In the final post of my trilogy on the aromatic garden, I am sharing with you three simple aromatic blends that can be created directly from your garden! From the planting of the first seed, through the aromas enjoyed within your garden, to the harvesting of the aromatic supplies, your aromatic garden rewards you in many ways. Here’s how you can create some aromatic garden blends to take some of your garden indoors!

Aromatic Bath Tea

You might not be as familiar with aromatc bath teas as you are with aromatic bath salts. However, aromatic bath teas are a throw back to earlier times, when people gathered aromatic plants directly from their garden and used them in their still room.

Bath teas can be made with any scented garden material. If you have the time, gather the plant material prior to making the tea, and lay it out to dry on tissue paper, as described in this post. Suggested plants to use for your aromatic bath tea include peppermint, lavender, spearmint, rosemary (which doesn’t require the same amount of “drying out”), melissa, or any of the other aromatic herbs that you find in your herb garden. Create your aromatic blends to suit your mood!

Add enough dried plant material to fill a cotton muslin drawstring bath or a tea ball. Hang the bag or the ball around the faucet and under the running water as you draw your bath; or allow it to “steep” in the water for about five minutes. Store the remaining herbs in an airtight glass jar.

A suggested aromatic bath tea blend is:

• 1 part melissa leaves

• 1 part spearmint leaves

• 2 parts lavender buds and leaves.

Aromatic Infused Body Oil

I discussed how to make a peppermint-infused oil before but there are many other plants that you can use to make aromatic body oils. Infused body oils are not the same as essential oils. A base oil is infused with the aroma of the chosen plant material and not extracted through distillation, expression, or CO2 extraction like the majority of essential oils.

Apply your infused body oil after your aromatic bath to soothe skin and to keep it healthy. A skin-friendly aromatic oil for this purpose is:

• 2 parts melissa leaves

• 2 parts rose petals

• fill up a quart jar with apricot or cherry kernel base oil.

Follow the instructions for making an infused oil in the previous post mentioned.

Aromatic Pot Pourri Mix

There really is no wrong way to make pot pourri! I remember pot pourri from my childhood and the dried plant material which was used in it varied a lot. Basically, you need to dry out your chosen herbs and/or aromatic plants, as instructed previously, crush them with a mortar and pestle (or simply crush them in your hands if they are pliable), mix, and add to a bowl. Add an essential oil blend for added fragrance.

A sample pot pourrri aromatic blend is:

• 1 part dried rose buds

• 1 part dried lavender buds and leaves

• 2 parts dried mix of culinary herbs – spicy herbs like Holy basil, basil, and oregano will add an interesting twist!

• 5 drops of geranium essential oil.

A Healing Garden in Your Back Yard

To learn more about how an aromatic garden can enhance your life, don’t miss out on my NAHA webinar in April on A Healing Garden in Your Back Yard. See you there!

References:

• Author is a 20 year veteran in the health care and aromatherapy industry, an aromatherapist, a budding aromatic gardener, a photographer, a published author and editor in aromatherapy, an approved education provider for the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA), an aromatherapy business consultant, scent formulator, an aromatherapy school program coordinator, and Chief Editor for the NAHA Aromatherapy Journal.