When someone first suggested that I start a blog, I must admit that the first thing that came to mind was a Corner Gas episode with Hank typing into cyberspace and nobody reading it. Needless to say, I hope more people read this.
My blog is going to document my excursions and experiments with lavender.
When my daughter was first born, I began researching different natural products to replace all of the chemical-filled products in our house. That was how I was introduced to lavender. The more I read, the more intrigued I became. Can one herb really have this many healing properties? I wondered. Can it really do everything that people claim it can do?
I started by sewing lavender sachets out of muslin and using them in the dryer. I was pleased with the results.
My husband,however, wonderful though he is, was skeptical. He's good like that. He's skeptical about a lot of things. It helps keep me grounded. He therefore also makes a wonderful test subject. No placebo for him.
So we start with the dryer sachets. Lavender, many people claim, is a natural mosquito repellent. This summer has not been a bad one for mosquitoes, but my husband does landscaping. Some of his jobs take him to places with many more mosquitoes than in our back yard. After several days of his colleagues mentioning how bad the mosquitoes were, my husband started to clue in that maybe the lavender in the wash was making his clothes mosquito repellent.
This week, he came home one day after work, complaining of his first mosquito bites of the summer. He had been wearing a new shirt that hasn't gone through the laundry yet!
Results? Even when the lavender sachets are used up to 12-16 times each, they appear to have a mosquito repelling effect on clothes. Also, neither myself nor my little girl have gotten any bites this summer. My husband is convinced for this lavender claim!
Check back next week to hear about our next “lavender experiment”!
