# growing your own botanicals for soaps



## foresthome (Mar 9, 2011)

I am getting ready to start my garden for the year. I have a very large garden, and I am going to grow more botanicals for my soap this year. I am planting lavender, sage, thyme, mint, rosemary, basil, coriander, and calendula. I also have some loofa seeds to plant this year. Can you recommend other botanicals I can grow and dry myself for use in my soaps and lotions. I also have feverfew, chamomile, and arnica growing on my property. Can I use any of these. I have been told that raspberry leaves have healing properties, does anyone know about this.


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## nattynoo (Mar 9, 2011)

Wow!! Sounds like you have it covered.
What about some aloe vera??? Can u grow that where u r?
Good luck with your loofahs. I put mine in far too late in the season and am yet to get any flowers. See what happens with them. Hoping to get a least a handful so I have seeds for next year.


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## Catmehndi (Mar 9, 2011)

You may want to try Echinacea purpurea (Eastern purple coneflower or Purple coneflower), St John's wort (Hypericum perforatum, and is also known as Tipton's Weed, Chase-devil, or Klamath weed) and of course, roses.


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## foresthome (Mar 9, 2011)

Good call on the echinacea. I have grown it before, so that is an easy one to add. In Montana, St. John's wort is classified as a noxious weed and you aren't allowed to plant it.


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## bloomingmtn (Mar 14, 2011)

*re: botanicals*

I really loved my lemon balm and lemon verbena that I planted last year.  I made a lemon eo and lemon verbena eo and used ground leaves from those plants.  They smelled amazing.  They were sold right away!


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## foresthome (Mar 14, 2011)

Great idea. I am anxious to get started in the garden. I am in Montana, it is snowing really hard right now and we are under a winter storm advisory. Isn't this Sunday the first day of spring? Oh life in the Rockies.


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## Eesil7we (Mar 23, 2011)

*Re: re: botanicals*



			
				bloomingmtn said:
			
		

> I really loved my lemon balm and lemon verbena that I planted last year.  I made a lemon eo and lemon verbena eo and used ground leaves from those plants.  They smelled amazing.  They were sold right away!



Bloomingmtn: how did you make your lemon eo and lemon verbena eo? Did you use a distiller to extract their essence?


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## Eesil7we (Mar 23, 2011)

foresthome said:
			
		

> I am getting ready to start my garden for the year. I have a very large garden, and I am going to grow more botanicals for my soap this year. I am planting lavender, sage, thyme, mint, rosemary, basil, coriander, and calendula. I also have some loofa seeds to plant this year. Can you recommend other botanicals I can grow and dry myself for use in my soaps and lotions. I also have feverfew, chamomile, and arnica growing on my property. Can I use any of these. I have been told that raspberry leaves have healing properties, does anyone know about this.



Foresthome: it is interesting to know you are starting a whole garden of herbs and plants. How do you actually cope and manage in between your work, soapmaking and the long list of garden plants?


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## foresthome (Mar 23, 2011)

I work 3/12 hour shifts so I have 4 days a week off. My DH helps with the garden, and we have a high school junior who we are keeping as a slave for a couple more years. The yard work is going to get a little harder to manage around here, when my son goes to college. Last summer I actually found myself watching him mow the lawn and thinking, so who is going to do this when he doesn't live here.


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## LavenderLady (Mar 28, 2011)

Raspberry leaves make a good tea and do have a lot of vitamins and minerals/nutrients in them. Actually the root and the bark are very healthful too. In holistic medicine raspberry is known as the "woman's" herb, as it helps with painful menstruation, lessens the menstrual flow,  helps with contractions during labor, helps to prevent hemorrhaging during labor, enriches Mother's milk (when used with another herb it will increase milk production), and prevents miscarriages. It promotes fertility, helps with symptoms of menopause and postpartum depression, and can help reduce hypertension when used on a regular basis..  It is even made into a douche for treating leucorrhea, which is a mucousy discharge.  It also has antiseptic, astringent and tonic properties, and some use it to treat        
diarrhea, thrush, sore throats, canker sores, dysentery, colds and fevers, and even urinary complaints. 

So there you go, more than what you probably wanted to know about raspberry leaves! 
Enjoy your garden! I have loved growing my own herbs for many years, it is so worth the effort, especially when you have help! Now when my youngest went off to college, I really had to cut back on the beds and the weeding!


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