Happy New Year! Free Rosemary Soap Coupon

Happy New Year from Aquarian Bath. Hope you have a great 2016 and many fond memories from 2015. Rosemary is for remembrance, so remember to use the coupon code "twentysixteen" for a free Rosemary soap with your order over $35 on AquarianBath.com or AquarianBath.etsy.com.This offer is valid through January 15, 2016 or while supplies last.

Best Photos from Leu Gardens in Orlando

I have been meaning to go to Leu Gardens in Orlando for a long time. Monday we finally had a good opportunity, since we also had to make a trip to Sky Craft for hardware parts for a SolarNetone project, and the first Monday of the month is also free at Leu Gardens. We took pictures until the battery died on the phone, but here are some of my favorites.  The pohots are either of my favorite garden displays or just the best photos from the batch that I took. I hope you enjoy them, and find they inspire you to go visit. The photos that I saw online previously didn't really give me a good idea of what I would find there, for example a small but unique Bonsai Garden, a Butterfly garden, a Citrus grove, a vegetable garden, a rose garden, and flower clock. I posted other photos of roses and bamboo at my Aquarian Bath twitter and personal google+ accounts.

Seed Saving E-book - Free Guide

Source: casualherbs.com via Aquarian on Pinterest

I came across this e-book for seed saving this morning from Seed Ambassadors. It has a lot of helpful information including cultivation for pedigree versus adaptivars and different seed saving techniques for different types of plants. You can down load all 37 pages for free here: A Guide to SeedSaving, SeedStewardship & Seed Sovereignty

When and How To Harvest Your Luffa Gourds

Here is a Luffa cylindra 'sponge' AKA Loofa that I harvested and peeled recently. The first time I grew luffa many years ago I was told I should wait until the outside of the Luffa turned dark brown before harvested them. That worked for me the first time I grew them, but not with last years crop. Some of the Luffa gourds from last year that I was waiting on to turn brown actually kind of disintegrated inside from the excessive Florida summer humidity. This year I have been harvesting the gourds just when they turn this beautiful ripened yellow color. The peel comes off easily by hand at this stage. The 'sponge' is kind of soft coming out of the peel. If you let it dry out and harden for a couple of days, then you can get the seeds out by hitting it on a hard surface and shaking the seeds out. Some people suggest to wash out the gourds right after harvest, but they are very clean coming right out of the peel. I haven't cleaned them out that way, because I wanted the seeds to dry in good condition for seed saving.

These are the really big long gourds that I have been waiting on for making soap with. I'm very excited to collect them. It think they will be ready to pick today or Saturday at Fair Share.

Would you like some seeds for yourself? I have Luffa seed free with purchase in my etsy shop.

Librivox Free Audio Book Selections

One if the things I miss with having a new baby is having time to read. Especially while I was pregnant and resting post partum I read a lot of good books.  My new solution to getting my literature fix is Librivox.  All the books are read by volunteers and are in the public domain. I'm currently in chapter 31 of Jane Eyre. I like having it on in the background when I'm nursing or doing housework or working online. You can check it out Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë here:

Here are some others good choices from the books that I read while I was pregnant or recovering.  Some of these I will be "reading" again on Librivox. Three of a kind Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and The Awakening are all related to each other in following the life of married woman and their extra marital romances, and well I won't spoil the endings for you. ;).

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 1877


Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 1857
 

The Awakening by Kate Chopin 1899


First Love by Ivan Turgeniv 1860


Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 1847


I couldn't find The Songs of Distant Earth 1986 by Arthur C. Clark which I also read and enjoyed after Tessa was born, but I did find Childhood's End, which I think I will check out next on Librivox:


Let me know if you find something good in the Librivox audio archive that you think I should 'read' next.

Free Seeds With Purchase: New Section in my Etsy Shop

Be sure to check out the new section in my Etsy shop for free seeds with purchase.  Right now I have Seminole pumpkin, Arugala, and Luffa seeds listed.  There will be more to come as I take pictures of plants and gather more seeds.  Hope you find something you like.

 Update as of July 28th: Now also Amaranth and Black eyed peas

Free Workshops in the Garden this Saturday: Weeding and Intro to Solar

Join us at our regularly scheduled Fair Share Garden meetup this Saturday in Daytona Beach for free workshops. Location: 345 White St. behind the Lions club (corner of White & Willis)

At 10 am Bernadette Albright will be speaking on the importance of weeding in the vegetable garden. Don't settle for a low yield vegetable garden by letting water-drinking and nutrient-consuming weeds get in the way. Learn to identify various edible weeds.

At 11 am Scott Johnson of the SolarNetOne project will demonstrate a small off-grid photovoltaic power system designed to provide remote communications, such as for off-grid homesteading. The talk will include info on how to size and scale solar power systems to meet load size, as well as strategies to optimize load equipment for operation from solar power.



Workshops are free, however Fair Share is a 501 c non-profit and donations are welcome.

Win a Set of Business Cards

Happy Weekend everyone. I have a new contest starting on the blog here. The prize is a set of business cards and is sponsored by DigitalRoom.com. Who can't use a new set of business cards? These cards can be really useful: from the classic business card, to blogger cards, designer cards, etc.

One Winner will receive:
~500 Business Cards
~2 x 3.5”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.75 x 3.5” (slim card)
~14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock
~Full Color Both Sides; Offset Press; 3 Business Day Printing

To enter:

~ Leave a comment here about how you would like to use your free business cards.

For extra entries you can do the following:

~ Share this contest on twitter by posting the following: "Win 500 full color, double-sided business cards at http://aquarianbath.blogspot.com @aquarianbath"
~ Become a follower of this blog
~ Join the fan page for AquarianBath on Facebook
~ Make a purchase from AquarianBath leaving a comment about this contest with your order (3 extra entries).
~ Blog about this contest or add the Aquarian Bath blog badge to your blog (2 extra entries).

This contest ends the 28th of April at midnight. Entrants must be 18 or over to participate. This giveaway includes Free Shipping to US Residents. A winner will be chosen using random.org.

Spring Celebration: Free Victory Garden Issue of The Essential Herbal to Download

Happy Spring to everyone. In celebration of Spring and the new vegetable garden being installed at the White house, I'm giving away a copy of the Victory Garden Issue from the Essential Herbal Magazine here on my blog.

Michelle Obama on the purpose of the white house vegetable garden:
We want to use it as a point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet. You know, the tomato that's from your garden tastes very different from one that isn't. And peas - what is it like to eat peas in season? So we want the White House to be a place of education and awareness. And hopefully kids will be interested because there are kids living here.

We had our own Spring Celebration at the Fair Share Garden in Daytona yesterday. Vendors had a great variety of hand made products. There was an nutrition and veggie growing workshop. The conclusion of the festival featured the Heritage Dancers.