Monday, June 18, 2012

Meet the Northside Chicago Composting Club!

WORMS!
Sorry if I grossed you out there, but these are my red wrigglers. They're family and I love them, so I thought I'd share a family photo.

I'm starting a new vermi-composting club on the Northside of Chicago. In order to include everyone, I'm calling it a composting club, just in case you have a simple composting bin. However, in urban areas I've found that vermi-composting is the way to go for year-round, urban composting.

Oh by the way, vermicomposting is worm composting, if you didn't guess. It's the fancy word for it.

You may have read my other posts about vermicomposting from previous blogs. You can find my previous posts here and here. One is my very beginnings of composting, and the other is what I learned a year later.

If you want to learn more about my club, contact me or check out my new page on this blog. I'm excited to get started!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Herbal Bug Spray for Summer


I hate mosquitoes. But they LOVE me.

That's why my Herbalist Guild decided to feature a DIY herbal bug spray at our first big general meeting. I've decided to share it here as well to spread the love, or share in the hate of those pesky critters, as is my case. This blend was put together by our secretary, Rebecca!

1 oz spray bottle

Herbal Bug Spray

1 oz spray bottle
Distilled water
approx. 5 drops each of rosemary, thyme and geranium essential oil

Fill the spray bottle with water and drop each of the essential oils into the bottle. Spray on when needed!

Added bonus- you will smell nice when you use this spray unlike commercial bug sprays. Smelling nice + keeping mosquitoes away = awesomeness.

Thanks for sharing this recipe, Rebecca! I couldn't make it to the general meeting myself to make this blend with everyone, so I'll have to make some on my own.

Have a happy, bug-free summer!