Making bath oil out of herbs

Finished one thing on my memory list Today: Found a website on how to make bath oil. So I went to cut lavendar and rosemary and had sage drying in my dehydrator and mixed them together pressed down in a small jar and pour Canola oil over them using a knife on the sides to remove airbubbles. Its suppose to sit for 2 weeks in a warm area and today that is next to the sliding glass door in my family room. Supposively the scents from the herbs mix with the canola oil.

After about 2 weeks, you strain the oil through a cheese cloth into another glass jar and let it sit for another 7 days. After that you can pour into gift jars for gifts or use for yourself.

What I used for this one as I was limited was I did Rosemary, Lavendar, Sage. I'll post pics of how I did at a later day.

There are other oils such as sesame seed, almond and olive oil that you can use as well.

Update on my prayer garden

My prayer garden is the one I have for a profile pic. I know it looks rather messy hense the title of the blog abiggermess.blogspot.com.

I went out there today to do some clean up that didn't get done before I left town last week to a prayer conference in Mesa Az. My Wine and Rose thyme was very much on their last legs in the containers having not been watered while I was gone. My fault as I had only instructed my hubby to water the veggie garden.

I decided that I needed to plant my thyme before they were totatly dry and root bound. Glad to have them in the ground, and their location is not going to deter from putting in the fence this weekend.

Finished cleaning up the pulled up weeds that I left in a pile as I figured I'd just do one clean up when I was done.

The prayer garden does look as if its not been tended properly and that is true and I hope in the next day or two to get out there and pull back some more weeds.

While in Arizona at the motel I stayed at I spotted a similar design that a friend suggested I do for my back yard. Below is a picture I took.

My plan from the Prayer Garden to the front was to have a continual walkway going to the back yard from the front. Costwise using pea gravel such as what is used inbetween the slate in the photo and then as a ground cover made sense to me to do to help this project along as to where my patio set sits by another flower bed and close to my birch tree. My big plan is to not have to move my lawn furniture to mow the lawn underneath.

My veggie garden is doing very well. My basil is having trouble and I don't know why it won't grow past a certian point. Every time I walk by Fred Meyers I want to just break down and buy one but then I come home and replant another crop in the pot hoping something will take hold.

Someone I met on the trip going with us said that he was doing some landscaping this week and had 5 gallon buckets for plants he was using and said I could have as many as I want. I figure in a couple of weeks I'll need to tranplant my two tomatoes, peppers, beans and peas into bigger containers and just have them line up alongside the driveway next to the porch. Its not going to work to dig up parts in the daisy garden like I planned as it would take me several days to just clean that area up before I felt comfortable planting my garden there.

The weather is still cool here which is why some of what I planted is having trouble growing properly.

I bought a beef steak tomato plant and a crookneck yellow squash today(In the chair on the left). I sure hope I'm done!

I moved my starters on to the stand again to make things easier for watering for later in the week. The plan is when the zuc and the two cukes up on the top start to grow out more, they'll cascade down the stairs. I'm not sure where the other garden that is there already is going. I'll be adding the yellow squash up there also. Not sure why my pickling cuke is holding back. (the top left). I found if I move the table under the stand a little more, the overflow of watering the peppers falls into the begonia.

I picked up some soup cups at the misson to use for my plant drainage and to also bright up my plant area a little bit more with the mixture of containers I have already on the plant stand.

my "bumper" crop

The other day I was coming in from my porch and I bumped into the table where my garden starts are. Everything hit the floor, some clay water trays broke, and dirt was everywhere.

I manage to save the lavendar starts, and my basil as the roots were still in clumps of dirt and I swept up the dirt. I wasn't sure about the other three smaller clay pots that were nearly empty, not only that the labels had fallen out as well. I knew one was thyme and was in my blue and white pot, but I don't know which is the chamomile and which is the lavendar.

Yesterday morning, I spotted two leaves sprouting from my thyme container. This morning both the lavendar and the chamomile are leaves coming up as well. So its safe for now.

My beans and peas seem stable and I'm going to transplant them this weekend and start another bean plant and another pea plant. While watering the tomato plant in my strawberry pot, I noticed that a bean I planted several weeks ago is also sprouting.

My peppers are growing and my lettuce is coming up. I think putting them on the plant stand was a good idea. I planted another container of lettuce and put it on one of my chairs on the porch.

This weekend I'll take a look at the area where my daisies are and then google (again!) to see if planting some of my garden there will be okay for the duration of summer. I won't move anything until after I get back from Arizona as I don't want to make watering harder on anyone tending my garden while I'm gone.

Okay last one for the day!

I know it doesn't look like much now but here is my lavendar and rose garden/herb garden.

Its been in a developing stage for several years, as I've gathered mini roses for my garden representing friends that I pray for. Its been rather neglected over the last couple of years as other projects have come up, but this year its getting good treatment.

There's be a fence around it, and a wine and roses thyme ground cover with lavender planted throughout the outside of the fence to help complete the pathway. This is phase two of my project.

Phase three is the path way that I'm making in the garden itself to make it a more formal with broken clay pots, small shale rocks and such for paths inbetween the plants.

Clover this year seems to be taking over most of my yard and I can mow it down in the lawn, but by my plants I've been digging it up like crazy.

So that's it for today. I think I got everyone caught up!

My lavendar starts

Okay I did cut of the tops to my lavendar and instead of drying them I stuck them in a pot and put a glass jar over them. My english lavender is growing and rooting, my french lavendar (with the purple flowers on the top) are wiltering but the stem seems to be still strong. Its been about a month since I did that and everything is still green.

I took the glass jar off of them a week ago and they seem to be doing okay.

I'll probably plant them in a few weeks after I get back from Arizona. I'm planting those by the fence I'm building for my lavender and rose garden, inbetween the wine and roses thyme ground cover.

I'm becoming addicted to my garden!

Hope thats a good thing! I planted another lettuce bowl, and once my beans and pea get more stable I'm transplanting them in other containers and doing a second batch.

If the containers get to be much I may have to resort to moving some out to the back yard where it will get more sun in the day time. I've got an area with daisies that if I have to put them in the ground there I will.

I like the container gardening since its on my front porch and easy access to my kitchen where I plan on putting them up as the summer continues on.

Its part of my goal to returning to where I first started with my canning, freezing and other stuff years ago. Its that feeling you get at the end of summer knowing all the hard work you put in is now continuing into the fall and winter.