In this segment, chapter 1, of this series we will look at seed selection.

This is likely going to be an emotional based selection after you look at the various catalogs. That is OK, as long as you keep it balanced. Most seed catalogs will do a pretty good job in describing the various plants. Many times they will have pictures with them and whether we are coming out of winter time or even going into winter time, the whole idea of planting a garden will be very exciting.
Since we have been introduced to some ideas from the overview segment, let’s dig in, so to speak, to the one very important part of the process, the beginning. Beginning is important, right? You will see a list of various types of seeds as to certain terms used in letting you know the type of plant the seed has come from. In this sense I am talking about Open Pollinated, Hybrids and GMO. We are not going to discuss the GMO ones, for several reasons. Normally seeds in this grouping are targeted and developed...

In this, the first of many discussions that we are going to have concerning gardening and doing it on a practical level.

As we begin this series I feel like we need to focus on the one area that I talked about in a recent essay and video that I did for application in an aromatherapy school class. What I presented there is really a core basic that applies equally in this series as well. Please keep in mind that the material presented here applies to herb production and of course the production of plants that are donor plants for essential oil production are right here in the thick of this stuff. Since we really can’t do much due to it being winter and at this point the selection process of seeds is an area where we really need to be focusing our planning. So here goes;

One of the first things that we need to look at is the selection of the seeds we plan to plant. One area to consider is this; What do I like to eat? Tomatoes are one of the most widely selected plants. The vast...

Overview;

Today I would like to discuss an aspect of essential oils and detail, somewhat at least some aspects as to Sclareol in Clary Sage essential oil. 

Perhaps one of the main aspects to Clary Sage is the one main ingredient in that oil and that is a component called Sclareol. Also, an isomer called 13-EP1-Sclareol is present as well. However, these are just some main components that I want to focus on here today. Also, one must remember that Clary Sage does not or is not a provider of Estrogen. It does however help to promote an Estrogen like  action potential. The actual Estrogen and Estrogen like activities are two different action potentials. 

Quality;

As with most essential oils people will usually resort to the Gas Chromatography/Mass spectrum analysis to identify the quality of a Clary Sage sample. Unfortunately, this is not an accurate way to determine or to qualify the sample of this oil if you are measuring for the Sclareol content. Sclareol is a very...

I would like to have a discussion here that is centered around Peppermint. This discussion
really is important as Peppermint is a plant that has many uses. The Essential Oil of
Peppermint is a very useful EO and can be used in a wide range of uses and many of those
uses are unrelated, with remarkable success.
In some studies, overseas of course. When Assessing Cobalt applications to Peppermint. In
countries that use the metric system, the acreage is measured by Hectare. A Hectare is
determined by 1 Hectare = 2.47 acres in the US. This would be 7.7 L. per acre using the
production figures in the next paragraph for the control. But to go US even further it means
16 pounds of oil produced per acre at the control measurement of 19 L. per hectare. To further give some perspective, the PPM conversion is as follows; 1 PPM =0.001 mg/g.  or you can see it as 1mg/g = 1000 PPM. So as you can see when we say 15 PPM, In either case, it is a very small amount. Also, this last growing season, my...