Lavender: A MUST have in the home!
I love walking into my local natural health food store. These types of stores give off a sort of ambience that even simply being within them makes you healthier. (I know this isn’t true, but it’s a good feeling.) Specifically, I love walking up the herbal supplement aisles. I always stop and look at the herbal tinctures in their darkened amber or blue glass bottles and read what they can do with such natural and simple ingredients.
For example, Lavender (to the left) is one of the most useful herbs you can utilize within your home on an (almost) daily basis as it has multiple uses (besides just being pretty and smelling lovely!)
Lavender can be used for:
Mental & Emotional Wellbeing:
- Depression
- Insomnia/Restlessness
- Nervousness
- Depression.
Digestive Health
- Abdominal Swelling
- Gas
- Loss of Appetite
- Nausea
- Upset Stomach
- Vomiting
Conditions Involving Pain
- Joint Pain
- Migraine Headaches
- Nerve Pain
- Sores
- Sprains
- Toothaches
Lavender is also a natural antibiotic, anti-viral, and anti-fungal. It can be used topically, internally, or simply smelled.
It does a lot but depending on the company it could be anywhere from 7-15$ for an ounce of this herbal tincture. I realized that this was something that I could easily do at home. I could make a lot of my own natural remedies for my family from my home, using plants from my own garden.
Chamomile
As I’ve started my gardening adventure, I have chosen only plants that I can use within my home. This is primarily because my girls are too young to understand the difference between “safe” and “unsafe” so I choose to use caution and choose plants that are safe. There are some plants, though, that I do not plan on using strictly for cooking. These herbs, flowers, and select yard weeds (like dandelion), make excellent all natural tinctures for family health and wellness.
Unfortunately my personal lavender plant bit the dust early. Boo. It was of the English variety and I am told they don’t always last long. I will have to try the Mexican variety next. I was really hoping to grow and take from the plant as needed. But, anyway, I won’t give up on lavender because it’s seriously such an amazing plant to have around.
I started thinking about how I would store these tinctures (for the and I would like them to look as professional as possible (with the eye dropper and everything). Darker bottles like amber, blue, or green give the tinctures a longer shelf life so I was wondering, where could I find the right glass jars and bottles for making my own home remedies?
I found a company called Sunburst Bottle and it was like the light was shining down on me. These were the bottles that I was looking for. Not only did they have what I needed to store the tinctures, but they had bottles that I could use to make the tincture as well. For example, the amber bottle to the left is about 8oz.
Making a tincture would be really easy. (Recipe to come at a later date.) But this 8oz bottle would be perfect to store my marinating tincture for a few weeks until it is ready for use. (The strained liquid is the portion that would be put into the smaller bottles for use.)
The following herbs are popular in tincture use:
- Blessed Thistle
- Chamomile
- Dandelion
- Echinacea
- Fenugreek
- Feverfew
- Ginger
- Goldenseal
- Hops
- Lemon Balm
- Oregano
- Passionflower
- Rosemary
- Sage
- …. and a lot more
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About Allison
very cool. I would love to be able to make my own remedies but I dont’ have a garden and can’t keep anything alive to save my life.
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That is cool! I would love to do that one day!
Anne – Mommy Has to Work´s last [type] ..Free Slurpee at 7-Eleven May 23rd!
that’s very cool. I dont have the patience for all this though
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I’m getting more into natural remedies but I prefer to buy mines. Good luck though.
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What brands do you usually find yourself purchasing? Are you into essential oils at all?
I will send you some of my lavender–I’m getting so much of it, I don’t know how I’ll possibly use it all!
I always see lots of medicinal herbs at the farmers market, but since I only have a small herb garden, I just planted culinary herbs, which I’ll use more.
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Oh you are so sweet! How much lavender do you have and what is your secret for growing it?
Two words: benign neglect.
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I barely touched them, LOL. I thought they were supposed to have a lot of sun so they were in a hanging pot. I checked to make sure the water was moist but not too much. I pretty much treated them like my raised bed garden which is doing really well and they died anyway. It was English variety… :/ So I am not sure if I should try another variety. I heard the Mexican may be a bit hardier.
Ah, you kept it moist! That was probably the problem. I never water mine ever.
Of course, in a container, you might have to do it once in a while, but I’ve read that herbs do best when they’re in pretty dry soil. I’m testing this theory in my garden this year!
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Yes, I heard they weren’t fans of water…. I guess that may be the issue? Do you have yours in full sun or sun/shade? I am going to try again because Lavender was one of the plants that I REALLY wanted to grow in abundance.
They’re in mostly full sun–the sun doesn’t hit them until around 11am, but I think they still end up getting 8 hours of light. Oh, and I have English lavender.
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I have never tried to make a tincture, sounds complicated.
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It really is quite easy, actually! I will have to do a tutorial soon!
You will have to let us know how they work!
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Oh, I will! I will most likely be blogging about it and doing a DIY tutorial.