Late Spring Herbal Fun

Spring came early this year but I was late getting plants started.  I live in a townhouse so most of my gardening is in containers.  Container gardening can give some amazing results despite the lack of space!!  My herbs are coming along very nicely.  I concentrate on herbs mostly, the rest I can buy at the farmer's market (I do have a couple of tomato plants also!)

I have also been playing with some mixtures of essential oils added to a carrier of grapeseed oil. These can be used as a scent or massage oil.  I put my mixes in to very small antique glass bottles that I found.  These bottles are about 3 inches tall so the amount of oil is small---that means I can use them quickly and try new mixes.  I stole the mixture ideas from the Mountain Rose Herb catalog--I am new to mixing essential oils and so a little copying helps me to learn what scents go together well!

I have bought a lot of dried herbs from the Mountain Rose Herb company in recent months and am storing them in old and new canning jars that I have been collecting.  I was lucky to get a box of antique jars at an auction for a very good price and have found others at the nearby antique mall.  I have made my own labels for the jars usng a cd of medieval herbal woodcuts put out by Dover publications.  I print the labels onto rustic looking paper and use a glue stick to attach to the jars.

I am very happy with the result!!