Flowering, Culinary & Medicinal Plants

Author: A Restorative Garden

  • Making Coconut Oil

    Around a month ago I decided to make some coconut oil from scratch. This is a video I made to document this little project. It’s more of a record of the memories I have of making the oil rather than a step-by-step process video.

    The most time-consuming part of the process was removing the coconut meat from the shell. It took me the best part of an afternoon for just four coconuts! Next time I hope to have some better tools for the job, which might make it a bit easier (and quicker!)

    I wrote the music for the video using a music composition app called Notion. Basically, instead of writing notes on manuscript paper with a pencil, you can write the notes onto digital manuscript paper so it looks a lot tidier. I don’t use AI to create any of my work and I don’t use ready-made beats or samples. I just transcribe what’s in my head onto the manuscript “paper” and by the magic of the software you can hear the notes (and add the music to a video). Hours of entertainment! You can hear more of my music on my art website.

  • Contemplating Vetiver

    A few weeks ago I bought a bottle of vetiver essential oil and a sachet of dried vetiver roots that had the most wonderful fragrance – a unique and complex combination of a warm earthy base with a sweet citrus/floral top note.

    Keen to bring the plant responsible for these beautiful products into the garden, I started searching for a nursery that could supply them.

    It took a little while, but with help from the Holy Spirit, I was able to find a nursery who could order in some plants for me and I picked them up a few days after contacting them.

    Contemplating Vetiver

    Care of Vetiver

    The advice from the nursery assistant was to give the plants lots of water and exposure to the sun. The area I’m in is also exposed to quite a bit of wind and high temperatures. You can water a plant in the morning and then a few hours later the soil is almost dry again. Perhaps I’ll need to water these more than once a day, but we’ll see..

    From the reading I’ve done, it seems like vetiver can withstand pretty much anything the environment throws at it – acidic soils, saline soils, floods, searing heat…cold weather might be more of a problem, but overall it seems like it’s a very hardy plant. I love the way it brings a light and airy feel to the garden.

    The plants are sitting in small grow bags at the moment, but I’ll transplant them into containers or larger grow bags.

    Uses of Vetiver

    Land conservation

    Vetiver has many uses, one of which is to stabilise soil (this is known as the Vetiver System). Plants can be placed 15cm apart on a sloping surface and their strong, deep root system helps to prevent landslides, thereby stabilising the soil. They can also be used to treat waste water as the roots absorb metallic and organic contaminants.[1]

    Handmade crafts

    Artisans can use the leaves and roots of vetiver to create beautiful homewares and personal accessories.

    Fragrance

    The roots of the plant contain the essential oil, which is made up of around 200 compounds most of which are derivatives of sesquiterpenes.[1]

    Haitian vetiver essential oil is the most commercialised in the world. Secondary metabolites that are responsible for its fragrance are khusimol, beta-vetivone and alpha-vetivone.[1] Vetiver essential oil is also used as a fixative in perfumes, a quality that is facilitated by the presence of sesquiterpene alcohols including vetivol acetate and vetiverol.[2]

    Health

    Studies have found that vetiver essential oil may also have biological properties including anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antibacterial and antioxidant properties.[1]

    There’s a lot more to learn about this elegant plant with uses that cross many industries from fine fragrance to handmade crafts, naturopathic medicine and land conservation.

    References

    1. Barcellos-Silva IGC, Dos Santos FKF, Kharkwal H, et al. Vetiver, Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash: Biotechnology, Biorefineries, and the Production of Volatile Phytochemicals. Plants (Basel). 2025;14(10):1435. Published 2025 May 10. doi:10.3390/plants14101435
    2. Pandey A, Tiwari SC. A Review on Chemical Composition, Oil quality and Bioactivity of Vetiver Essential Oil. Indian J Pharm Sci 2024;86(4):1176-1186

  • Rain, Roses & Lemongrass

    The rains have been extremely heavy over the last few weeks which has been stressful for the plants. Some of them weathered the storms fairly well. A few of the roses developed yellow leaves and what looked like the beginnings of black spot, but removing those leaves early on seems to have solved the problem. Others, like a couple of the dianthus plants and a few of the thyme plants developed root rot and succumbed very quickly-one minute they were there and the next they were….gone to plant heaven. I will have to look at further improving soil drainage in my containers to try and mitigate the effects of these heavy rains which are quite extraordinary to witness.

    In happier news, an oregano cutting that I rediscovered (it was hiding under a mint plant) seems to have been thriving. Compared to the oregano plants that have been exposed directly to the sun (and the heavy rain), this one is exhibiting profilic growth with larger leaves that are a much deeper green compared to their more sun-exposed counterparts. Perhaps it was the shady conditions, and shelter from the heavy rains, that enabled it to thrive.

    Over the last few days I’ve been making some infused oils using herbs from the garden. This one is lemongrass in coconut oil.

    After placing the jar in the sun for a couple of hours the oil had turned a light yellow/green. I’m going to leave it for a few days and see if it’s ready to strain.

    The lemongrass has a lovely earthy/citrus scent with a very subtle hint of floral sweetness. The coconut oil has quite a strong fragrance so it will be interesting to see if it will still be possible to smell the scent of the lemongrass in the final oil.