Natural Cosmetic course

Make your own Natural Cosmetics

Love pampering? Adore taking luxurious baths? Love all the beautiful products for creating a home spa experience, but find them a bit pricey? And maybe you’re a little concerned about the additives in the cheaper ones?
Well, now you can learn to create those luxurious products, at a fraction of the price, using ingredients that you can easily find in your supermarket, health food shop or pharmacy. Make lots for yourself, and maybe even make a few for your friends for Christmas presents.
Anna Browne (growyourownfood.blogspot.com) is offering a course in making your own Natural Cosmetic on Saturday December 5th in Belvedere house, Mullingar from 10:30am-1:00pm.
Participants will learn how to make Bath bombs, Massage oils, Body creams, Exfoliants, Bath salts and Bath bags, and will make origami boxes to package them in. All materials will be provided, including a wide variety of essentials oils to scent the products. And they will go home with clear recipies showing how to replicate these at home.
To book, call/text Anna at 087 222562, or email annambrowne@gmail.com

For directions or more information about Belvedere House, go to
http://www.belvedere-house.ie

Upside down Tomatoes - companion planting

 

The upside down tomatoes are doing well- though not many are ripe yet. Fingers crossed for a bit of sunshine.

The only thing I would do differently next year is to plant modest plants at the top of the bucket - ones which don't get huge and suck up all the tomato's water. In the greedy category are calendula (see above) and nasturtium. Even though it's not hot, I'm having to water the tomatoes daily, and I think there's just too much greenery to support top and bottom.

The good companions are French marigold, Night scented stock (the scent in the evening! Sweet and peppery at the same time - is there a perfume like this?) and Basil. They thrive above the tomato, but don't get so big that they compete.

Upside down tomatoes

 

Last year the upside down tomatoes were the only ones to grow, so this year I decided to put in a few more (8!) I have used most of the 4 sides of the uprights on our lean-to shed to hold them. (You can see the laundry behind.) You can also see two little red tomatoes in the tub to the left. We have already had two or three from it - it's a tumbler, bought from Kevin Harmon. And possibly put out a bit early - the later ones are thriving better.

 

In this one, between the plants on top growing down, and the tomatoes growing up, the plastic bucket is almost hidden.

 

While I was planting them, I decided to put some companion plants in the tops, so I planted nasturtium, calendula, basil, french marigold, night-scented stock, chamomile. And for the same reason that the tomatoes do well, they did well too. There's a volunteer tomato in one of the tops too!

Slugs just can't make it up that far. If it wasn't so damp, I'd worry that there wouldn't be enough compost to hold water for all these plants, but this hasn't been a problem yet. And if it is, I'll thin out the top plants. I put a lot of compost, manure, worm castings, and fish bones & guts into the tubs, and I have been watering with Comfrey tea, and worm tea, so they are all thriving.

Mutant Calendula

 

We are growing Calendula with the potatoes as a companion plant - this one is doing something very surprising - Just below the flower head, more flower heads are springing up - I have never seen this before...

Seed saving and seed exchange

Beacuse I garden with the school, it's good to have lots of seeds for free so that we can experiment, and not be devastated by disasters. Also, in this world of recession and cutbacks, havening an abundance of anything feels great.

And I'm happy to share some of the bounty so I have the following seeds on offer, and happy to trade or send for free withing Europe - we can discuss sending further afield:

Calendula
Tall sunflowers
Dwarf sunflowers
Large pink poppy
snapdragon
Ragged Jack Kale
Stripey french marigold

Leave a comment if you're interested in any of these...

Also, there is a community of people swapping seeds - see Seed Network

This is a great thing for increasing diversity and building community. Well done for organising it!