie a yellow ribbon." I also planted several Chicago Peace rose bushes (petals are yellow & pink), & dried all the petals for personal potpourri & "medicine bags." When I lived on a farm near Hagerstown, Maryland during the first decade of this century, I had about 50 rose bushes I'd planted, countless beds of lavender, many pots of herbs & annuals, a memorial shade garden, & a vegetable garden. I'd also planted 3 lilac bushes, a spirea bush (I call it a bridal bouquet bush), & 5 peonies. My roses were a great learning experience & worthy of a separate post. So we'll talk more about roses & gardening tomorrow.

I love to cut & arrange my roses, then dry the petals for use in potpourri. I love dried flower arrangements too, & making grapevine wreaths (as in, harvesting the vines, twisting interesting wreaths, then decorating them). I love gardening from the digging to the harvest, then creating with the results - food or bouquets & then making something with the dried product. I love the scents, the feel of the plants, having created something living, breathing, growing, & beneficial. That's what I'm about & what is at the heart of my business.