DIY: How To Use Your Garden Herbs 3 Different Ways

If you've been following along in my gardening journey, you'll know that I reserved two garden boxes for herbs! Why? I don't know LOL and now I've got a healthy abundance of sage, rosemary and thyme! Apart from drying them to use in cooking, I thought it would be fun to show you 3 different ways you can use these garden herbs outside of the kitchen..well sort of!

Now that summer weather in Kelowna seems to be truly behind us and the smoke has rolled in from fires all around *cry* it can be hard to even think that not just a few weeks back we were still hanging out at the lake soaking up the sun. These 3 DIYs can help take you back to those summer days in a snap!

DIY 1: Dried Herb Potpourri Pouch

Such an easy and beautiful way to use up your garden herbs and have your clothing or linens smelling fresh! As an aside, you know how scrunchies are all the rage these days? If you're obsessed with them as much as I am, you may have several linen pouches lying around waiting to be re-purposed. This is the easiest way to do that!

You will need:

  • 1-2 springs of each garden herb (or more for multiple pouches!) (I used lavender, sage, thyme and rosemary!)
  • high powered blender OR coffee grinder!
  • 1 linen pouch(es)

After you've cut your garden herbs you will want to set them aside to dry for at least 2 days on a baking sheet at room temperature. I would turn them each day to ensure that all of the parts were drying out.

Place the dried garden herbs into your high speed blender and blend until finely ground. You could use a coffee grinder for this too! If there are some pieces that don't fully grind, that's okay, they're going into a pouch anyways!

Sprinkle garden herb mixture into the pouch, then fold pouch and use ties to secure the pouch.

DIY 2: Garden Herb Bath Soak

This DIY is one that I'm most excited about! I mean, who doesn't want a natural and scent filled relaxing bath every now and again! This DIY is also a wonderful gift idea with the holiday season just around the corner!

You'll need:

  • 250ml mason jars
  • 3-4 sprigs of garden herbs (I used sage, lavender, thyme and rosemary)
  • plain Epsom salts about 1 cup per jar
  • any body oil (I used hemp) like almond, jojoba or coconut oil
  • high powered blender OR coffee grinder

Follow the steps in drying and blending your herbs from DIY 1. In a bowl pour Epsom salts, 1-2 tbsp of the dried herbs and 1-2 tbsp of your favourite body oil. Mix with a spoon and add to mason jar.

DIY 3: Garden Herb Air Purifier

As mentioned earlier, it's been a smoky couple of weeks in BC and I'm sure elsewhere and we've all been staying inside. I've been reading a lot about herbs and their uses from Sunday Gardening, you can read up here. If you don't have the space to have all of these herbs growing in your home, creating a simmering potpourri will do the trick too!

Bring a small sauce pan to a boil with 1-2 springs of lavender, rosemary, sage and thyme. Reduce to a simmer and allow to continue simmering to allow the natural oils from the herbs to be released into the air.

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