Gardening Archives - Soap Deli News

Natural Gardeners Soap Recipe That’s Not Just for Gardeners

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May 22, 2018 By Rebecca D. Dillon

It doesn’t have to be gardening season for you to enjoy this natural gardeners soap recipe. In fact, you don’t need to be a gardener at all! Formulated to quickly and easily wash away tough dirt and grime, you’ll find that this natural gardeners soap is also a great option for mechanics, artists and kindergarten teachers. So if you know how to get good and dirty, then this soap is for you.

One of my favorite things about spring is that sense of revival, hope and growth. I love strolling through our local farmer’s market and choosing plants for my garden or new flowers for my yard. This year however I won’t have the opportunity to grow a garden.

While I’m sure my roommate wouldn’t object to me putting a garden her yard, it’s simply not practical. Her home’s backyard is wooded and incredibly shady. The front yard on the other hand, while it does get full sun most of the day, is literally only about the size of small garden.

So this year I think I’ll create a container garden for growing herbs instead. With limited real estate, it makes more sense. And as we are always cooking with fresh herbs, it also has a positive impact on our grocery budget.

One of our favorite herbs is cilantro. Not only is it easy to grow, but it’s one of my favorite toppings for tacos. Luckily for me, I am not part of that percentage of the population that thinks cilantro tastes like soap. We’re also huge fans of fresh sage, basil, mint and thyme.

As such, I’ve found that this Indoor/Outdoor Herb Garden Kit is perfect for starting an herb container garden. It’s small size makes it perfect for apartment dwellers as well as anyone else, who like me, just doesn’t have the right conditions for a traditional outdoor garden.

Alternately, if you have woodworking tools, give this DIY indoor herb garden a try!

Check out these spring gardening tips & tricks!

Whether you’re planning to grow a garden this year or not, my natural gardeners soap recipe is a must for your next weekend project. It’s made using a combination of naturally exfoliating ingredients like flax seed powder, shredded loofah, calendula flower powder, poppy seeds and fine ground pumice.

However, you don’t have to use the same exfoliants as I did for scrubbing power. If you’re on a budget, I recommend the Exfoliant Sampler from Bramble Berry. It contains 1 oz. each of eight different natural exfoliants for just $15.

Or simply sift through your own cache of soapmaking supplies to see what other ingredients you can use. (You can even make an inventory list while you’re at it so you know just what you have on hand and accidentally order supplies you already have.)

In addition to the exfoliants used to remove tough caked on dirt, paint or motor oil – dealer’s choice! – this homemade soap is highly cleansing to help rinse away stuck on grease, grime and sweat.

To balance out those cleansing suds, I did give my natural gardeners soap recipe a higher super fat. It also ranks pretty high as a conditioning soap as well due to the addition of baobab oil, mango butter and fractionated shea oil.

Finally, I rounded off my natural gardeners soap recipe with an earthy essential oil blend of ylang ylang, patchouli and blood orange. But feel free to swap out my essential oil blend recipe with your own favorite essential oil blend.

Get started with essential oils with classic essential oil kit!

Or try a garden themed fragrance oil for a more budget friendly scented option. I like this garden dirt fragrance oil. While garden mint is also another one of my favorite scents.

Natural Gardeners Soap Recipe

Ingredients:

.8 oz. baobab oil (5%)
.8 oz. castor oil (5%)
4.8 oz. refined coconut oil (30%)
1.6 oz. mango butter (10%)
3.2 oz. pomace olive oil (20%)
1.6 oz. safflower oil
3.2 oz. fractionated shea oil

4 fl. oz. distilled or filtered water
2.15 oz. sodium hydroxide/lye

1/2 teaspoon fine ground pumice
1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon flax seed powder
1/2 teaspoon calendula flower powder
1/2 teaspoon shredded loofah
.35 oz. ylang ylang essential oil
.25 oz. patchouli essential oil
.15 oz. blood orange essential oil
.025 oz. bergamot essential oil
.025 oz. petitgrain essential oil
soap colorant, as desired

Soap Notes:

As my natural gardeners soap recipe yields a somewhat softer soap bars, I used a steep water discount. The water weight for this recipe is 25% of the oil weight. Additionally the super fat is 8%.

You can use this information, if desired, to resize my natural gardeners soap recipe using a lye calculator. It’s also useful if you’re wanting to make changes to the super fat or water percentage.

Learn more about using a lye calculator to adjust a homemade soap recipe or to craft your own custom cold process soap recipes with the information found in this tutorial.

For an extra, extra super scrubby soap, you can double the amount of exfoliants called for in the recipe to 1 teaspoon each.

My natural gardeners soap recipe yields six bars of handmade artisan soap when using this round silicone mold.

Getting Started:

Begin by gathering the materials you’ll need for this soapmaking project. You will need a digital scale, a digital thermometer, an immersion blender and a 6-cavity round silicone soap mold. (I used this mold for my natural gardeners soap recipe.) Additionally, you’ll also need aluminum free, heat safe containers and utensils for mixing your soap.

You should also take all necessary safety precautions when working with lye. If you are unfamiliar with making cold process soap from scratch, I recommend this soapmaking tutorial to get you started. I also offer several beginner soap recipes to try before attempting this soap including this beginner soap recipe and my palm free olive & babassu soap recipe.

Instructions:

Begin by preparing the lye solution for my natural gardeners soap recipe. To do this, measure out the distilled water into a heat safe container. In a separate container, weigh out the lye called for in the recipe. Then pour the lye into the water – I recommend a well ventilated area – and mix until the lye has completely dissolved. Now set the lye-water solution aside in a safe location to cool.

While the lye solution cools, weigh out the carrier oils and butters called for in the recipe. Combine in a stainless steel pot. Then gently heat the soapmaking oils on the stove over low heat just until the solids have melted.

Remove the soapmaking oils from heat and allow to cool.

In the meantime, if you’d like to color your natural gardener soaps, measure out the colorant. (The usage rate for micas is typically 1 teaspoon per pound.) Then weigh out the essential oils and combine in a small glass beaker.

Once the oils have reached 90°-95°F you are ready to make soap.

Check the temperature of both the soapmaking oils and the lye solution before you begin. Both of these ingredients should be within ten degrees of one another.

Discover more natural essential oil skin care recipes here.

Now add your choice of colorant, if using, to the soapmaking oils. Mix briefly with an immersion blender to incorporate the colorant throughout the oils.

Next, pour the lye solution into the soapmaking oils and mix with the immersion blender until you reach a light trace. You’ll know you’ve reached trace when you drag the blender through the soap batter and it leaves a visible trail behind. It’s a little like pudding.

Add the essential oils to the soap batter, then continue mixing until thoroughly combined.

Once you bring the soap to a medium trace, pour the soap evenly into six of the cavities of your round silicone mold. Then gently cover the soap with plastic wrap or parchment paper.

Set the soap aside for 24-48 hours. After this time you can unmold your natural gardeners soap bars.

Allow your soap to cure for four to six weeks in a cool, dry location. After that, your homemade soaps are ready to use.

More Natural Soap Recipes with Essential Oils

If you love my natural gardeners soap recipe, then you may want to also try these other natural soap recipes scented with natural essential oils.

Or find more homemade soap recipes by way of my DIY Bath & Body Pinterest board and my Simply Soapmaking Pinterest board. Alternately, you can explore all my cold process soap recipes here. Or, if you prefer melt and pour soapmaking, you can find my melt and pour soap recipes here.

Discover my favorite handmade artisan soaps on Etsy here.

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For even more homemade soap recipes, natural skin care recipes, bath and beauty DIY’s, you can follow Soap Deli News across all of your favorite social media platforms. I’m on G+, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Blog Lovin’, and Instagram. Or you can simply subscribe to Soap Deli News via email for future updates, DIY projects and recipes.

Filed Under: Gardening, Lifestyle, Soapmaking Tagged With: baobab oil, blood orange, cold process soap recipe, cold process soapmaking, essential oil recipes, gardener's soap, mango butter, natural soap, patchouli essential oil, soap recipe, soap tutorial, soapmaking, spring, summer, ylang ylang

DIY Succulent Container Garden

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June 17, 2017 By Rebecca D. Dillon

Learn how to make your own DIY succulent container garden. Not only do these succulent container gardens make a beautiful home accent, but they are also extremely low maintenance! In fact, my succulents tend to fare best when I forget to water them. (Go figure.)

So whether you have a green thumb – or a not so green thumb – you’ll love the natural beauty a succulent container garden offers! Here’s how to make your own.

DIY Succulent Container Garden

To create your DIY succulent container garden you’ll need to start by purchasing the dirt, succulents and other materials you’ll need to use for your container garden. I started with an assortment of my favorite succulent plants.

As I was working with smaller containers, I bought the smallest pots of succulents I could find. You should be able to purchase succulents from your local farmer’s market or greenhouse or from a home & hardware store. Alternately you can also buy live succulent plants online from both Amazon and Etsy.

In addition to the succulents, I also bought some cactus and succulent soil mix for my DIY succulent container garden. This soil mix allows for drainage that your succulents need. You’ll also need a container, some small rocks or stones or other interesting found items.

I used a handmade pottery dish as my container. I liked the low, wide round shape that gave me room to include a variety of succulents together.

Of course, you don’t need to choose a traditional container for your DIY succulent container garden. Containers like an upcycled bottle also works well. I love this succulent arrangement from Looking Sharp Cactus in which a vodka bottle is used as the planter. (You can even purchase all of the components for your succulent container garden as a kit if you like.)

Alternately, you can also buy and upcycled bottle planter that’s pre-cut for you. I like this upcycled wine bottle planter from Gottles. Gottles also sells an array of other upcycled glass bottle planters made from liquor bottles as well as some pretty cool upcycled bottle pendant lamps.

All of the rocks I used for my DIY succulent container garden I was able to find with a little foraging. If your yard is rock free, take a walk through a local park to see what you discover.

Once you’ve gathered all of your materials, you’re ready to create your succulent container garden! To do this, simply fill your container with the succulent soil mix, then add succulents throughout the container using rocks to break up sections or fill in gaps.

I left my DIY succulent container garden a little sparse. However, my succulents grew and filled the plant in rather quickly. In addition, if you’ll be keeping your succulents indoors, it’s best not to crowd them so they get as much light as possible. (Check out 9 secrets to growing succulents indoors at Gardenista blog here.)

Alternately, you can crowd your succulents a bit and plant up to the edges for a container garden that looks lush from the start if you’ll be displaying them outdoors.

Once you’ve planted all of the succulents in your container, water the soil in your pot.

Keep your succulent in a bright, sunny spot in your home – in front of a window is a wonderful spot – or outside on a patio. Succulents grow best when they get a lot of light. However, they do need some sun protection if temperatures are above 90°F.

For more information on lighting and watering your succulent container garden, check out this helpful information from the Cactus & Succulent Society of San Jose. It covers information on potting and watering your succulents, lighting situations, repotting your succulents and how to deal with common pest.

Want even more ideas for creating a DIY succulent container garden?

Apartment Therapy has a cool tutorial that instructs you on how to use recycled food packaging for molds to make modern cement planters for your succulents.

Or learn how to make a DIY book planter for your succulents with this tutorial from Green Wedding Shoes blog!

If you’re in love with a rustic look, consider a bold approach and craft a DIY Succulent Table as a living room coffee table or outdoor patio table. The size and dimensions are entirely up to you. But regardless of how large or small you go, this is one table sure to make a statement you’ll never grow tired of.

You can also go super simple with a single succulent in a unique handmade planter. I love this small narwhal succulent planter from Holz Home.

Or this handmade ceramic cactus planter from Federico Becchetti Art that allows you to plant multiple succulents without worrying about how to arrange them.

For more great ideas like DIY succulent container garden, be sure to follow my boards on Pinterest here.

You can also find and follow me on G+, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Blog Lovin’, and Instagram. Or sign up to receive new posts from Soap Deli News blog to your email via FeedBurner so you never miss a post.

Filed Under: Gardening Tagged With: container gardening, diy, easy, gardening, gift idea, spring, succulent, summer

How to Use Neem Oil for Plants as a Natural Pesticide

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May 27, 2014 By Rebecca D. Dillon

Do you need a non-toxic natural pesticide alternative for your home and garden? Learn how to use neem oil for plants as a natural non-toxic pesticide!

In addition to neem oil’s many medicinal uses – for which I’ve already created multiple recipes for soap, shampoo, salves and lip balm – you can also use neem oil for plants in your garden as a natural broad spectrum pesticide. Neem oil is extracted from the seed of the tropical neem tree and contains thee active ingredient, azadirachtin, which acts as an insecticide, fungicide, and miticide.

You can use neem oil for plants in the garden as a natural, non-toxic pesticide to help control slugs, snails, fruit flies, white flies, squash bugs, Colorado potato beetles, Mexican bean beetles, Japanese beetles, aphids small leaf eating caterpillars and other harmful insects.

In your home it works against fleas, ticks, ants, bed bugs, dust mites and cockroaches as well as scabies mites.

Simply combine between .5% and 2% of neem oil to warm water depending on severity of infestation. (So for every 16 oz. of water by weight, you’d want to use between .08 oz. and .32 oz. neem oil.) For the garden you can also include insecticidal soap or detergent at .01% – .02% of the water amount. Use the solution within a day or two and then make up a new solution to use as needed. If you have an existing infestation drench soil and leaves and apply once a week until infestation clears. As a preventative measure, use the neem oil at .5% dilution with warm water once a month.

Also be sure to check my natural homemade skin care recipes that contain neem oil: Natural Neem Oil & Rosemary Salve Recipe, Natural Homemade Neem Oil Cold Process Soap Recipe, Homemade Neem Cream Recipe, Natural Topical Anti-Fungal Toenail Treatment, Homemade Cold Sore Therapy Lip Balm Recipe, Natural Homemade Dog Shampoo and my Lanolin & Neem Salve Recipe.

For more home and garden tips and recipes like this one, follow my DIY Lifestyle Tips board on Pinterest. Or keep up with all of my new projects and recipes by following me on Blog Lovin, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google + and Instagram!

Filed Under: Gardening, Handmade Home, Lifestyle Tagged With: crafts, diy, eco-friendly, garden, gardening, green, green living, home remedies, home remedy, natural alternative, neem oil, organic, planting, tips

How to Create New Succulents from Clippings

I may receive compensation from links on this site. See my disclosure policy.

September 9, 2013 By Rebecca D. Dillon

Making New Succulent Plants with Clippings from Existing Plants - Great for Handmade Gift Ideas and Favors

My succulent container gardens that I made back in May for Mother’s Day have been, of course, growing. So in order to keep them looking great, I had to trim a few of the taller succulents. I decided it would be great to re-grow these clippings into new plants that I could pot for other areas of my home and office at work that needed a little bit of greenery. As I’m pulling some of my arrangements inside to avoid the cooler fall evenings we’ve been having – the cooler weather can easily kill off your succulents – I also thought it’d be a great time to get creative and fill in some of my empty pottery pots – like the one pictured above – that I made many years back in my intro to pottery class in college.

I took clippings from several of my succulent container gardens. The particular clippings I used were from the succulent plant shown in this photograph on the upper left. They just happened to grow faster and much taller than the others and were quite tall after four months in the sun on my porch.

Succulent Clippings Arrangement in Water

The “correct” way to root your succulents is to clip them from the plant, then set them aside in a cool, dark location for a week or so then plant them right into the soil. This is definitely how it needs to be done with those low lying succulents that you really can’t clip a stem off of. Basically you have to take a leaf from the plant and root it. As these were taller and I always have trouble rooting the leaves, I just plopped a selection of these clippings in shallow water in a ceramic container and used them as a table centerpiece.

Succulent Clippings Growing Roots - How to Create New Succulent Plants from Your Clippings In the meantime, the clippings grew roots.

Rooting Succulent Clippings to Make Potted Arrangements

At which point I gathered several of these clippings together along with a container to put them in and some dirt.

Pretty DIY Potted Succulents Made from Rooting Succulent Clippings

And then all that was left was to plant them in their new home and water. What I love most about succulents is that they are so easy to grow and do especially well when you forget to water them. Plus most varieties can still thrive in low light areas. Just don’t forget to bring them inside the house in the winter! While some varieties will come back if they are killed off by the cold, others won’t. So keeping these planted in containers is best suited for their survival.

Do you grow succulents in your home? What ways have you had success with when starting new succulents?

Filed Under: DIY Craft Project, Gardening Tagged With: container gardening, craft project, crafts, diy, easy, gardening, succulent

My Memorial Day Weekend

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May 26, 2013 By Rebecca D. Dillon

Scott is watering the garden again today. He’s been faithfully watering the garden by buckets since there’s no hose or outside water faucet on the days the ground gets dry. Luckily we’ve had some good rain so far this spring and it’s supposed to be a rather wet summer since this can get a little tedious and I seem to keep having him add an extra row here and there. Right now we have tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and cucumbers planted. I also have a row of organic Summer Bibb Lettuce seeds from Cubits planted in the ground and in a large pot along with some Basil and Calendula. Scott still has one more row to sow so I can plant my mix of organic Heirloom carrot seeds from Cubits.

I spent a lot of time outdoors yesterday cleaning up both the front and back yards. We rent and this is only the start of our second year here – and our first with any sort of extra income – so we’re just now getting the yard to our liking. I don’t have hedge trimmers yet – I spent money on a weed eater and an a/c unit – so I trimmed trees with my hands and a pair of craft scissors – which was surprisingly effective. I also spent a lot of time pulling up Virginia creeper out of the ground and off the fence. While it looks a lot better, it did send my allergies into overdrive so I’m nursing a sore throat today.

If you’re allergies are giving you fits as well – even with medication like mine – there are some natural home remedies that can help. One of my favorites since I have a variety of herbs planted out front is to drink peppermint tea. The peppermint oil acts as a natural decongestant. Simply add 1/2 ounce of dried organic peppermint leaves to a one quart jar then fill two-thirds of the jar with boiling water. Steep for five minutes, sweeten if desired and enjoy.

And since we’re on the topic of gardens, dirt and mud, I am offering 50% off my new Rose Body & Facial Mud for Memorial Day weekend! Just enter coupon code: FLASHMUD at checkout and receive half off every jar of Rose Body & Facial Mud you purchase from Rebecca’s Soap Delicatessen through Memorial Day. (Coupon code expires 5/27/13 at 11:59pm EST.)

I hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend. Scott and I will be going out to buy a small charcoal grill today so we can enjoy some grilled bratwurst and burgers purchased on the market this weekend from a local farmer.

Filed Under: Gardening, My Life Day to Day, Sales & Deals Tagged With: coupon code, garden, gardening, peppermint, sale, tea