Bringing The Summer Garden Indoors

Maybe its because we have a south facing garden, well-draining soil and live on the south coast of England, but lavender seems to do really well here.  I like it because its a low maintenance plant and earns it's keep, the bees love it too. We have a mixture of both French and English lavender.

Its easy to dry the flowers and then use for all sorts of things - herbal bath salts, ironing spray, insect repellent, pot pourri, scented sugars, healing balms, body scrubs to name but a few.  I came across a recipe in a magazine for scented wax polish using dried lavender and decided to give it a go.

There's something very French, very Provence, about putting together the ingredients of lavender, lemons and honey (although in this case it was beeswax rather than honey!).

Scented Wax Polish

1.  Warm 250ml jojoba or apricot kernel oil, 15g of dried herbs and 2 strips of lemon zest in a small pan over a low heat until tiny bubbles appear at the edges. Remove from the heat and leave overnight.

2.  Strain the oil through a sieve lined with muslin into a heatproof bowl.  Place over a simmering pan of water and add 80g grated beeswax.  Warm, stirring, until melted.  Mix in 6 drops of lavender or lemon essential oil.

3.  Pour the polish into a tin or jar - if using glass, warm it for a few minutes in a low oven to avoid it cracking.

4.  Leave to set before using.

Unfortunately my version wasn't as scented as I'd hoped but this may be due to using wax pellets rather than grated wax. Probably the extra warmth needed to melt the wax didn't preserve the fragrance of the oil.  However, the polish still did a good job on the coffee table in the lounge.

I actually got 4 pots out of it and am now thinking of drying some of the rosemary that we have in the garden as I think this would make a nice autumn/winter version.