Making perfume may seem like a mystical, complicated process, but fear not: it is more accessible than you think! Don’t be intimidated by a seemingly lengthy process or give in to bottled perfumes. It is possible to make natural perfumes at home from the flowers and herbs in your own garden.

The synthetic concoctions found in drug stores can be harsh and unforgiving compared to the scents found in a garden. Bottling your personal favorites is a great way to preserve your flowers long past the frosts of winter.

Natural perfumery business have taken off, creating their own blends
of essential oils for your convenience.
Photograph by PilotGirl/Courtesy of Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pilotgirl/

Natural perfumes, when broken down to their basic components, are made up of essential oils, alcohol, and distilled water. For these basic ingredients, keep the following tips in mind:

• If you’re on a budget, 190-proof Everclear will do the trick—otherwise, perfumer’s alcohol is preferable. An alcohol that is at least 100 proof is what really matters, in the end.
• Make sure you are using distilled water; it makes quite a difference.
• The essential oil provides the delicious fragrance you are seeking for the perfume. The ratio between the oil and the other two ingredients is crucial to the potency of your natural scent.

To make your own essential fragrances, follow this quick step-by-step guide to the “enfleurage” process.

Once you have an essential fragrance of some kind that you enjoy, mixing the actual perfume is simple. (Click here for detailed instructions.)

Experiment with the scents you want to make and use in the perfumes. Try mint, lemongrass, lavender, coriander, or any other number of plants with lovely scents. (Here are some tried-and-true recipes.)

If you’re still feeling unsure of your perfuming abilities, or simply do not have the time, small natural perfumer businesses have been popping up left and right. Women like Anya McCoy and Mandy Aftel do the work for you, offering a variety of perfumes, soaps, and essential oils. Olsen also teaches several online courses covering the ins and outs of natural perfumery.

Resources:
How to Make Your Own Fragrance
Making Flowers into Perfume  (New York Times)

It's been wonderful to write for The Herb Companion, Natural Home and GRIT. I'm excited about my herb cooking feature on quick pickling in the September issue. To date, I've written over 1,000 published articles, including features on gardening, green living, travel, beauty, healthy cooking and good eating.  You can reach me at lstarart@gmail.com.

Last year I wrote an article for the September 2009 issue of The Herb Companion, 4 Recipes for Quick Pickles. It was very successful on the website, so I would like to share two more of my favorite quick pickling recipes. These recipes use bay and Herbes De Provence. Bay provides uplifiting flavor to your pickling jar and herbes de provence is a classic French herb blend that works magic when pickling cucumbers and other summer vegetables.

Bay & Dill Cucumber Pickles 

For an even greater infusion of flavor from the bay leaves, simmer them in the saucepan with the vinegar and salt. Then gently remove and put them in the pickle jar before covering with the liquid mixture. Experiment with a variety of summer vegetables including carrots, green beans and zucchini. Makes 2 cups.

• 1 to 2 cups sliced cucumber
• 2 to 3 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon dried dill
• 16-ounce clean glass jar
• Fresh dill springs (optional)
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Kosher salt

1. Slice cucumber into 1/4 inch round slices. Tightly pack sliced cucumber and herbs in a clean glass jar until about 3/4 full.

2. Combine vinegar and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and gently stir until salt dissolves. Remove from heat.

3. Add one cup of cold water to this mixture and let cool. Pour cooled liquid in jar to cover cucumbers and herbs. Add more cold water if necessary. Leave room at the top. Refrigerate for about an hour until chilled.

Herbes de Provence Radish Pickles 

Last year, K.C. mentioned in her blog that she was looking for new herb recipes for her radish crop. Inspired by her question, I immediately created my own delicious radish pickles with Herbes de Provence. The tarragon and lavender in Herbes de Provence create a lighter, sweeter balance to counter the radishes' sharpness. If your radishes sport red coats, pickling will make the pickling juice turn a pretty shade of pink. You can also use daikon radishes or other radishes and turnips. Makes 2 cups.

• 1 to 2 cups radishes, cleaned and quartered
• 2 to 3 tablespoons Herbes de Provence, preferably organic
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Kosher salt
• 16-ounce clean glass jar

1. Clean and quarter radishes, removing their leafy tops. Tightly pack radishes and Herbes de Provence in a clean glass jar until about 3/4 full.

2. Combine vinegar and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and gently stir until salt dissolves. Remove from heat.

3. Add one cup cold water to this mixture and let cool. Pour cooled liquid in jar to cover radishes and herbs. Add more cold water if necessary. Leave room at the top. Refrigerate for about an hour until chilled.

Herbes De Provence photo by mikeanddanna/Courtesy Flickr 

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

I had never used lavender in the kitchen until I went to DayBreak Lavender Farm. You can pick your own lavender or everlasting drying bouquet at the Ohio Lavender Harvest. The odd thing is, lavender isn't supposed to grow in Ohio, but it does. The farm is in the rolling hills of Ohio near Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

I like to flavor sugar with lavender. To flavor sugar, add 2 tablespoons of lavender buds to 2 cups of sugar; stir or shake the jar then seal tightly for two weeks. (The lavender flavors the sugar kind of like when Martha Stewart adds vanilla beans to flavor her sugar.) Two weeks later, sift the sugar to separate the lavender from the sugar. I use this lavender flavored sugar in sugar cookies and butter cookies. You can also use your lavender-infused sugar to make simple syrup for lavender-flavored lemonade.

Step 1: To flavor sugar, add 2 cups of sugar and 2 tablespoons culinary lavender; seal and wait two weeks.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Step 2: Sift sugar after two weeks. U se in place of regular white sugar.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Lavender goes well with baked goods and is especially nice with chocolate. To incorporate lavender into your baking, add a teaspoon to your next batch of brownies. For another lavender infusion, use candied lavender flowers as cake decorations or on ice cream. Also, you can use your mild-flavored lavender sugar in baked goods or beverages. For example, use lavender sugar when making hot chocolate.

Add small amounts of lavender to your espresso along with dark chocolate for lavender-infused hot chocolate.
Courtesy Flickr/Photo by Robyn Lee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roboppy/

At the lavender harvest in Streetsboro, Ohio, owner Jody Byrn will share her recipes for Dark Chocolate Lavender Truffles and Lavender Tea Cakes. You can also buy lavender gift baskets from DayBreak Lavender Farm. My first experience baking with lavender was using Jody's recipes for lavender desserts. It gave me the confidence to add lavender to other recipes.

These potatoes have been seasoned with Herbes de Provence before roasting.
Courtesy Flickr/Photo by bearsyr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13016943@N05/

The best known herb combination that includes lavender is Herbes de Provence. These herbs have always been key to southern French cooking. But the rest of the world was introduced to Herbes de Provence in the 1970s when the mixture was formulated by spice wholesalers to sell more herbs.

Herbes de Provence Mix

I use this premixed herb combination on cornish hens before they cook on the rotisserie or as a spice rub on kabobs before grilling. Herbes de Provence is a mix of rosemary, cracked fennel, thyme, savory, basil, tarragon, dill weed, Turkish oregano, lavender, chervil and marjoram. Start here if you want to mix your own herb combination perfect for southern French cooking.

• 2 tablespoons dried savory
• 1 tablespoons dried rosemary
• 2 tablespoons dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons dried basil
• 2 tablespoons dried marjoram
• 1 tablespoons dried fennel seed

1. Blend herbs and keep in an air-tight container.

2. Make this recipe your own by adjusting the amounts of the different herbs.

Resources:

• Jody Byrne, founder of DayBreak Lavender Farm
• Rose Marie Nichols McGee, owner of Nichols Garden Nursery

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

Lavender attracts butterflies, is drought and heat tolerant and grows well in gardens and containers. Both flowers and foliage are fragrant. The blue-purple flowers on silver foliage make this a must-have plant in a white- and silver-themed garden, or a blue- and purple-themed garden. Its upright habit make lavender a good choice for butterfly- and cutting-gardens. Lavender is a good choice in most any herb garden.

Attract birds, butterflies and pollinators to your garden with lavender.
Photo by DayBreak Lavender Farm

Jody Byrne, founder of DayBreak Lavender Farm says “Lavender is the Swiss Army Knife of herbs. It can be used in crafting, cosmetics, fragrance, cooking, healing and homekeeping.”

“We couldn't say that about oregano, for example. No offense oregano! Lavender is truly the most beloved herb in the world. Its scent is pure and clean, neither masculine nor feminine. And it grows nearly all over the world. Not at the ice caps. Not in the humid jungles. But most everywhere else ... and it grows wild. Which gives you a clue that it is no diva in the garden,” says Byrne.

Like any new plant, you need to give lavender plenty of water and attention until its roots are well established. Herbs in containers will be dependent on you to provide plenty of water year round. Once lavender is established in your herb garden, plants will need to be pruned every year.

Lavender gives height to containers of mixed plants.
Photo by Provern Winners

'Goodwin Creek' lavender (Lavandula heterophylla) has light grey, deeply toothed foliage and small, deep purple flowers. This 'Proven Winners' lavender is an annual (except in Zone 8 and above) making it an excellent choice for mixed plants in a single large container.

Rose Marie Nichols McGee, owner of Nichols Garden Nursery, says “I would in particular recommend 'Sharon Roberts' lavender (Lavender angustifolia) both for hardiness and repeat flowering. However, in Zone 6 you must also deal with fungal diseases, so you should consider planting 'Sweet' lavender (Lavender heterophylla), which blooms steadily through the summer, is disease resistant and a stunning container plant.”

“I should mention a very nice 'Lavender Lady' (L. angustifolia), which was a 1994 All-America Selections winner. It grows easily from seed and, if started in February, will have a fast growing attractive blooming plant the first summer,” advises McGee. “This will sail through most winters but the economy of seed allows those in climates too hot or too cold to have an affordable abundance of lavender plants that can be treated as an annual.”

Lavender shouldn't grow in Ohio, tell that to Jody Byrne.
Photo by DayBreak Lavender Farm

Like me, many beginning gardeners have no luck with seeds or plants in their first attempts. I finally ordered three different types of lavender plants for the garden. Only one was a hardy surviver. It has grown faithfully in my Zone 6 humid summers and freezing winters for six years.

“There are so many choices in with lavenders that there is one suitable for just about anywhere,” says McGee.

If you've been hesitant to try lavender in your garden either for the first time or again, remember Jody Byrne's simple rules:

Lavender fields ready for harvest in Ohio.
Photo by DayBreak Lavender Farm

“Lavender only wants three things, but on these she is adamant:

• Blazing sunlight 6 to 8 hours per day.
• Well-drained soil. More lavender dies from wet roots than any other cause.
• Sweet soil. (Alkaline soil.) I recommend crushed oyster shell. It's slow release, 100% natural and lightens heavy or clay soil”, said Byrne. “Lavender is a sturdy soldier and gives so much, asking very little in return.”

So, if your first attempt at growing lavender was less than successful, try again this spring. Whether you treat lavender like an annual or perennial depends on your location, both the zone and garden placement. Consider planting lavender in a container that you can shelter from the wettest and coldest days.

Find your zone using your zip code. 

Resources:

• Jody Byrne, founder of DayBreak Lavender Farm
• Rose Marie Nichols McGee, owner of Nichols Garden Nursery

Desiree Bell is inspired by botanicals and natural materials. She is a vegetarian who has a certificate in herbal studies and a certificate from Australasian College of Health Sciences in Aromatherapy. When she isn't in her suburban garden, hiking or crafting, she is teaching pre-k with an emphasis on nature and gardening. For more ideas on Simple Living With Nature you can visit her blogs at www.beyondagarden.blogspot.com. 

Creating a plant herbarium this spring and summer will be a rewarding endeavor. When I took an herbal studies course from Jeanne Rose one of the assignments was to create an herbarium. Browsing through the pages of the herbarium collection I created, and reading the labels, brought back memories of when and where I collected them. For example, the poppy I picked in my grandmother's yard, the borage I collected in a friend's garden, some herbs I had collected 5 months before my daughter was born, which was 15 years ago, and others reminded me of places I had visited.

An herbarium collection contains plants that have been pressed, dried flat and mounted on sheets of heavy, acid free paper and labeled with essential collected data. This procedure follows a time-honored practice. Herbariums are essential for the study of plant taxonomy, the study of geographic distributions and the stabilizing of nomenclature, which is an international system of standardized new Latin names used in biology for kinds, and groups of kinds of animals and plants.

A specimen for a plant herbarium may consist of a whole plant (a small herb) or parts of large trees and bushes. There are many different types of collections. One type includes carpological, which is the branch of botany that relates to the structure of seeds and fruit, economic botany, essential oils, wood samples and specimens that are stored in spirits.

Pages from my personal herbarium collection.
Photo by Desiree Bell

Carlos Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial and nomenclature. His herbarium, which includes 14,000 plants, now belongs to the Linnean Society of England in Piccadilly, London. His specimens can be accessed online at www.linnean-online.org.

The largest plant herbarium is the Museum National d’ Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France. The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx is the fourth largest herbarium in the world and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. An herbarium curator is responsible for its long term care so that current and future generations can identify plants, study biodiversity and use the collection in support of conservation, ecology and sustainable development.

Herbarium Materials

To create an herbarium collection, gather as much of the plant as possible (flowers, stems, leaves, seed and fruit). Press the plants with a purchased plant press. You can also make one with two pieces of plywood that measure 12-inch wide, 18-inch tall and ½-inch thick, cardboard, unprinted newspaper (or white paper) and some sort of strapping to hold all the layers adequately when pressing. (A phone book can also be used.)

Pressing hollyhocks.
Photo by Desiree Bell

Herbarium Instructions

When pressing, the sequence is cardboard, paper, specimen, newspaper, cardboard. If specimens are bulky, additional paper may be needed for proper pressure. It can take 3 to 5 days for the collected material to dry and be properly pressed.

Once the specimens are dry they can be mounted to clean white paper using glue appropriate for plants. They can also be sewn on. The following information needs to be included when labeling specimens: name of location collected; name of plant (common and scientific); date collected; collector; and any special notes. The label should be attached to the right corner of the sheet—this is customary practice in herbaria worldwide and it allows for easy reading when in a folder. (As you can see in the first photo, I labeled mine on the wrong side.)

Now would be a good time to gather items needed to start an herbarium collection. Look around your yard or surrounding area for plants you would like to press. When ready find some sharp clippers, cut your specimens, press, mount, label and then put the pages in a folder or binder for future reference and memories to come.

Desiree Bell is inspired by botanicals and natural materials. She is a vegetarian who has a certificate in herbal studies and a certificate from Australasian College of Health Sciences in Aromatherapy. When she isn't in her suburban garden, hiking or crafting, she is teaching pre-k with an emphasis on nature and gardening. For more ideas on Simple Living With Nature you can visit her blogs at  www.beyondagarden.blogspot.com  and  www.kidsnaturespot.blogspot.com .

Conveying specific messages through the giving of herbs, flowers, and plants is known as The Language of Flowers or Florigraphy. In the 19th century, people spoke or communicated with flowers instead of words, which was influenced by Queen Victoria (1839-1901).

Authors gathered plant symbolisms from every possible source. Besides previous dictionaries, they used Egyptian hieroglyphics, Greek and Roman mythology, the Bible, religious beliefs, natural myths, classical poetry and literature. They also used flower colors and fragrances.

The rose was considered “the queen of flowers,” which many phrases came from. For example: rosy complexion, everything’s rosy, lovely as a rose.

Each variety and color had a different meaning, for example: coral (glory), lavender (pure love), pink (grace), red (love), and white (warmth of love, regard or friendship).

The shape of violet's leaves and flowers resemble that of the human heart. A syrup was made from the flower, which was used in treating heart disease. It was given the meaning “happiness,” which was thought to originate in the heart.

The same plant was often called different names by different authors, depending on locality and conversational style. There were so many dictionaries with so many different meanings that the sender and receiver of the flower would have had to use the same one in order to interpret the message correctly. Flora’s Dictionary, written by Mrs. E.W. Wirt in 1829, was the first floral dictionary. 

Today we can make tussie-mussies, nosegays, cards pressed with flowers and potpourri to send a silent message, but be sure to include a explanation note.

Photo by Carolina Gonzalez/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/magickshop/

Meaningful Potpourri Mix

This is a simple blend of dried herbs from my home garden that I use to create a meaningful potpourri. (Flora’s Dictionary: The Victorian Language of Herbs and Flowers, by Kathleen Gips).

• Lavender flowers (devotion)
• Orange mint leaves (wisdom)
• Rose petals (love)
• Rosemary leaves (remembrance)
• Sunflower petals (pride)

Sweetheart Potpourri Mix

I created this recipe for a herbal valentine’s class I taught

• 1 tablespoon iris-florentine root, or orris root (I have a message for you) 
• 1 tablespoon myrrh gum resin (gladness)    
• Essential oils of jasmine and rose
• ½ cup jasmine flowers (I attached myself to you.)   
• ½ cup lemon verbena leaves (delicacy of feeling)    
• ½ cup rose buds and petals (I love you)   
• ¼ cup hibiscus flowers (consumed by love)
• 2 tablespoon allspice berries (compassion) 
• 2 tablespoon rosemary leaves (remembrance)     
• ½ tablespoon nutmeg seed (your love is addicting.)   

1. Put the fixatives (orris root and myrrh resin) in a bowl.

2. Add 1 to 3 drops of each essential oil or, due to cost, fragrance oil. Mix well.

3. Add the rest of the potpourri ingredients and mix well.

4. Cover and let meld for 1 to 2 weeks, stirring periodically.

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

Chili rellenos are one of my favorite Mexican restaurant foods. Last year, when I had a bountiful crop of mild chilis, I attempted to make chili rellenos. I never got the hang of it. The best I could do was make a greasy, cheesy mess. I did become a master at charing peppers.

The cook at El Acapulco Mexican Restaurant in Cape Girardeau, Missouri showed me the secret. Ramon Soriano Cruz is the cook at El Acapulco. He shared the secret about how to make chili rellenos from scratch..

Ramon had already blackened, peeled and stuffed the peppers. That is how the restaurant is able to serve chili rellenos in less than an hour.

    
Gradually add flour to eggs a little at a time. Five egg whites are beaten until stiff.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

My lesson started after the whole peppers were charred, peeled and stuffed. At this point the chilis were frozen. Ramon began by rolling the frozen chilis in flour and set them aside while making the batter.

Chili Relleno Instructions

Separate 1 egg for every chili. Beat the whites until stiff then sprinkle in flour to the egg whites as they begin to stiffen. With Ramon's expertise, he mixed an unmeasured amount of flour into the eggs—I think a scant ½ of a cup of all purpose flour. He set aside the batter and rolled each frozen pepper in the flour again.

Then, he used the kitchen's deep fryer to cook the chilis. At home, heat cooking oil 1- to 2-inch deep in a big frying pan to about 375 degrees.

Hold the chili by the stem, dip it in the egg batter until well coated. Use a rubber spatula to help spread batter if it doesn’t cover the entire chili.

Ramon Soriano Cruz can serve a full restaurant. The sauce served over the chili is a mild seasoned tomato sauce.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Gently place the battered pepper in the hot oil, carefully turn the chili until it is well browned. You can cook two or three at a time, just don't fry so many that it lowers the temperature of the oil. As each chili is browned, place it carefully on the plate. Ladle heated tomato sauce, over the pepper. Serve with beans and rice.

Once the beans and rice are on the plate, a quick zap in the microwave insures the complete meal is served steamy hot.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Look for ancho or poblano pepper seeds or plants. Find seeds and plants in most of the seed catalogs. Wait on the last frost date in your area and hold off for another week or two before planting peppers. The seedling and plants do not like wet feet.

Thanks Ramon!
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Resource: El Acapulco Mexican Restaurant; 202 South Mount Auburn Road; Cape Girardeau, MO, 63703; (573) 332-1465

Photo by freeariello/Courtesy Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freeariello/

Patsy Bell Hobson is a garden writer and a travel writer. For her, it's a great day when she can combine the two things she enjoys most: gardening and traveling. Visit her personal blog at http://patsybell.blogspot.com/ and read her travel writings at http://www.examiner.com/x-1948-Ozarks-Travel-Examiner. 

Chili herbs and spices are easy to grow in the heat of my full-sun zone 6 garden. However, it is the impending snowstorm that has gotten me to start thinking about chili. As you page through the seed catalogs this winter, consider growing a salsa garden or a chili garden. Peppers are colorful enough to plant in a full-sun flower bed—not for the flowers, which are usually small, white and unremarkable. The foliage can be lush and the color variety of the peppers ranges as wide as the heat levels.

Nutrients in peppers depend on the variety and maturity. Both sweet and hot peppers are high in vitamins A and C. If you make your own chili seasoning, you will get many levels of taste and a lot less salt.

Chili con carne ingredients change according to the region and the cook.
Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons 

Start with ancho chili peppers, the key ingredient in chili seasonings. These rich and flavorful peppers have very little heat. I buy whole, dried peppers and crush them in a plastic bag for pepper flakes. The best way to crush any kind of dried pepper is to place them inside of a heavy plastic zipper bag. Then, smash the dried peppers.

Use gloves when working with peppers. Even the slightly hot peppers can burn. I can't say this enough: WEAR GLOVES. If you don't have gloves, put your hands in plastic produce bags or plastic zipper bags.

Capsicums are what make spicy dishes hot. Add chipotle, cayenne and/or jalapeno to the ancho in chili to give it spice and heat. Start with just a little hot pepper. It's easy to add more heat later.

  
Left: Dried poblanos (Capsicum annuum) are used in chili.
Right: Fresh and versitile, poblanos are used to make chili rellenos.
Photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons 

If you want to grow your own chili peppers, look for poblano pepper seeds or plants. Green anchos are stuffed and used to make chili rellenos. These triangular peppers are the dried version of the poblano chile—the most common dried pepper in Mexico.

To make your own chili powder, start with ground ancho chili pepper. Add cumin and Mexican oregano. Then, add onion and garlic. I use fresh onion and garlic because it is readily available, but you can use garlic and onion powder. Finally, add hot peppers to taste.

Here is a salt-free chili seasoning mix. This is a guide. Add more or less of any ingredient to make this your own special chili powder. With the rich flavors of your own chili powder, you won't miss the salt.

Chili Seasoning Mix

• 3 tablespoons ground ancho
• 2 teaspoons Mexican oregano, dried
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne

Some chili recipes include tumeric, dried mustard, thyme, cinnamon or paprika. So don't be shy—chili is an easy dish to experiment with and learn about the depth and flavor of herbs and spices. Original Texas-style chili contains no beans or tomatoes, so be creative.

We will talk about other traditional Mexican herbs and seasoning to plant in a salsa or chili garden. Be on the lookout as those catalogs come rolling in.

Resources

How to grow peppers:

• AgriLife Extension 
• University of Illinois Extension 

Pepper seeds and plants:

• The Cook's Garden
• Renee's Garden Seed

Chili spices:

• Penzeys Spices 

Patti Moreno, most commonly known as the Garden Girl, teaches us how to make pesto. Check out her video below.

For more pesto recipes, read our article "Fresh for the Pesto Garden" or click on the recipe links below.

• Classic Pesto - This recipe originated in Genoa, Italy. It uses fresh basil, pine nuts and cloves.

• Arugula Pesto - This piquant variation uses sour cream, arugula leaves, Italian parsly, almonds and shallots.

• Green Garlic Pesto - Get the health benefits of garlic with this heart healthy recipe.

• Sun-dried Tomato Pesto - This may be a summer staple, but you can prepare it on cloudy days in memory of sunny days.

My good friend, Cecilia is moving into her first apartment in a few weeks. Her mind is racing with color themes, furniture measurements and the overall design flow of her apartment. When we discussed her grand plans along with her creative ideas, one project really stuck out in my mind: Making a terrarium.  

Regardless of how big a space is or what room it is in, terrariums polish a space off and they incorporate nature into a room.

What you'll need:

• Spray bottle
• Glass container (a large open top will be easier for routine maintenance, however you can also have a closed terrarium)
• Gravel or small rocks
• Charcoal
• Cactus potting soil
• A few succulents (the number will depend on how big your glass container is) or ferns
• Moss or ground cover
• Decorations (rocks, glass or metal birds, sticks or sea glass)
• Water

Directions:

1. Terrariums do not have a drainage hole like a potted plant, so a false drainage system is necessary. Add 1 to 2 inches of gravel or small rocks to the bottom of the container. This will prevent the plants from sitting in too much water and eventually rotting.

2. Next, add a thin layer of charcoal. You can substitute sand for charcoal but keep in mind that charcoal will prevent mold from growing and it also keeps the soil fresh.

3. Add cactus potting soil. It should take up roughly1/3 the size of the container. If you are using ferns you can substitute cactus potting soil for normal potting mix.

4. Before planting, make sure you remove any dead leaves or pest infestations. Place the largest plants first as they will take up the most space; plant the others next. Make sure the leaves are not touching the glass sides. This measure will prevent unnecessary condensation.

5. Add a thin layer of moss or ground cover.

6. Place any garden decorations on top of the moss.

7. Using a spray bottle, add about a shot glass worth of water to the terrarium for the finishing touch. Don’t add too much water.

8. Keep the terrarium out of direct sun as the heat will fry the plants.

Read more about terrific terrariums: Herbs Under Glass.