Growing Botanicals for Natural Bath & Body Products

Calendula growing in a small patch on our field.

This year I wanted to try growing little pockets of botanicals that I use in my bath tea blends. The beginning of my own personal materia medica.

I’m lucky to have access to land where I can grow, and I wanted to experience the full process of growing something from seed that I don’t usually grow — including preparing the land where it would eventually take root.

I’ve always been a vegetable grower. As a child growing up on the West Coast of Canada, I had a Grandad who taught me everything he knew about growing. I’ve grown something every year for as long as I can remember: tomatoes in pots when outdoor space was limited, vegetables wherever there was room, fruit when I could. Life would feel strange if I didn’t grow something.

When we bought this property in 2017, my dream was to start a lavender farm. Things may not have panned out quite as I imagined, but I have been able to grow lavender on a small scale — enough to support my fledgling business, alongside calendula.

After relaunching Alkemi in 2025, it became clear to me that growing my own botanicals was going to be part of its development.

So here we are, at the closing end of August 2026, and what a season it has been.

The previous winter wasn’t kind to us. We had a record 55 consecutive days of rain, which meant the dilapidated raised beds never got sorted. We also lost the polytunnel cover in Storm Goretti. (And I had 15 seconds of fame with Outrage at Outage article on the BBC)

But I was excited about the future of herbs, botanicals and cut flowers, so I ordered plugs, plants and seeds and got started.

At one point I had so many seedlings that I was positively giddy with the prospect of the gorgeous bouquets I would have around the house and give to friends and family. The vegetables were going to be a bumper crop. I was already imagining all the preserves I would be making.

And the botanicals.

I imagined masses of plant material that I would harvest and dry — in our loft for now, although my imagination had already taken me to dedicated drying spaces in the tumble-down barn that came with the land — ready to use in my products.

Then came the first heatwave.

Then the second.

Then the third.

Then the fourth.

Then the hosepipe ban.

Then the fifth.

All of this alongside the school holidays, paid project work, hosting family and friends and, well, life.

Sadly, the planting didn’t flourish quite as I had hoped. And as we reach the end of summer, I’m looking at a much smaller harvest than I had imagined back in the spring.

But I’m proud of what I did grow.

Basket of freshly bundled lavender ready to dry.

I managed to harvest and dry some German chamomile — enough for a few cups of tea rather than the quantities I had dreamt of adding to my bath teas — along with little samples of other homegrown botanicals.

And there have been flowers.

Not the large, abundant bouquets I imagined when I was choosing those seed packets, but small jars dotted around the house, bringing just as much joy in their own way.

The botanicals I have managed to grow have become little collections of homegrown beauty. I’ve been gathering them every few days in small bunches and hanging them to dry in our loft. There is something incredibly satisfying about seeing those little bundles slowly drying, knowing that they started as tiny seeds in the ground here.

It has also been a steep learning curve in growing for a business.

I’ve learnt that growing enough botanicals to use in Alkemi is very different from growing a few plants for pleasure. Next year, the beds need to be prepared well in advance. I don’t want to be trying to prepare the ground and plant everything at the same time again.

I also need to think much more carefully about watering. Drip irrigation, perhaps, or another system that can give the plants the consistent care they need without relying on a sprinkler and on me remembering to move it.

This year hasn’t been the abundant growing season I imagined.

But perhaps that’s part of the process too.

I’m learning what the land can give me, what it needs from me, and what it might take to grow enough of these beautiful plants to become part of Alkemi.

There is always next year.