City Cottage 2 | Page 16

I use this after gardening as I get pain in my upper arm and lower back muscles. Simply massage the lavender scented lotion into the achy area and relax.
It has helped my babies sleep when they have a cold as it relaxes and calms. I put a few drops on a muslin square and place it at the bottom of the cot. Though they're adults now, they use it for their own children.
I make a tea with my flowers, using 5g of fresh flowers to one cup of boiling water. This calms the digestive tract and helps with bloating and wind. I make this in a tea pot and have half mid morning hot and the other half cold in the afternoon.
Lavender has an uplifting effect on the mind so helps when your mood is low.
It is a strong antiseptic so can be used to clean and heal wounds and insect bites.
Lavender can repel insects so makes an excellent anti- head lice and scabies treatment.
I used a couple of drops of oil in my children's hair, when they were young to keep head lice away successfully.

3. Linseed
Linseed is great health supporting plant. It has been grown in Middle Eastern countries for thousands of years. It is now cultivated very successfully in the UK.
This is a really good source of omega 3 oils so is ideal for vegetarians. It is high in protein, fibre and mucilage.

Linseed makes a gentle but effective laxative, so it can be mixed into salads and casseroles to aid digestion as the mucilage content soothes the digestive tract. This makes it helpful for conditions such as colitis and IBS.
The oil is a gentle, effective emollient that is good for healing and protecting delicate and sore skin. It can help dermatitis and psoriasis sufferers. When my daughter was born, ten days late, her wrists and ankles were very dry, the hospital gave me some linseed oil to apply and this prevented the her new born skin from cracking and completely healed the dry areas.

Linseed oil is thought to be very effective as an anti- ageing product. It has been used to heal wounds and a paste of the ground seeds may be applied to severe acne to both purge and heal the infection. Use cool boiled water to make a thick paste and apply to the affected area, leave on for 10-15 minutes then remove with cotton pads soaked in the cool boiled water.

Aloe Vera