This is why you're supposed to keep a garden journal
Last September we set aside a week for intensive fall gardening, bought all the needed supplies, and Mike took a few days of leave. We began the work, setting out spring-blooming bulbs, perenniels, fall-blooming annuals, but before we were done the monsoon season set in.

It happened again last week. We bought several things to add to the garden - summer blooming bulbs, shrubs, etc. - and it rained almost the whole week. Saturday afternoon, as I stood looking out the front door on the fifth consecutive day of rain (out here in west Texas we do everything big; we either have drought or monsoon - nothing in between), I remembered that it was right about this time last February that this happened. Now see, if I'd kept a journal I'd've known to wait until the end of the month to buy anything.



Household hints - Lavender
We've added four more lavender plants to this patch to keep company with the one lonely one you see there on the left side of the picture. One was a fern-leaf lavender we planted last fall that died as soon as it got below freezing, even though the tag said it was supposed to be cold hardy down to fifteen degrees. (Note to self: This bit of information really ought to go into a garden journal.) (Note to readers: I think I shall henceforth use this blog as a garden journal since I seem to blog more faithfully than I ever journalled.) (I hope this isn't objectionable.)

When we lived in Virginia, my lavender did very well, so I had plenty of dried bunches for the linen closet. In the old days, dried lavender was used as an insect repellent, and it also makes your linens smell wonderful.

On occasion I put a drop or two of lavender essential oil in the water I add to my iron. It makes the clothes smell very fresh and it's not a flowery smell, so the menfolk don't object to it.

I have no idea how to make essential oils - I buy them from the health food store in town, and lavender is one of my favorites. A few drops added to an unscented lotion, like Aveeno's baby lotion, makes a good bedtime massage for tired feet and legs. This is a nice treatment whenever one of the little ones is having trouble settling down at night or is having "growing pains" in the legs.

Two drops of lavender e.o. plus five drops of rosemary e.o. added to a tablespoon of jojoba oil makes a nourishing treatment for dry hair. I started growing my hair out almost three years ago, but had to keep trimming off dry split ends until I started doing this oil treatment several months ago. I try to remember to do it twice a week and when I'm doing it regularly for several weeks I don't have split ends. Plus it smells really nice. :-)