Five ways to use Lavender in Your Home this fall

No other herb is quite so prized for its fragrance and beauty, or more evocative of romance than lavender.  The season for harvesting lavender has just passed and I have a number of screens full of dried buds.  

Lavender has a laundry list of good-for-you properties.  It is antiseptic, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-convulsive, and anti-depressant. Lavender benefits stress, anxiety, exhaustion, irritability, headaches, migraines, insomnia, depression, colds, digestion, flatulence, upset stomach, liver and gallbladder problems, nervousness, and loss of appetite.  With this in mind, I glanced through just a few notes in my file drawer and came up with five great ways to put lavender to work for you.

Relaxing Lavender Bath
Make a strong infusion by adding a handful finely chopped lavender leaves and flowers to a cup of boiling water. Let it steep 10 minutes, strain and add to your bath.  Lavender will not only relax you with its scent but will reduce the stressful feelings with it essential components.

Drowsy Potpourri
Fill a bowl by your bedside with rose petals and dried lavender flowers. Add a drop or two of lavender essential oil. Finger the bowl before drifting to sleep.

Sleepy Sachets
Put lavender flowers and a few drops of essential oil in sachets to slip beneath pillow or inside the pillow case for a soothing release of scent if you wake or turn in the night. Or if you don’t have time pick up a few Lavender Sachets from the Backyard Patch to slip into Birthday cards and hostess gifts.

Lavender Moth BagsMix equal parts of the herbs from the following list. Place them inside muslin bags or if you are feeling especially crafty, sew squares of thin cotton or use heat seal tea bags to create sachets.  Lay them in with your blankets and towels or put them in between your clothes in the drawer.

Dried Herbs to use:

lavender flowers

lavender leaves

mint

rosemary

southernwood

santolina

marjoram

  

The Backyard Patch makes two different Moth Sachets as part of our Green Cleaning line and one has a recipe very similar to this one, using lavender to combat bugs in storage.

Lavender Room SprayAdd 5 drops lavender essential oil to 50 ml distilled water in an atomizer. You will need to shake the atomizer vigorously before each use. Do not make large quantities as the keeping time is relatively short.

Hope you enjoy this short list and remember to use your lavender for all the seasonal effects of shorter days and time changes.

Salve with Roses to help you sleep

Sweet Dream Balm (adapted from Rosemary Gladstar's recipes)
Rub on temples at night for sweet dreams. Great for children!

1/2 cup Borage Flowers
1/4 cup Chamomile Flowers
1/4 cup Rose buds
1/4 cup Hops
1/4 cup Mugwort
4 cups Olive Oil
4 oz. Beeswax
50 drops Lavender Essential oil

20 drops Chamomile Essential oil.

To begin your salve, measure the herbs into an enamel, glass or stainless steel pan (never use aluminum), or into a crock-pot.  Cover the herbs with oil. Heat the herbs and oil over a low heat for several hours (about 3 hours). If you are using roots you should heat the oil longer (about 5 hours). Do not fry the herbs, and keep the vessel covered to retain all the wonderful medicinal qualities of the herbs. After the oil is infused, strain the herbs through a cloth. When most of the oil has filtered through the cloth, squeeze as much oil as possible from the herbs and cloth. Be careful not to burn yourself in this process! Measure the infused oil to ascertain the amount of beeswax needed to make the balm.  You need about 1 oz. beeswax for each cup of oil.

Pour the oil into a clean pot, add beeswax to the oil and heat it until all the wax is melted. To test to see if your salve is firm enough, put some on a spoon and set it in the freezer for a few minutes. If your salve is too soft, add more beeswax. If the salve is too thick, you can add a bit more oil to soften it. If you are using essential oils or Vitamin E you can blend them in now. Finally, pour your salve into containers and label.

Sleep Improvement with Tea

Sleep Improvement with Tea

Is getting a good night’s sleep something you haven’t experienced very often lately? If so, don’t freak out. This problem is widespread. People all over the world have trouble sleeping. You should realize that help is available in many forms. No one has to live in a state of perpetual sleep deprivation. There are lots of things you can do to help yourself relax and fall asleep (and stay that way) each night. So let’s begin our discussion of these helpful tactics.

Get regular exercise during the day (not right before bed!) In addition to being necessary to keep your body healthy, getting regular exercise each day helps you sleep better at night. Since your muscles are tired from your workout, they’ll be more relaxed when you go to bed at night. It is important, however, not to try to do a full workout too close to your bedtime. Exercise pumps you up, gives you energy and enthusiasm and all of those things contradict your needing to relax and decompress to fall asleep. You can ask your doctor or a trainer at your gym for specific guidelines on the best type of exercises to do for sleeping better and your overall health.

Rest Easy Tea Leaves

Herbal tea can be very relaxing. You may be familiar with chamomile tea, which is great for helping you to relax and sleep. Valerian is an herb that’s often used to help people sleep, and this can be made into a tea, however it has a strong flavor not everyone can enjoy.  The Backyard Patch makes two blends specially formulated for sleep enhancement.  One I call Dreamtime which includes soothing combination of lavender and chamomile. The other is called Rest Easy.  This gently minty tea can settle the mind and the body for sleep.  Teas with Tulsi, Holy Basil, can be used to quiet the mind from dreams and worries.  A warm, non-caffeinated beverage at night, especially one made from selected herbs, can be great for helping you sleep.

Don’t be tempted by over-the-counter products to help you sleep. If you feel you have to get some kind of medication to get relief from your insomnia, it’s time to see a doctor. Many of the sleep aids you see advertised on TV and sold at the pharmacy are potent enough to make you dependent on them. In other words, you could soon be in a situation where you can’t sleep at all without taking this medication. Taking such a substance regularly can alter your brain chemistry. If you want to take something to help you sleep, you’re better off sticking to natural and herbal products, though you should research these as well for things like side effects.

There are a lot of things that you can do to help yourself get a better night’s sleep. If your insomnia is severe or there’s a medical reason for it, you have to consult with a physician. The strategies and remedies we’ve covered here can be effective most of the time, though. So make sure you include these suggestions in your efforts to sleep more soundly. In your efforts to overcome insomnia, it may be necessary to test out various remedies and practices, but eventually you’ll be able to figure out what it takes to get the sleep your body and mind requires.