Butterflies in the Garden

Gardens are a lovely place to enjoy birds, bees and butterflies. Do you want to attract  more butterflies to your garden? Besides being beautiful to watch, butterflies also pollinate our gardens.

Butterflies eat liquids that include the juice from fruit and the nectar of flowers. You can probably attract some by leaving out pieces of cut fruit for them to dine on. Butterflies eat, or rather drink through their proboscis.  Flowers that butterflies love include lemon balm, lavender, fennel, anise hyssop, bee balm, catnip and yarrow. These are all herbs that we grow on our Colorado Aromatics farm.

proboscis

proboscis

proboscis

Be sure to feed the larvae, or caterpillars too. This early stage eats only leaves and includes many vegetable plants unfortunately, but also clover, fennel, hollyhock, hops, lilac and mallow.

Want a butterfly to land on you? They enjoy the salt in sweat, so exercise a little first to increase the likelihood of one landing on you. Butterflies are very active during the day looking for food. At night, they tend to sleep on the underside of leaves or in small crevices between rocks.You can also build them a house that has narrow openings where they can hide.

A butterfly has 4 stages to its life cycle. The egg,  caterpillar (or larva), chrysalis (or pupa) which overwinters on a plant, and the butterfly. The lifespan of a butterfly is only 2-4 weeks, so enjoy them while they are around.  There are 28,000 different types of butterfly species worldwide, find out about species that are common near you.

Herbal Spunk Shampoo

Our customers said they wanted an all natural shampoo with gentle surfactants and now we've got one. As always, we started with beneficial herbs. We choose southernwood, sage, horsetail, green tea and catnip to improve hair growth, strength and shine. Peppermint and rosemary help improve blood circulation to the scalp which also contributes to healthier hair follicles and better hair growth. Panthenol, a B vitamin, binds to the hair shaft to seal it and improve shine. Along with glycerin and aloe, panthenol moisturizes the hair and scalp.

This shampoo also contains very good conditioners including a guar gum derivative to leave hair soft, shiny, easy to comb and will protect color treated hair. You won't need to use a separate conditioner afterward.

The gentle surfactants in this shampoo will not strip the hair or dry the scalp.

We think you will love this shampoo. Try it and tell us what you think.
http://sagescript.com/bathandshower.htm

Ingredients:
water, decyl glucoside, sodium lauroyl lactylate, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, glycerin, panthenol, camellia sinensis (green tea) extract, guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride, benzyl alcohol, dehydroacetic acid, artemisia abrotanum (Southernwood), extract, salvia officinalis (sage) extract, mentha piperita (peppermint) extract, Nepeta cataria (catnip) extract, rosmarinis officinalis.

Whats in the Still?

I haven't distilled as much as I've wanted to this summer. My newly planted herbs just haven't grown big enough to have the amounts needed for distilling. This is disappointing because I have bought a new still. I have been able to combine some of my herbs with those of gracious friends and neighbors though to be able to have enough.

I have been able to distill comfrey, catnip, lemon balm, blue spruce, and chocolate mint. Catnip distillate I use as a base for making my bug repellent spray. Comfrey is a herb that heals epithelial cells so it is good for any skin care product. Comfrey distillate has worked well for me sprayed on a burn in the kitchen. I will also try using it for muscle aches and tendonitis that I seem to get alot of from l weed pulling. Blue spruce I spray on my face for a boost of energy. Lemon balm is great for many skin care applications including burns, rashes and irritations. Its aroma is light, lemony and uplifting. Cookbook author and culinary herbalist, Susan Belsinger, gave me this recipe for Goodnight milk:
To one cup of warm milk add 1 tsp of lemon balm distillate and 1 tsp of maple syrup. The soothing properties of this milk will surely bring about a good night's sleep.

Distillates contain the parts of the plant that vaporize at a temperature at or below that of water. This includes microscopic droplets of essential oils that dissolve as well as organic plant acids. Distillates or hydrosols as they are often called are good for use directly on the skin, especially the face as a toner. Mix with a little glycerol and they become a great toner/moisturizer. If you want to keep a distillate around for awhile though it needs a preservative. Otherwise, keep it in the refrigerator and spray it on your face for a cooling refreshment during the hot days of summer. You can still get several types of distillates from Sagescript including comfrey, lemon balm, blue spruce and catnip.