Lovely Lavender! This plant is a desert dweller. It’s a great drought tolerant addition to a garden and pollinators LOVE lavender. So much that it happens to be a major source for bees to make honey from. Here in New Mexico it loves our sun and dry sandy soil and it thrives where other plants fail. There are over 450 varieties of lavender that are used for food and medicine. Its name comes from the Latin word lavare meaning “to wash”, and if you know the clean crisp smell of lavender the name makes perfect sense. Because of this, along with its anti microbial and antibacterial properties it was and still is often used in soaps and bath products. It’s a member of the mint family, and like most members of the mint family it’s a wonderful insect repellent. It not only keeps bugs off of us, but it can help keep bugs out of your garden too. The history of humans using this plant goes back so far that we know the Ancient Egyptians used it in the mummification process and Ancient Romans valued it so much that they used it as currency, like money. Ancient Greeks used it to help them sleep and relieve back pain. And during the Bubonic plague it was used to ward off disease. These days we usually use it in teas or on our skin to help us relax, as that is what lavender is most well known for. But once you start to learn about this excellent plant you’ll find that it’s useful for much more. My website will be published soon, if you’re looking for a good place to purchase your lavender. I’ll have you covered! Then you can have some lovely lavender for your own home apothecary. Until next time Little Witches! Much Love and BE ELL! Tia Cruzita 🌱♥️

Horsetail! (Equiesetum) This is one of my favorite plants to talk about. These ancient plants love wet mucky soil and thrive in the riparian zones of stream banks and water logged ditches. It digs its toes deep down into the soft earth and spreads aggressively with roots called rhizomes. In the right conditions it is a hearty plant, not easy to get rid of…… if for some crazy reason you would want to. 🦖The aggressively abundant nature of this plant makes it good for medicine among other things, because it’s a plant that’s hard to over harvest. In fact, it’s so hard to over harvest, and so good at surviving that this plant has lived on our Earth for MILLIONS of years. In fact, it inhabited our world long before dinosaurs did. And in the time of dinosaurs it grew alongside them, and was even a food source for some. Because of this it’s called an Elder of the Earth, or a living fossil. The broader horsetail class (Equisetopsida) dates back 375-400 million years ago. These were the ancestors of the horsetail we see today.🦕 Today’s modern species emerged later, around 150 million years ago and are smaller. But their ancient ancestors called Calamites grew to be 30 to 100 feet tall, and created whole forests. Other than their size, modern horsetails are practically unchanged from those Calamites that grew so many millions of years ago. Want to learn more about this plant and what makes it a lovely addition to your home apothecary? Keep an eye out, I’ll do a class soon. 😊