How Growing Native Plants Helps Insects and Birds

Carolina Wild Petunia (Ruellia caroliniensis) is one native plant found in our wildlife habitat. It provides Nectar and may attract Hummingbirds, Mockingbirds, Thrashers, Orioles, Sparrows, Vireos, Waxwings, and Wood Warblers 

I went to an Audubon "Plants for Birds" program this Saturday and learned why native plants are important for birds. The presentation was given by Melissa Lammers of Halifax River Audubon at the Ormond Beach Environmental Discovery Center. The following stood out from the presentation: 

Native plants are essential for healthy insect and bird populations, buy why? Ninety percent of plant-eating insects eat only native plants with whom they co-evolved. Ninety-six percent of land birds feed insects to their babies, who need the protein to grow. A nest of chickadees requires 570 caterpillars per day, which is 9000 caterpillars per nest. Common yard plants like Crotons and Philodendron do not provide food to insects, and 80% of the suburban landscape is sterile with these types of non-native plants. In contrast oaks support 557 species of caterpillars. Some common native plants for Florida are Live Oaks, Beauty Berry, Cedar, Pine, Magnolia, Spiderwort, purple Passion flower (Passiflora incarnata) vine, Pine, Beach Dune Flower, Blanket Flower, and even common Ragweed. In a before an after “yard makeover” one household found that by increasing the number of native plant species in their yard from 2 to 60, the variety of birds species increased from only 4 to 18. A good goal for a yard or a lot is 70% native species of plants. 

It's very simple to remember this way: 
No natives, no insects 
No insects, no birds 

To find out recommended natives species of plants for your area visit: http://www.audubon.com/native-plants and enter your zip code.

Check out Mimosa Saturdays at Beehive Antiques in Daytona Beach

Start your weekend right with a free mimosa while sipping and shopping over a dozen great antique dealers and Aquarian Bath soaps and shampoos in the new Beehive Antiques 3000 sq foot location at 1019 Ridgewood Ave, Daytona Beach, FL.

Saturday, July 6, 2019 at 10 AM – 5 PM  

Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 10 AM – 5 PM  

Go Drastic on Plastic Photography Challenge - Volusia County

Healing Arts Festival at Hot House Yoga:Sunday, April 28th

Join Aquarian Bath at the Hot House Yoga studio on Sunday, April 28 from 4 - 7 PM. 

We will be bringing hot/cold therapy neck pillows, eye pillows, soaps, shampoo bars, shea butter, lip balms, deodorant, tooth powders, and solid perfumes. Hope to see you there! You can RSVP at the Facebook event page.

Go Drastic on Plastic Event at the Ormond Beach Library April 28th

Go Drastic on Plastic Event at the Ormond Beach Library 

Sunday April 28th  1:30 pm - 4:30 pm.

Educational film and guess speakers.

Raffle prize with plastic-free products by Aquarian Bath.

Seaside Herb Society Faire Saturday March 30th in Ormond Beach

The annual Seaside Herb Society Faire will be held Saturday March 30th from 9:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the regular location at the Bailey Riverbridge Gardens, 1 North Beach Street, Ormond Beach. We will be bringing our most popular Aquarian Bath soaps and shampoo bars, and any other items upon request. I have also heard that Meg from Herb and Spice Scentsations will return to the faire with her wonderful spice blends, which I'm looking forward to restocking. Mark your calendars and hope to see you there next month. 

Short list of Aquarian Bath items to be available at the fair:

Unscented and Lavender Scented Eye Pillows

Gardener's Scrubby Soaps

Patchouli Soaps

Lavender Oatmeal Soaps

Lavender Patchouli soaps

Hemp oil soaps

Lavender Spearmint Salt Soaps

Vanilla Chai Soaps

"I heart MOM" Mother's Day soaps

Carrot shampoo bars

Neem Shampoo Bars

Lemon Vanilla Shampoo Bars

Microwavable Herbal Neck Pillows

Solid Perfumes

Lip Balms

Plastic Free July Beach Clean up - July 8 Andy Romano Park

Aquarian Bath is celebrating Plastic Free July by hosting a Beach Clean up at Andy Romano Park: 839 S Atlantic Ave, Ormond Beach, FL 32176. We chose the Sunday the 8th of July, because there is usually a lot of post-holiday firework plastic litter on the beaches right after the 4th of July. To join the clean up, arrive at Andy Romano Park by 9:00 AM. All you need are some gardening gloves. We'll pick up for about 45 minutes and then meet back at the park to check out what we found and take a few pictures to promote Plastic Free July. 

Aquarian Bath is a Daytona Beach company, which sells plastic free bath and body products. Aquarian Bath will have a free shampoo bar for the first 25 participating households at the beach clean up event. 

Plastic Free July is an annual challenge in which participants are encouraged to refuse single use plastics such as straws and cups for a week or up to a whole month of July. Take the Plastic Free July challenge and sign up here: http://www.plasticfreejuly.org

 The alternate date for this event in case of lightning or thunder is Sunday July 15th. You can RSVP for this event and invite friends on the Facebook event page.

Seaside Herb Society Fair Ormond Beach March 25, 2017

The Annual Seaside Herb Society Fair is this weekend, 

Saturday March 25th, 2017. 

The Fair is from 9:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the usual location at the Bailey Riverbridge in Ormond Beach (1 N Beach St). In other words, the location is the North West Corner of the Granada Bridge (on the mainland side). Shop early for the best selection of potted herbs and other herbal products.

We are packing the following items for the fair. If there is something not on the list that you need from Aquarian Bath, please email me or leave a comment to let me know. 

Olive Oil Soap - Unscented

Neem Oil Soap

Zeolite Detox Soap with Charcoal and Bentonite - unscented

Lavender Oatmeal Soap

Tea Tree Hand Soap

Gardener's Soap

Lemongrass Soap

Unscented Salt Soap

Lavender Spearmint Salt Soap

Vanilla Chai Soap

Patchouli Soaps - Small Quantity Low Stock

Carrot Top Shampoo Bars

Aloe Shampoo Bars with Lavender Rosemary Mint

Henna Shampoo Bars

Lime Eucalyptus Shampoo Bars

Lavender Jojoba Hair Serum

Spearmint 2 oz Deodorants

 Tea Tree 2 oz Deodorants

Zi Cao Salve

Dragon Balm

Black Drawing Salve

Amber Perfume

Lamiaciae Perfume

Jasmine Rose Perfume

Lavender Orange Lip Balm

Lavender Rose Lip Balm

Thank you for shopping local!

Sea Side Herb Society Annual Fair March 12, 2016

The Seaside Herb Society Faire will be held again next month in Ormond Beach.  I apologize to those on my subscriber list who got a notice about last year's faire last night. I am not sure why that happened. Please note that this blog post has the correct date for 2016, which is March 12.

Seaside Herb Society 
21st Annual Faire

Come and celebrate everything herbs!  

There will be speakers, herb plants, baked goods, soaps, and more!

Saturday, March 12, 2016 - 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Bailey Riverbridge Meeting House

1 North Beach Street, Ormond Beach, FL

Beach Clean up In Ormond Saturday for International Coastal Clean up Day

Saturday is international Beach Clean up Day. We are hosting a beach clean up in Ormond Beach at the Neptune Beach approach from 5-6:30 pm. Hope you can join us. There is overflow parking at the church. If you can't come in the morning, Volusia county is also hosting morning clean up events that you can find on the Ocean Conservancy website. Bring gardening gloves and buckets if you have them. The above photo is from the last beach clean up that we hosted for Plastic Free July earlier this year. 

Tom Renick Park Plastic Free July Beach Clean Up Photos

Thank you from Aquarian Bath to everyone who came out to our Plastic Free July, Two Hands 30 minutes beach clean  up at Tom Renick Park yesterday.  We were almost rained out, and the skies were very dark but we just had a light splattering of rain for about 10 minutes and then it cleared up nicely.  I heard from at least 10 people who said they didn't join, because the weather looked threatening, so we are thinking to host another event like this before the end of the month, either in Ormond Beach or Daytona Beach. Please post and leave a comment if you would like to join with time and place suggestions.  The week of July 20 has been suggested so far.  I will post back with a comment if we come up with a time and place. 

Looking really dark before the event. Photo by Scott Johnson

Two of the Burley guys picking up along the beach.  There was so much fireworks waste!  I didn't realize that so any of theme were made with plastic components. Photo by Marianne Burley 

We brought re-usable gloves instead of disposables.

The results from our pick up!  Some of it was beer bottles and beer cans. What I picked up the most of was was bits of plastic wrappers, bottles, cigarette butts, and fireworks.

Moira using the long arm trash picker above the dunes. 

Starting the raffle!  Five winners received various plastic free prize packs, some of which included shampoo bars, deodorant, lotion bars, lip balms,  bamboo tooth brushes, and tooth powder.  As I told the group, the clear bags we used to package the items are made from Cellophane which is an easily compostable and biodegradable wood product. Maybe someday they will be made from hemp!  The cellophane bags come from a specialty supplier in Oregon called PakSel.  I accidentally stated SKS here, which is a bottle supplier.  Photo by Brooks "The Wooden Bee" Busby.

Plastic Free July Beach Clean Up at Tom Renick Park July 6th

Aquarian Bath will run a “Two Hands” clean up at Tom Renick Park, A1A Ormond by the Sea, Ormond Beach, Florida 32176 on Monday July 6, 2015 at 5:30 P.M. for Plastic Free July 2015. To join the clean up, arrive at Tom Renick Park by 5:30 PM. All you need are some gardening gloves. Get a raffle ticket when you start at 5:30. After the beach clean up we will have a look at what we found, take a photo, talk about what the Plastic Free July event is all about, and plastic alternatives. The raffle drawing will be at 6:30 for one $50 prize and five $10 prizes from AquarianBath.com. Participants can get an extra raffle ticket by bringing a bag of trash they picked up from the roadside on the way to this beach event. You can RSVP to the facebook event page if you like.

Plastic Free July is aimed at raising awareness of the amount of single-use plastic in our everyday lives. You would be amazed how much tiny plastic material can be found along the edge of the beach, and it is not healthy for birds and ocean health.

A “Two Hands” clean up takes the spirit of huge national and international clean up days and brings it back to the individual. The concept is using your two hands for thirty minutes to clean up your world.

Around 20,000 people across the world have completed a two hands clean up which initiated in Fremantle, Western Australia.

To join the Plastic Free July challenge visit www.plasticfreejuly.org.

Seaside Herb Society Fair Saturday April 11th in Ormond Beach

Seaside Herb Society 
20th Annual Faire

Come and celebrate everything herbs!  

There will be speakers, herb plants, baked goods, soaps, and more!
Saturday, April 11, 2015 - 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Bailey Riverbridge Meeting House
1 North Beach Street, Ormond Beach, FL 

Directions: Travel east on SR40/Granada Boulevard to the Granada Bridge in Ormond Beach, turn left onto Beach Street. Bailey Riverbridge Meeting House will be on your immediate right. 

18th Annual Seaside Herb Society Fair in Ormond Beach

Holy Basil in bloom

The Seaside Herb Society 18th Annual Herb Faire is scheduled for March 22, 2014 from 9 AM to 2 PM at the Bailey Riverbridge in Ormond Beach.  The address is 1 North Beach Street Ormond Beach, FL 32174.  

We always stock up on herb plants at this event.  Last year the ladies brought in Olive trees for sale at the event.  The herbal breakfast items are always a special treat.  

Aquarian Bath will be vending as usual.  We will be bringing member's favorite products: Carrot top shampoo bar, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Balm, Flaxseed herbal pillows, Patchouli soaps and more.  Please be sure to leave a comment here if you plan to attend and would like me to bring particular items.  We usually just bring a small fraction of our complete inventory for this event.

Seaside Herb Society Annual Fair in Ormond Beach Saturday March 23rd

The annual Seaside Herb Society Fair is coming up again this coming Saturday March 23rd.  We will be set up to sell soaps and other products from 8 am to 1 pm outside the Bailey Riverbridge Meeting house at 1 North Beach Street, Ormond Beach, FL 32174

Most of our selling these days is online, so in order to keep things organized for online selling (and fun and low stress), we are just bringing out a small variety of items for the fair, including the big favorites among the Herb Society ladies which include our original Carrot Shampoo bar, Flaxseed microwave herb pillows and my Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Balm, which is now available in Massage oil.  

If you would like something in particular from Aquarian Bath, visit the online store, select your items, and check out with the free local pick up option at check out.  You can pay at check out or at the fair with cash or check.  Not sure what you want?  Leave a comment below if there is something in particular you would like to see at the fair on Saturday. 

Weekend Herb Fair Photos

I just wanted to share a few photos from the herb fair last Saturday. I had a nice time and plan to be back again next year as usual.

Above herbs sold out from the Herb Society.

Above a selection of herbs from Access to Organics. I picked up some Organic Lobelia, Spilanthes and Nasturium seeds from their booth.

Here are my honey bunny and Easter Egg soaps on my usual necklace rack. I'm shipping out 8 today, but I still have some left for sale online at AquarianBath. :)

Have a great week.

July Classes in Ormond Beach: Lip Balm and Herbal Salve Making

I am pleased to announce that I have a new venue for classes and workshops in Ormond Beach.  Debra Brooks is the owner of the brand new Craftbugg's Cottage in Ormond Beach off Granada Blvd.  She and I have worked out a few classes for her July schedule.  She will have a calender of available classes available on a monthly basis.  Debra's grand opening is June 25th, so check it out if you are local and have the opportunity.


We are starting out simple with Lip Balm and Salve making classes and we will go from there.  You have your choice of 2 different dates for the lip balm making class.

Saturday July 17 4:30-7:30 Natural Lip Balms making with Essential oils and Herb-infused oils
Learn to make all natural lip balms with natural herbal infused vegetable oils and essential oils for flavoring. You will learn to make lip balms with beeswax and vegan candelilla wax. Fee $30. Call to register 386.299.4273

Thursday July 22 1:30- 4:30 Natural Lip Balms making with Essential oils and Herb-infused oils
Learn to make all natural lip balms with natural herbal infused vegetable oils and essential oils for flavoring. You will learn to make lip balms with beeswax and vegan candelilla wax. Fee $30. Call to register 386.299.4273

Sunday July 25 2:30-5:30 Herbal Salve and Balm Making
Learn to make your infused herbal oils, salves and balms. We will use organically grown herbs for making two types of a salves including a clay drawing salve. Learn about oil bases appropriate for balm and salve making and a variety of herbs that can be used in salves and infused oils. Fee $35. Call to register 386.299.4273

I also have updated my Fall events schedule with classes in St. Augustine and events where I will be vending.  You can check in at that page any time for current happenings.

Sea Side Herb Society Annual Faire March 27th in Ormond Beach

My favorite event of the year is just around the Corner! The Seaside Herb Society's 15th annual faire will be held at the corner of N Beach St. and Granada on March 27th from 10-3. This is a free event, but you should really plan to bring $7 for the herbal luncheon which is not something you will want to miss. There are always wonderful guest speakers at the event as well.

Be sure to come early to get your pic of plants and soaps. Lavender soap is a favorite it will go fast. It is always hot at this event, and therefore it can be quite difficult for me to judge how much product to bring out for this event. I want to have enough product for every one, but I also don't want to over expose my products to the heat and shorten their shelf life. If you are planning to come and shop at my booth I would like to suggest that you put in you order in advance if you already know what you want. This year I will be including a free surprise soap gift with order placed in advance and prepaid with paypal; just email me me your order at aquarianbath@gmail.com to take advantage of this offer. You can find all my current inventory online.

New Chickens!

After struggling with two Black Star chickens for the last number of months, Moira and I decided we needed to trade them for less adventurous hens. The Black stars, even with their wings clipped managed to jump over our fences and roam. They were consistently laying eggs in the neighbors yard, and last week other neighborhood kids were coming in to our front yard to abuse them. When it was finally time to pack them up to take them to the farm, Moira was very sad to say goodbye to Rose and Helen, but her mood was quite improved when we got to Angels Rest Farm in Ormond beach where she had her chance to choose new birds.



We traded the two laying Black Star hens for four 3-4 month old hens; two for us and two for Moira to sell. Moira choose for herself a Buff Orpington and a Black Australorp. We are hoping to have better luck with these two birds. We already have one Buff Orpington, and she would never dream of hopping a fence. I'm told that Black Australorps are quite gentle as well. The other two that were chosen where a Rhode Island Red and a second Black Australorp. Moira sold those birds yesterday for eight dollars.



If you are looking for chickens or fresh eggs and you live in the Daytona or Ormond Beach area I recommend Angel's Rest Farm. The farm is run by AJ and Peggy who are very nice. Eggs are $2.50 a dozen, and she has many birds to choose from as well as pigs, and goats. You can email them for information at angelsrestfarm@cfl.rr.com.

Thanks to my friend Patsy Shaw for the great pictures and for driving us out there and helping me carry the birds back and forth.

14th Annual Seaside Herb Society Fair Ormond Beach March 28

The Seaside Herb Society Annual Fair is one of my favorite festivals. This is going to be my 5th year attending and 4th year as a vendor. Looking forward to seeing everyone. I learned my lesson last year.. I will have plenty of lavender microwavable neck pillows in addition to my usual soaps and balms. Some of my favorite vendors who will be there include Melanie Palmrose of Almost Ancient Pots. Melanie is from Jacksonville and offers hypertuffa pots and mushrooms, as well as classes on how to make them yourself. Dora from Maggie's Herb Farm will be in her regular spot offering potted herbs. My friend Ciana from the Daytona Beach Faire Share Garden will be there to promote the garden and Celebrating Green.







Location: Riverbridge Meeting House and Gardens northeast corner of Granada and Beach Street.
Admission: Free with ample parking
Description: The Seaside Herb Society will sponsor its 14th Annual Herb Faire on Saturday, March 28, 2009, from 10am to 3pm at the above location in beautiful downtown Ormond Beach, Florida.

Featuring:
* There will be many common and unusual herbs and native plants for sale.
* Vendors from the area will have handmade arts and crafts.
* Baked goods and herb cookbooks will also be available.
* A delicious lunch, for purchase, using different herbs will be available inside the Meeting house; ticket sales for lunch begin at 11:30 am.
* There will be a variety of guest speakers and demonstrations throughout the day.
* Herb Society members will be available for information on growing herbs in Florida and the many uses of herbs.
* The Society members tend an herb garden year round which is on site in the Meeting house gardens.