advance dental care: June 2009

Growing Moss on Garden Pots

I've already written about my love for repurposing objects like bowls, pots and pans as plant containers. One way to integrate these finds into the garden is to encourage a natural layer of moss to grow on them. This always works best where you have a shady spot to keep the pot once it's sporting a nice mossy finish.Recipe for Adding Moss to Pots1/2 cup of garden moss (This acts like a seed

Herbed Tilapia Recipe

This is a fast and easy summer dish. If you'd prefer, you can cook it on the grill instead of in the oven; just coat the fish with a little olive oil and butter, and clean/oil the grill.Baked Tilapia Ingredients6 Tilapia fillets1 tablespoon paprika1 tablespoon dried marjoram1/4 teaspoon red pepperJuice of 1/2 limeSaltBlack pepper2 tablespoon fresh chopped chivesFish Cold Sauce Ingredients1/3 cup

Weekend Thoughts

A few thoughts for this warm weekend.How to Treat Mosquito BitesMosquitoes are coming out in force around my house. To help reduce the irritation of a mosquito bite, rub any of these household, garden or medicine cabinet substances on the bite: aloe vera, baking soda, a piece of sliced onion, vinegar, salt, or witch hazel. I've heard that toothpaste and bleach work too.

Lime Balm Tea Recipe

Lime Balm makes a light refreshing tea that will settle your stomach and help you relax. With its natural lime aroma, it's tasty both hot and cold. Although you can find dried lemon balm at your local health food outlet, you might have to get your garden implements out and grow a supply of lime balm yourself. Don't worry. It's easy to grow both indoors and out, and it can be used in tea either

How to Grow Lime Balm

Lime balm (Melissa officinalis ''lime") is a perennial herb that shares many characteristics with its cousin lemon balm. It is as easy to grow but has a distinct limey fragrance.Growing Lime Balm in the GardenLime balm is a half-hardy perennial that can add the aroma of lime to your dishes without the citrus. It likes dappled light and moist, fertile soil. Like its cousin, mint, lime balm can

Midweek Thoughts

For a wonderful photo of St. Johns Wort, visit Earth and Tree. Hedgewitch has a delightful blog and makes clay jewelry too. Her clay impressions of herb leaves are stunning little gems. I own one myself.If you love to eat what you grow, head over to How Stuff Works.com and read their article about edible landscaping. If you've ever resented the amount of space your lawn takes up, this article

Make Organic Herbal Shampoo

Making your own organic herbal shampoo is simple and inexpensive. Best of all, you can tailor it to meet your own needs and tastes.Organic Herbal Shampoo RecipeTwo cups of distilled water1 1/2 tsp. Soapwort root*30 drops of essential oilDecorative bottleDirections for Organic Herbal ShampooBring water to a boilAdd soapwort root, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.Remove from heat and cool for

Make Lemon Furniture Polish

Smarten up your kitchen cabinets or wood furniture with baby oil. Just wipe it on, leave it for a few minutes, and then wipe off the residue. Make it part of a maintenance program by prepping your cabinets with a wood cleaning product like Murphy's Oil Soap first.

Because I'm a dedicated herber, I make my own polish using a cup of baby oil and lemon balm, lemon verbena, or lemon eucalyptus.

The Summer Solstice and Other Sundry Sunday Fare

I hope you enjoyed this morning's Summer Solstice. It was early, so the possums probably beat you to it! Today will be the longest day and shortest night of the year. If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the Winter Solstice, an interesting factoid associated with living on a sphere.If you enjoy camping, take a look at this humorous piece at the National Parks Traveler site about naked

Plant Your Own Saffron Spice

Growing your own saffron (Crocus Sativus) is easier than you think and can add some spicy and refined taste to your dishes. Pound for pound, saffron is the most expensive spice in the world.Don't confuse it with Indian saffron, an inexpensive substitute, the red threads and distinctive yellow saffron flavoring you can extract from them is a subtle and unique flavor that you'll develop a taste

What is Distilled Water?

Distilled water is water that has been evaporated and then cooled back to a liquid. During the process of transforming into a gas, chemicals and microorganisms are left behind and the final product is clean and pure. Distilled water typically has a neutral pH (7.0) because most solids in water are heavier than a water molecule and won't piggyback onto the vapor.In herbal recipes, distilled

How to Fry Zucchini Blossoms

For a taste of the subtle pleasures of a spring garden, try fried zucchini blossoms. You won't find these in the grocery store. They're a special reward for the vegetable gardener. So enjoy one of those unique payoffs for all your hard work.

Fried Zucchini Flower Recipe

6 Zucchini blossoms
1/2 C flour
Pinch Salt
Pinch Pepper
1/4 C Olive oil
2 Pats butter
1 Egg
1 Tbsp Water

Directions for

How To Make Rose Wine

Making your own rose wine can be a hoot. It takes a while, but like making beer, especially if you like to experiment with the recipe like I do, you never know quite what you're going to end up with.The nice thing about rose and dandelion wines, as well as other seasonal wines and liqueurs, is that they distill a season. In winter, when you're shivering your way to the mailbox, you can think

Grocery Store Vegetables and Herb Seed Sources

I take a perverse pleasure in finding ways to recycle grocery store produce and grow it in my garden. You'd think I'd stop being so tickled and indulge my curiosity some other way than by sticking a little piece of root in a pot to see what happens. My nephew once started a sunflower from a seed he stuck in the office ficus on a dare. No one was more surprised than he was when it sprouted.Here

Dandelion Salad Recipe

Where dandelions are concerned, if you can't beat them, eat them.

Adding a few dandelion greens to your favorite pasta salad is a fast and easy way to give your salad some nutritional muscle.

Dandelion Salad Recipe

3 cups cooked shell pasta

2 Hard boiled eggs, chopped fine

1 cup Cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cup young dandelion greens, steamed, cooled, and chopped

3 Scallions, chopped fine

6

Dandelion Tea Recipes

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is good for you, and even if you hate it in the yard, its bitter taste can be addictive. Remember, when you drank your first beer or glass of wine, you probably thought that was bitter too.

Dandelion Flower Tea Recipe

8 Dandelion flowers
12 oz. Boiling water
Honey or sugar to taste

Instructions for brewing Dandelion Tea

Pour boiling water over flowers and let

How to Make Dandelion Wine

I was delighted by an article I read on The New York Times website feed. It's entitled: The Joy of Less. If you have a second, take a look.

Many of my gardening adventures, and even the projects that result from my gardening, are a search for beauty I think, usually in simple things. There's effort involved: It requires an alliance with nature, which can be uneasy at times. It's a

Drying Tea Leaves

Harvest young leaves in spring and process for different teas.

Black Tea - Taken from new growth in spring.

Bruise leaves by rubbing them between your palms. They should discolor to a reddish brown.

Spread them in a single layer on a tray and let them air dry from two to three days.

Apply heat by placing the partially dried leaves in a 250 Degree F oven for 20 minutes. The best approach for

Growing Tea Plant

Tea has been cultivated in China for centuries (2009 estimates put it at around 5,000 years). Originally, the most common tea varieties were produced from the Camellia sinensis plant, a type of camellia.

Standard teas, not herbal infusions made from other types of herbs and plants, are processed using a number of steps to make the varieties you're used to like: green, black and oolong.

Make Lavender Oil

You don't have to buy essential oil to get the fragrance and benefits of lavender oil in your bath, sachet, and even in your cooking. Use lavender buds to make an olive oil infused mixture you can use for anything from a sleep aid (topically) to a moisturizer that will help reduce the appearance of stretch marks.

Lavender Oil Recipe

1-1/2 to 2 Cups Lavender buds or flowers
1-1/2 Cups Olive

Pepper Growing Tips and Tricks

Peppers don't take up much space in the garden, but provide a good per-plant harvest and can be used in lots of different ways. You can also employ some creative preservation methods that will offer tantalizing options for using peppers in winter dishes.The Old Farmer's Almanac has some good advice today for growing large bell peppers. This is also good advice for growing most garden

Iced Green Tea with Mint and Ginger

If you've ever limped through a hot, humid day lusting for a cool and really refreshing drink, this is the one. Green tea is full of antioxidants and ginger is a great restorative. Both mint and ginger are good for an unsettled stomach too. This is my tea of choice from the beginning of July through the end of August.When you make it, be prepared to fight for what's left in the pitcher. It's

Herbed Chicken Saltimbocca

One great advantage to keeping sage in the garden is being able to use fresh, young sage leaves in saltimbocca, an Italian favorite. Although my recipe doesn't use veal, it's still delicious, with an earthy and herby flavor that will sing the praises of your garden without you saying a single word.Herbed Chicken Saltimbocca Recipe6 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (pounded to 1/2 inch thick)6

Herb Pots

I paid a visit to Junk Market Style this morning for a look at all of Janice Gurney's wonderful makeshift planters. I have to admit that I think just about anything can make a wonderful pot or decorative cachepot.When I was a kid, we had plant pots on every windowsill, on our porches, crowding the sides of the stone steps leading up to the front door, and even sharing some of the steppingstones

Quick Lavender Bed Bug Spray for You, Your Clothes and Bedding

There must be lots of people out there plagued with bed bugs. I certainly get my share of requests for information about getting rid of these pests naturally. One interesting trend I'm seeing is from people who just want to make sure that they're protected when they go to sleep at night. They're usually sleeping away from home and don't want to make a fuss. They just want to avoid getting

Lavender Ice Tea Recipe

In spring, there's nothing better than a refreshing herbal ice tea in the afternoon. My favorite way to brew ice tea is with fresh herbs, but if you only have dried, that works too.
Lavender Ice Tea
2 Tbsp. Lavender flowers (1 tablespoon dry)
1 Tbsp. Lemon balm (1 teaspoon dry, or one lemon slice)
1 Tbsp. Mint (1 teaspoon dry, applemint is best, but spearmint works well too)
3 Tbsp. Honey

Why Does Catnip Affect Cats

So, why does your cat react to catnip?The short answer is that no one knows exactly, although we do know that the nepetalactone in catnip can have a powerful reaction in the brains of cats that are susceptible.Not all cats exhibit the characteristic euphoria we associate with catnip exposure, but the 70 to 80 percent that do are probably reacting to what their systems believe is a cat pheromone,

Catnip Tea Recipe

Catnip is known by a number of names, including catswort, catmint, and even field balm. It's a perennial in the mint family that's best known for its ability to drive cats wild, but before you use all your catnip on kitty, consider the medicinal uses of catnip that you might be able to take advantage of.

Catnip contains nepetalactone, a natural sedative that can help you relax and get to

Growing Catnip

If one of your cats loves catnip, you're probably hooked on this easy-to-grow perennial. Catnip (Nepeta cataria as well as other Nepeta species) is actually part of the mint family. It grows like a weed in some areas, and has an untidy habit, spreading quickly to take up any available space. Most catnip varieties grow to a height of about three to four feet, and plants can get top-heavy with

Get Rid of Japanese Beetles With a Homemade Repellent

Just a gentle reminder that you should be on the lookout for Japanese beetles in your garden around this time. Once you spot a couple, act quickly. These first visitors are scouts that can make all the difference in how many beetles will be snacking on your plants this summer. The picture says it all.

Advance scout beetles mark territories as good feeding grounds for others to follow. Once

Healthy Herb Pizza

The idea of a healthy pizza may seem like an oxymoron, but it doesn't have to be. Make your own pizza and create a pie that's better for you.The New York Times has a timely, no pun intended, piece on pizza making that you should hang on your refrigerator this spring and summer. Pizza is a dish that can be easy to make and it also makes a great meal on the go.For a healthier offering, try a thin

Catnip and Termites

You may be keeping a patch of catnip (Nepeta cataria) in the garden for a feline friend, but watching intoxicated hijinks may not be the only human use for this perennial herb. Catnip, or catmint, has shown promise in repelling termites too.A 2003 study conducted by the USDA-Forest Service found that catnip oil was effective in repelling and even killing termites. The oil they used was a