Tips on safely cleaning up after soap making including how to tackle dirty pans, soap-encrusted stick blenders, and counter tops. Includes ways to reduce mess and to avoid irritating your skin. I love making cold-process soap and have been sharing recipes on Lovely Greens for years. It's more than just using the bars afterwards but the entire process of choosing ingredients, bringing it to trace, and then pouring the wet soap into molds. It makes you feel like a million bucks to have made that ... Read More about Safely Cleaning up after Soap Making
Ideas from Lovely Greens
Grow your own Cut Flower Garden for Homegrown Bouquets
Tips on how to grow a cut flower garden from gardener and florist Helena Willcocks. Includes how to lay out your garden, amending soil, and why you should be growing Chocolate cosmos. I absolutely love growing flowers, arranging them, and just being on my plot surrounded by them. Everyone needs flowers in their life. That’s why as a florist and allotment gardener I’m sharing my tips for growing them with you. I remember feeling very overwhelmed when I first started my cut flower garden. If ... Read More about Grow your own Cut Flower Garden for Homegrown Bouquets
Mara’s Simple and Crunchy Granola Recipe
Surprisingly easy to make crunchy granola recipe with rolled oats, honey, coconut, and nuts. Make it from start to finish in about 45 minutes. I've been one of those people who almost mindlessly pulls a box of granola from the supermarket shelf. It's one of those staples that I thought I didn't have time to make. I mean, I get the *good* stuff but it's just granola, right? I was about to get schooled with a crunchy granola recipe you'll want to print out and keep forever. We're in ... Read More about Mara’s Simple and Crunchy Granola Recipe
Starting a New Vegetable Garden: soil, compost, and breaking ground
Tips on starting a new vegetable garden in the fall including ideas for clearing land, mulching, compost, and amending soil In my experience as an allotment secretary, most new gardeners tend to arrive with the spring flush. Full of energy and excitement they begin digging and planting and generally wearing themselves out. They also have a lot more challenges, since perennial weeds and their seeds will be competing with veg, and there's generally a lot more to do in a lot less time. Starting a ... Read More about Starting a New Vegetable Garden: soil, compost, and breaking ground
Parsley Soap Recipe: how to naturally make green soap
Use garden-fresh or shop-bought herbs for this parsley soap recipe. It uses the re-batch technique, meaning that you will not need to handle lye. I love using homegrown herbs and flowers in handmade soap, especially when it turns out beautifully. This parsley soap is no exception. It's a light green with specks of garden green and pairs well with herbal essential oils. Parsley creates a pretty color worthy of being added to my natural soap colorants chart. It is less stable than mineral colors ... Read More about Parsley Soap Recipe: how to naturally make green soap
