Happy Birthday Fair Share and Birth of Lions Share Community Garden

Happy 2nd Birthday Fair Share and best wishes to Joel Tippens as he prepares to relocate Fair Share, his non profit entity to Cattanooga, Tennessee. I'm very happy that Joel will be in a community where he will be rewarded and sustained financially for his urban agriculture work. But I'm sad to see him go, and I'm sad that more of Daytona Beach was not willing or able to support his project.

Moira and I were there 2 years ago breaking ground to install the first raised beds. It's amazing to me that she doesn't even remember the first time she was at the garden. I love this picture that I found of the 3 of us taking a break in the archive...

Joel has "passed the shovel" on to us the remaining active gardeners. It's up to us to keep up the good work.

The future looks exciting from down here.

With lots of help from the college kids on Saturday, we got the water collection barrels aligned on level ground.

Our overflow pond was set in place.

And barrels were interconnected. Thanks for the design work Scott.

We even have a new name for the garden, The Lions Share Community Garden. You can follow our continuing adventures at the garden in our Flickr Group, Yahoo Group, or Facebook Group page.

Raw Butters, Waxes, and Lotion Bar Kit Now Available

I'm very excited about a new Lotion Bar Kit that I recently put together. It took me a little while, because this is the first kit I've ever made. It wasn't so hard to put the kit together, so I'm already planning another kit for next month also. My lotion bar kit makes 12 richly moisturizing lotion bars and comes with the following:

4 oz Raw Organic Cocoa Butter



4 oz Raw Unrefined Shea Butter


4 oz Candelilla Wax (vegan)


8 oz Extra Virgin Olive Oil packed in your choice of a plastic or upcycled glass container, 1 heart shaped Silicon Mold, 1 round Silicon Mold, 1 small square Silicone Mold, 3 lotion bar recipes, including: a basic unscented recipe, a variation with Beeswax, and a Aromatherapy recipe, 1 surprise free gift which will be a special 'in-stock' additive that you can use in one of your lotion bar batches.

Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter and Candelilla Wax are also available individually here.

Up Close with Horsemint: Monarda punctata in Winter

The newSpotted Horsemint, Mondara punctata, leaves are already coming up again in a wild patch at the garden, fresh and green, from where I cut back the seeding tops a few months back. I took these photos with our 20x digital microscope.

These leaves are high in Thymol and make a substitute for thyme in a cough syrup. It is also a great ingredient in the pain relief liniment that I make.

Hope you like the pictures. I will be sure to get more photos when it is flowering.

If you would like to grow some too, the seeds are available in my shop: Horsemint.

How do you like to use Horsemint? Please feel welcome to leave a comment below.

Microscopic Fairy Fun: Violet, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena and Rosemary

I stayed up way to late last night playing with images from Moira's new digital microscope. It was a really great gift for only $20. I'm pretty sure this is the same unit. The photo above is of a violet leaf from my garden out front. I couldn't resist adding some fairy clip art from WebStarWest.

Lemon Balm (Melissa officionale) is pictured below. Don't you love the tiny prickly hairs? I had to add the mom and baby fairy, since Lemon Balm is such a wonderful herb for kids. I used a tincture of it that I made recently for Tessa when she had a stuffy nose.



The Lemon Verberena Fairy is my favorite from the collection. I made this image first. Such a beautiful green, and the scent could really make you want to dance.


A pensive Rosemary Fairy. I love being able to feel AND see just makes the tender tips of the Rosemary Leaves so stickly. I took the leaves from my potted Rosemary Christmas tree. This is another herb I've been using a lot this winter. This is an herb that I use all the time in oil based infusions. It mades a great base for a pain relief salve or a congested chest rub.



I have many more plant pictures to share, but I thought I would start out with these fun ones.

Be Mine! Rose Geranium & Rosewood Soap by Aquarian Bath

Rose Geranium & Rosewood Soap by Aquarian Bath
Originally uploaded by AquarianBath

Looking for some Valentine's Gifts for your sweet Heart? Check out my great selection of Valentine's Items on Etsy. Hope you see something you like. This heart shaped soap is also available in full sized rose-topped bars.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AquarianBath?section_id=5785417