Pink Peonies and Roses arranged in a beautiful handcrafted piece by Pinkkiss Pottery are today’s garden pick.
Spring and early summer are my favorite time of year. After a long and cold winter I was more than eager to get my hands in the dirt and watch my garden grow.
Of course all this digging in the dirt leaves my skin rough and dry.
Below are a few of my favorite post garden products to heal and renew.
Renew Your Hands and Feet: Exfoliate with Handcrafted Soap
Handcrafted soap is excellent for Garden Hands (and beach feet). Choose a natural soap with build in exfoliation to remove tired (and dirty!) dead skin. Choose To Go., Lavender & Rhassoul, or Happiness.
Don’t want to get dirt under your finger nails?
Take a bar of soap, dig finger nails into bar leaving soap under nails. Leave under nails while gardening. When you are done, wash hands. The soap will prevent dirt from getting stuck under your nails!
Renew your Body and Feet: Therapeutic Bath Salts
Spent too much time in the garden or by the river? Our special blend of Therapeutic Bath Salts soothes tired muscles and moisturizes and repairs skin. Dead Sea Salts, release toxins and excess fluids. Calendula Oil, heals, softens and soothes skin. Alfalfa Leaf Powder aids in relieving fatigue, and inflammation.
Been running around barefoot? Soothe and soften feet by using the Therapeutic Bath Salts as a foot soak.
Renew and Repair your Hands, Knees, and Feet: Soften Up Salve
Soften Up Salve is excellent to soften, soothe, repair and heal garden hands, knees, feet, sunburns and even bug bites. The secret is in the botanically infused oils. Calendula oil soothes and heals dry skin. St John’s Wort aids in healing wounds, sunburns and bug bites. Sea Buckthorn treats scars and dry skin. Apply after a long day in the garden to repair skin and treat bug bites. Don’t forget to apply Soften Up Salve (or pick one the Firming Body Creams such as Garden Hippie or Lavender) before (and after) sun exposure to reduce the possibility of your skin drying out and/or skin peeling.
This morning amidst the snow and blizzard like conditions, I decided to wander through my garden (see my Healthy Habits entry on Getting Fresh Air). It wasn’t as peaceful as in the summer with the morning dew, but there was this sublime like quality that only nature can provide. The sense that there is beauty in the darkness and power of nature. The awe that comes from something so grand as Mother Earth.
I took a picture of St. Francis standing strong. I then proceed to fill my bird feeder which seems to be mighty popular during these snow storms.
I looked at the faded blooms of my Black Eye Susan, with their seeds pods frozen in the snow.
There is beauty in all things.
Of course I immediately went inside to my warm computer chair and saw the message “Your seeds have been shipped.” YEAH! Spring is coming. Just think this weekend, I will be setting up peat pots and dreaming of getting my hands in the dirt.
If you are like me you might need help knowing when to plant what seeds. Or get confused on which plant to plant inside verses direct sow. Southern Seed Exposure has a wonderful download with recommended planing dates (the link can be found on the front page). Or read this article from Gardeners Blog.
Now on to enjoy the last bit of winter.
The past few weeks I have been craving to get in the garden. Maybe it is the lack of sun, maybe it was because I was recently looking through seed catalogs but then I realized what it was– fresh air!
I spend so much time inside in the winter (and since this winter has as been so wet, this fall as well). In the spring and summer, I will take my lunch an eat outside. I will sit, eat and watch the birds come to eat at the bird feeder. I will enjoy the peace, the smell of summer and a few moments without any demands. Also, I will go outside and pull weeds for a few minutes in the morning to get the day rolling. I love to pull weeds in the morning. The garden is damp, they are easy to pull and require nothing of me other than to be there doing what I am doing.
Outside, I can’t check email, orders, or the fast pace of modern life. Outside, time is on its own terms. You can speed up winter or slow down a flower from fading. Time is what it is.
And I am dying to smell fresh air.
My goal this week, snow, sleet or shine, I will go outside for a few minutes each day.
If I can’t go outside because of the weather. I will spend a few minutes in Savasana, Corpse Pose. Yoga Journal has a great link on how to properly do this pose. Before I do the pose, I can mist my face, body and mat with one of Jackson Sage Hydrating Mist to breath in subtle smells of nature. My favorite is Rose and Aloe Mist.
How do you relax in the winter?
Just wanted to post this wonderful picture– Last week we went down Rt. 5 towards Williamsburg. On the way we stopped by Shirley Plantation, which today is still a working plantation. The cotton was in bloom and it looked like blankets of snow across the fields.
It is really amazing how on this earth there are so many wonderful plants that offer us their gifts each and every year.
