DIY Life

Working out in my yard this past week, I was taken with the fragrance of my lilac bush. It is so easy to forget from season to season how amazingly aromatic the lilac blossoms are.

I've written in the past about creating a fragrant herb garden, but how about those other flowering plants and bushes that scent your yard with their lush fragrance? You can create a garden alive with the scents of the season that satisfies your olfactory sense as well as the visual.

The Helpful Gardener has a comprehensive list of fragrant trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals for each of the blooming seasons: spring, summer, and autumn. They even list some winter plants that can emit some scent. Some of my favorites caught my eye: lilac, jasmine, lavender, lilies (choose Asian for the strongest fragrance). They even mention chocolate cosmos; everyone likes the scent of chocolate!

When I was a kid, my dad would routinely get out his pruning tools and ruthlessly cut back our lovely wisteria. This would always upset me greatly because the vine was so very beautiful when it bloomed in Spring. Would it ever come back and flower again? Yes, it always did. Always.

What I understand now is that wisteria is one tough and relentless vine once established. The form of wisteria I'm talking about is Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinesis), which actually belongs to the pea family. This big, sprawling deciduous vine has fast-growing branches that twine up and around anything it can get a hold on.

Wisteria was introduced to the US from China by gardening enthusiasts back in the early 1800s. If those folks were around today to see what they had wrought they'd probably say, "oops." That's because W. sinesis has become an invasive pest, wrapping it's vine-y arms around roadsides and woods up and down the east coast. As it spreads, wisteria chokes out native shrubs and trees with ease, and is known to climb as high as 65-feet. That's one powerful vine!

Have you begun your spring planting yet? Here in the northeast, spring planting is just beginning to enter my mind. The good news is that my snow cover is finally gone, the bad news is that it won't be warm enough to plant for at least another month.

What I have been thinking about is how I can bring the scents that I love in my soaps out to my yard. We began this process last spring and fall when we planted lavender along our walkway and mint along the stone wall, so that the fragrance wafts to our visitors as they proceed to our front door.

Read on to learn how to create a fragrant herb garden.

Blending can be a tricky endeavor. Just because you love an essential oil scent blend that you have created doesn't mean that it will work as a soap. It may lack staying power, or it may fall flat, losing the complexity it had when it was just a mixture of oils.

How do you know when a blend won't work? Essential oils aren't cheap. You want to get it right, or at least know how to alter your so-so blend to make it great: balanced, long-lasting and not too overwhelming.

Your goal with soap scent blends is to make them hang around as long as possible. What can get in the way of that? The temperature at which you mix your soap, the age of your soap, and the balance of your blend can all play an important role.

After the break, you can read detailed tips on how to make soap scents that stick.

I love the smell of fresh clothes still warm from the dryer, but then again, who doesn't? What I don't like is having to pay an arm and a leg for dryer sheets. I cut dryer sheets in half so that a box of 80 becomes a box of 160, but then that little half sheet curls up in the dryer, and the clothes don't smell as fresh.

Most of the time, I use vinegar in my wash machine, and it works just as well as liquid fabric softener to freshen and soften my clothing. In the dryer, I always pop a half sheet of Bounce, but I want a cheaper way to get my clothing static free. Thanks to Curbly, I found that way, with these recipes for making your own dryer sheets.

1. Pour fabric softener into a spray bottle, spray an old washcloth 4-6 times, and then put in the dryer with the wet clothes. A small refill carton should last you over 1 year.
   
2. In a pail, such as an ice cream container, mix one gallon water and one cup concentrated liquid fabric softener. Every time you do laundry, dip an old washcloth into the mix, wring out, and dry with your clothes. Put the lid on the pail and don't forget to label both the pail and lid.
3. Pour a 50/50 mix of fabric softener and water into a spray bottle, spray your wet clothes 3 or 4 times, or an old washcloth, then put the rag in the dryer. Basically the same as the first recipe, but less concentrated.
   
4. Mix equal parts hair conditioner and water in a spray bottle, spritz a washcloth, and dry with the wet clothes. I wouldn't recommend this recipe too often, as hair conditioner can be very expensive.
5. Vinegar with a few drops of essential oil misted on an old washcloth works just as well, and is much cheaper than dryer sheets.

One fabric softened rag should last about 5 loads before you have to wash it. Old pieces of flannel work great too, if you don't have any old washcloths kicking around. Don't forget to wash your rags every once in a while too, not only to remove build up, but to keep them from smelling funky.

When you run out of massage oil, lotion, shave gel, or nearly any other personal care product, do you panic, or calmly reach for the baby oil? Baby oil is the one item that I go overboard and buy too much of because it is so cheap, and there are so many uses for it.

My two year old sighs in contentment when I use baby oil to massage her dry winter skin. I use baby oil to get peanut butter out of her hair, and have used it to get gum out of her hair too. Please join me after the jump for a list of all the extraordinary uses I have for baby oil.

If you are like me, you like to keep your home smelling fresh and wonderful, but sometimes the joys of everyday life can get in the way. Kids, cooking, and indoor pets can all make us turn up our nose at the way our house smells. Using essential oils as a home fragrance can be an easy way to rid your home of the smells that can assault your nose.

Several drops of cinnamon oil or peppermint oil placed on cotton balls and put into a small jar or an empty margarine container with a few holes poked in the lids and placed behind a picture or behind furniture will leave your guest bedroom or bathroom smelling wonderful.

A few dabs of eucalyptus, oil of clove, or peppermint on a cool light bulb will ensure wonderful smells when the light is turned on, and the heat from the bulb allows the smell of the oil to drift across the room.