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The Garden Apothecary

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The Garden Apothecary

Homemade botanical products, made from natural and foraged ingredients

03/01/2026

Sometimes foraging opportunities come at the oddest times, like in a l*l of a thunderstorm while on holiday! While setting up at our cabin (awaiting our visit to Hobbiton tomorrow which I am INCREDIBLY excited about!) I noticed some faint yellow flowers on the slope behind us. How surprised was I when I realized they were st johns wort (Hypericum perforatum)!!! Such a beautiful little bright and yellow flower, known by many for its actions as an antidepressant, but less well known for its amazing power to assist with the relief in muscle and joint aches and pains. Infused in oil and applied topically it can help with strains and pains both acre and chronic. Of course I had to collect some...

07/12/2025

Spring/summer is such an awesome time for foraging and collecting herbs! Borage, dog rose, lemon balm, nettle, elderflowers, yarrow... The list is so long! We've been blessed with such a large amount of rain coming into summer that everything is absolutely flourishing, unfortunately that means the grass is up to my eyeballs but that's what the cows and sheep are for 😂 I hope everyone is keeping well, it's been a very long time since I posted anything. Stay at home mum life of three keeps you so much busier than you think you'll be!
I still make my oils and balms, and at this time of year with hay fever and allergies running rampant I have a few tips and tricks if anyone is needing help. Love to you all!! 💜🌸

19/01/2025

It is literally everywhere!! During the school holidays my daughter's school field is a sea of purple (and yellow dandelion 💜)

04/01/2025

Not gonna lie, I am VERY excited to have my first batch of home-grown st John's wort oil on the go!
St John's wort (Hypericum) is a woody shrub with these beautiful little yellow flower clusters at the end of the stems. It's most commonly known to be used as a mild antidepressant but less well known is that the oil is an absolutely amazing pain relief for aching muscles and joints. So much magic in such tiny golden flowers.
It does grow wild in some areas of New Zealand, but it can be grown in most gardens fairly easily as long as it gets plenty of sun. Usually when you infuse herbs in oil you store them carefully in a cool, dark place while they brew but these little beauties are best placed in the sunlight and shaken daily. Shortly after the process begins the oil takes on the most amazing red hue 💜

29/12/2024

Been busy in the garden lately pinching tomato laterals, collecting seeds from the bee garden and harvesting my first St John's Wort flowers 💜 I'm especially excited about these as I can't wait to make a wonderful oil for pain relief in joints and muscles

08/05/2024

Cold season is upon us!! Luckily our driveway is lined with dog rose so it doesn't take long to harvest some hips and whip up a high-dose vitamin C syrup that everyone loves. They're so sweet, my 18mnth old prefers to eat the soft ones fresh off the plants. It's a fairly basic syrup, and I swap out the sugar for honey (half in the cooking process and half afterwards, as cooking honey destroys most of its goodness).

17/02/2024

It's blackberry season!! So let's make a blackberry oxymel ❤️ I left these ones to defrost then mixed them with some of my homemade apple cider vinegar (I will have to post something about that, it's sooo easy to make!) And some local honey. I will shake it every day for the next two weeks then strain out the berries. The chooks will enjoy those while we enjoy the beautiful natural medicine for fighting colds as the seasons turn again.
(And yes, thats my ginger bug of to the side in the last picture, I'll be making blackberry fizz with the leftover juice 🤤)

13/02/2024

One week in at school and my daughter is home from school with a snotty nose 😵‍💫 out come the herbs!! A quick tea of elderflower, calendula, Kawakawa, rosehip and orange skin to clear congestion and sooth the throat. She's only 5 and not the biggest fan of the taste of herbal tea so I sweetened it with a teaspoon of local raw honey

11/02/2024

A soothing tea with dried rose, nettle, raspberry leaf, fennel seeds, cinnamon and hypericum for a bit of an unwind after scrubbing down my kitchen ❤️ I like to add a little local raw honey to my tea but you could have it as is if you don't mind a slight bitterness. It always pays to check what you have in your garden as surrounding areas, you never know what beautiful ingredients you have available!

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