5. LAVENDER - Learn more about one of the world's favourite plants. It's fragrant, edible, medicinal and can be used in many ways you might not have thought of!

CRAFTSTEADING - Use Plants to Make Anything

In this episode I speak to gardening expert Kurt, of Berryman Gardens, about lavender. Sweet-scented lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), also called English Lavender or True Lavender, is one of the world's most beloved plants. IN your garden, it attracts bees and other beneficial insects. It also makes a lovely hedge. The leaves, petals and flowering tips can be eaten raw, used (in small quantities, because the flavour is strong) as a condiment in salads, soups, and stews. You can make a fragrant tea from the fresh or dried flowers, and add the fresh flowers to jams, ice-creams, or vinegars as a flavouring. Some people crystallize lavender flowers to use as a delicious and beautiful purple cake topping. Essential lavender oil is often used as a food flavouring. Lavender has been shown to have a soothing and relaxing affect upon the nervous system, and it is often used in aromatherapy. You can use lavender oil on your skin as an antiseptic to help heal wounds and burns, or pour it into your bathwater for a calming bath. Its powerful antiseptic properties are said to be able to destroy many common bacteria such as typhoid, diphtheria, streptococcus and pneumococcus. The sweet-smelling essential oil extracted from the flowers has a wide range of uses in the home and commercially. It is used for soap-making, perfume-making, (it's one of the ingredients in 'Eau de Cologne'), as an ingredient in detergents and cleaning products, a food flavouring and as an insect repellent in linen cupboards and wardrobes. The aromatic leaves and flowers are added to pot-pourri. You can add lavender leaves to your bathwater for a soothing bath. After you've dried and stripped off the flower-heads you're left with the bare stems, but even these are useful. You can tie them in small bundles and burn them as incense sticks. See our photos on Instagram at Mill Cottage, the Little House on the Peninsula Watch our videos on YouTube at Craftsteading Visit our website at www.craftsteading.com