The benefits of adding lavender to your life

Lavender is known for its soothing scent but did you know it has many more benefits and uses? Read on to find out what it can do for you.

• The ancient Druids threw lavender in bonfires during the summer solstice and used it to cast love spells. It was also burned during childbirth to purify the air, calm the mother and protect the baby.
• The Romans perfumed their public baths with lavender, hence it's name, from the Latin lavare meaning to wash.
• In the Middle Ages, it was used in powdered form as a condiment and preservative for food, for strewing on earthen floors, and it was cultivated in monastery gardens, where it was prized for its many culinary, medicinal and hygienic uses.

There are many ways the flowers of the lavender are used:

• Lavender can be used at any time to calm and soothe nerves, improve the mood and relax the muscles.
• Its delicious scent and its essential oil is often used to encourage a restful sleep, ease depression and anxiety, and other problems related to an anxious or tense state, including upset stomach.
• Lavender flowers can be taken in tea or added to the bath to soothe and promote relaxation.
• Apply pure oil on burns and insect bites, or to prevent infection in cuts or scrapes.
• You can also add it to massage oil to relax muscles and relieve headaches.
• For appropriate use, consult your doctor or herbalist.
• Lavender is not recommended if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, unless following medical advice.

If you had to choose just one aromatic plant for your home, it would have to be lavender.

Its beautiful flowers and popular fragrance aside, it has antibacterial, antibiotic, antiviral, deodorant and repellant properties that you can put to use in any room of the home as well as in your cabinets and drawers, on yourself or your pets.

• Use the leaves and dried flowers to make moth bags and lavender sachets in the shape of heart.
• Infuse the fresh or dried leaves and flowers with white vinegar to make a cleaning fluid and disinfectant spray.
• Add a few drops of essential oil to unscented household products to give them a fresh and natural smell.
• Moisten a cotton ball and add a few drops of lavender essential oil. Drop it to the bottom of the garbage can or in the vacuum bag to remove musty odours.
• Lavender essential oil is an antiseptic and antibacterial, perfect for spotty skin.

Lavender has relatively few applications in the kitchen, even though its flowers and leaves are edible.

• Lavender goes well with sweet dishes containing cream, such as ice cream.
• It can be added to butter biscuits, icings, jams and jellies.
• Crystallize the flowers to decorate your cakes.
• Before cooking with lavender, make sure that the flowers have not been sprayed with chemicals and ensure that the variety chosen does not have an overpowering flavour of camphor.

Using lavender in your home can have many fresh-smelling uses