Crafting a Natural Bug Repellent with Essential Oils
The warm weather has finally arrived. And so have the bugs. What kind of bug repellent do you wear? If you’re the type of person who prefers to use products with plant-based ingredients, then you may just want to craft your own with essential oils and other simple ingredients. I have enjoyed crafting my own…
Bee Informed: The Bee Population Decline and What To Do About It
There are blares from car horns in the lines of traffic that stretch endlessly along paths of asphalt. We travel to and fro: to work, to school and to leisure. The sights, scents and sounds of everyday life consumes us, leaving little time or energy to notice the natural world that teems around us. We are…
Sweeten Your Breakfast With Dandelion Flower Syrup
Everywhere that I turn, dandelions are popping up out of the ground. Many find them a nuisance, thinking they are just weeds, but dandelions are a wonderfully nutritious herb! Rich in vitamins and minerals, dandelions are known for not just for their medicinal properties, but also their delicious taste in salads, cookies, and syrups. You…
Cool as a Cucumber – 5 Ayurvedic Tips for Summer
June 1st marks the start of a new seasonal cycle in Ayurveda. We’re transitioning out of the thaw of spring and lightening the load, but we should also be preparing for nature’s warmer months and its more sharp and penetrating qualities. According to Ayurveda’s elemental theory, Fire and Water are most at play during the…
How to Harden Seedlings and Protect Your Garden
Gardening is a popular past-time, and many people invest a large amount of money every year in plants and seedlings, only to be rewarded with droopy, wilted, dead plants within a few weeks. Fix.com has created an infographic entitled 9 Steps to Harden Seedlings, giving you all the info you need in order to give…
How to Make a Happy Uterus with Lady’s Mantle Tea
Lady’s mantle cups her hands to hold the morning dew. Despite her inconspicuous flowers, gardeners adore her for the dew drops, formed by a process called guttation (Roshchina, 1993), that glisten on the tips of each of her scalloped leaves and captivate even the most casual observer who strolls by. The herbalists adore her for…
Put the Healthy Back Into Summer With High-C Herbal Ice Pops
Summertime in Texas usually means extreme heat and sunshine. After a day of fun out in the sun, we are all usually overheated and in need of something to cool us down and replenish our electrolytes. When this happens, my first act is to go to the freezer and see what ice pops we have…
Tips to Reduce Shopping-Related Plastic Waste
According to statistics, in 2012, the United States produced a staggering 32 million tons of plastic waste and only recycled a mere 9 percent of that (EPA, 2014). This non-degradable plastic not only takes up lots of space in our landfills, but both large and small pieces of plastic waste find their way to our oceans…
Homemade Calamine Lotion for Quick Itch Relief
I had been longing for spring to come. Daily hikes through the nature preserve, with our family dog and my four-year-old son, were all that I could think about throughout this crazy cold winter in Texas. Our very first hike through the woods welcomed me to spring with a lovely rash all over my ankle…
Oats Benefits: Getting To Know Avena Sativa
Such a beautiful name, Avena sativa, known by most as the common oat. It’s interesting how knowledge of a plant can become lost even as it is daily right under our noses. Humankind has focused so much on the calorie-dense oat grain as a food source, we’ve neglected its medicinal uses, not to mention those…
