One of the things I enjoy most from our garden in the spring is the chamomile. Fresh chamomile tea is NOTHING like the stuff you might get in a tea bag. This year I have made infused oils using chamomile flowers, comfrey, calendula, and lavender from my garden.My first experiment was to make a whipped coconut oil body butter using the recipe on The Nourished Life. I added in comfrey and chamomile. Whipping the coconut oil gives it a soft texture and you can scoop it out of a jar easily. It's quite nice but I wanted more.I tried my hand at making a salve. I sort of roughly followed this recipe from Ramblings of a Happy Homemaker. I used coconut oil, beeswax, and, calendula, lavender, comfrey, and chamomile oils, and also some vitamin E oil.For my next trick I will try with some grapeseed oil. In fact, I might start infusing grape seed oil instead of olive oil and incorporating some local honey would kind of rock too. Crunchy Betty has a nice sounding recipe that includes honey.I made the mistake of smearing some salve all over myself, forgetting that salve does NOT equal lotion. So yeah. The whipped coconut oil worked well as a lotion. it wqasnt too heavy or greasy and absorbed into my skin nicely. I might try a recipe similar to this one at To Come Full Circle with clove. The following list is taken from http://www.natural-homeremedies-for-life.com.Coconut oil ~ Super moisturizing oil, a solid at room temperature but melts easily on the skin. Its consistency makes it very easy to mix and very useful in facial masks. Protects skin from the elements by forming a thin film which is not absorbed. Also useful as an after sun oil. Good cleansing properties and very mild.Comfrey – Contains allantoin, an ingredient that promotes healing, and is known for its regenerating and soothing properties. The extract of the Comfrey plant is anti-inflammatory, astringent and emollient. It can help the healing of open wounds, cuts, burns, and bruisesLavender ~ Soothes and calmes your skin, has antiviral, anti-fungal, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. Can relieve muscle tension, speeds healing and reduces scarring. Also works as anti depressant, stimulates circulation, is a mild sedative and reduces nervous tension.Chamomile ~ There are Roman and German chamomile. They are rejuvenating and relaxing and have soothing effect on burns and irritations. Are also slightly sedative.Beeswax ~ Beeswax locks in moisture, fosters cells and protects skin from damaging environmental factors. Honeygirlorganic.com reports beeswax effectively "softens your skin and creates a long-lasting protective coating against the elements. It also is a naturally nourishing moisturizer as well as being anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti-allergenic and a germicidal antioxidant." According to Botanical.com, "Even after processing, beeswax still remains a biologically active product, retaining some anti-bacterial properties and also contains some vitamin A, which is necessary for normal cell development." The Mayo Clinic recommends lip balm made from beeswax for chapped lip care and prevention.Since beeswax does not clog pores, Dermaxime.com states, "When it is properly used, (beeswax) will not promote the formation of acne or pimples."
More Labyrinth pictures from around town
Sibley volcanic preserve
There's a tiny old one over by Lake Merritt. I can't find a picture of it right now.I know there is another labyrinth in Tilden somewhere but I haven't made it out there.Okay, this one is on Maui. I can dream it is about town.
This is the labyrinth I talk about here and here.
Gardens @ NIMBY - A Playground for Adults
About 5 years after NIMBY moved to a new location in East Oakland I finally made it over there for a fundraiser and got to check out the space. The first thing I noticed that there there were plants everywhere and I was really surprised. Thinking about it now I'm not surprised at all. who better to create gardens from cast off junk than the founder of the largest do-it-yourself industrial art space in the Bay Area? The second thing i noticed was that they have an old metals twisty slide from a Mcdonalds and I WANT IT! Like, really want it. It could totally fit in our side yard and would be awesome.BEHOLD:
But, back to the gardens at NIMBY... one of the first containers of unexpected food were these old ducts filled with kale and then this pink bath tube with more food plants:
Apparently it is very east to get cheap discarded hydroponic/pot grow house equipment like these huge trays:
Love the tree house going up in the background. I saw that out on the playa about a month later. :)I counted about 5 big trays of food plants and many smaller pots scattered about. That's a lot of fresh veggies to share!And here are the beginnings of some aquaponics tanks. I think they could build a decent chicken coop on top of this that dogs would not be able to get in to. A sort of chicken condo, if you will.
Then there was this huge tank filled with beautiful glass sculptures, fish and plants used to a be a huge gas tank. I think? I could be remembering wrong, but either way, it was very pretty and soothing!There were some great succulent gardens as well. I wish I had written down the name of the person who made this lovely wall sculpture with succulents:
And outside, there were these great plastic pipes filled with succulents. I can see this working really well on a back porch or even front yard.
Industrial junk being turned to good use, whether for art or to grow food or to make a playground is always beautiful and inspiring!
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - June 2012
My first Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post a few days late. :PWhat is happening back here flower wise these days?Zucchini Flower!
Poppies, poppies and more poppies.
Yarrow and CA fushias and salvia clevelandii.
Roses.
Cerinthe major
Mimulus.
I bought a few small plants yesterday so maybe I'll have an actual in bloom flower bed later this year. :)
Schoolhouse Creek Common Berkeley, CA
I came across the awesome Schoolhouse Creek Common Garden playscape in Berkeley during a Bring Back the Natives Tour in 2008. Here is the write up on the Bring Back the Native site. I think this was my very first experience with an actual natural playscape and I was really excited by it.This playscape has so many great features, including boulders, a tire swing, a mesh tunnel, tree stumps (movable and not), CA native plants, a nice BIG sand pit, a small hill with boulders and plantings, and secret paths.I have brought my son here a few times over the years although we were never regulars since it is a bit far from my house. The last time we went my son was about 4.5 and we had a really good time. the first thing I did was get out my sketchbook and some pens and I started to make a map of the garden. this was a great opportunity to talk about maps and to have my son help me. He got really into it and really got the concept of translating what we were seeing to the paper. I sent him off to explore and to report back with what he found.Note to self: find that sketchbook, scan and upload it.We have actually have never encountered any other kids at this site and I would really love to see a group or even just two kids playing here to see what they do! J and I made maps, and we played Hide and SNEAK(TM), and dug in the sand pit looking for dinosaur bones.You can read more about the process of building Schoolhouse Creek Commons here.
KaBoom - Online Resources
It looks like KaBoom has some interesting sounding talks you can listen to online about various aspects of playground design and installation. Heres a link.There are interviews with designers, how to maintain a community garden and get volunteers, info about outdoor schools and tons more. Go check it out if you are interesting in getting your community active in having playgrounds installed and including kids in landscapes.I see KaBoom also has a new iPhone app called Playgrounds! I haven't tried it yet and I see that it gets mixed reviews. One reviewer mentions that it seems to include any school campus regardless of age range. It's not often you find a high school with a playground... and even if you did it might not be open to the public. I'll download this myself and give it a try. Hopefully my very old and getting decrepit iPhone can handle it.
Evolution of an herb spiral
When we moved in and had an arborist come cut down some of the plum trees we kept all the branches. When I was making my herb spiral I dug a hole to mix in compost and such and I buried some of the plum branches in a nod to Hugelculture. We also piled up most of them along the back wall and dumped dirt on it and have things growing on it (oh, and an embedded hillslide) in a more traditional hugelculture bed.April 2011:It started fairly small.June 2011:I enlarged it to include an attached bed for flowers.October 2011:February 2012:Here's the flower part of it in May 2012:I had a fantastic crop of borage, chamomile and comfrey plus some nice annuals this spring. I have prepared the bed for some new things but I'm not sure what. I already sprinkled some seeds randomly and put in a few ground cherries. There is also some lovely lovely smelling lemongrass and some valerian in there plus some basic herbs like rosemary and oregano.Here it is June 2012: