Using our new oval tubes We made a muscle rub yesterday to show off our new oval tubes. We're delighted. It's so easy too. And takes about 5 minutes. The recipe for one tube: 40g olive oil 10g beeswax (Melt these gently; take off the heat and stir in the ingredients below.) 10g eucalptus blue gum essential oil 5g capsicum oleoresin 5g camphor essential oil 5g cajeput essential oil

New in stock: Deodorant tubes, They are oval shaped, white and hold 75g. The tubes don't need to be used for deodorant. We think they'd be great for a muscle rub to throw in your sports bag. Here's a recipe that would fit one tube. Muscle rub 60g olive oil 10g beeswax 10g eucalyptus blue gum essential oil 5g capsicum oleoresin 5g camphor essential oil 5g cajeput essential oil Melt the olive oil and beeswax gently. Take off the heat and add the rest and stir. Pour in the tube and leave to set.

Balms and ointments (I think they are the same thing!)

Whatever your opinion, they are incredibly easy to make. If you can make a cup of tea, then you can make a balm (or ointment). This is what you need: 15g beeswax 85g carrier oil of your choice 1g essential oil Gently melt the beeswax and the oil together and stir to combine. Add the essential oil and stir again. Oils have varying properties: Hemp seed and tamanu oils are renown for healing; Sweet almond is a good base oil; Apricot kernel is for sensitive skin; Macadamia nut oil is for mature skin. Use the balm for your lips or as a moisturiser on your body. All sorts of products can be made by adding different combinations of essential oils. For inspiration, check out some of the other balm recipes on our website.

Micas are a great way to colour soap. M&P soap is easy as you can see immediately what colour the soap will be and you have time to adjust it. CP soap is very different. We have experimented with 250g of soap, adding 1/2 tsp, 1 tsp, & 2 tsps of mica. Hopefully you can see the three shades in the pictures opposite. The micas are blue, green, purple, yellow, red. The yellow actually comes out brighter than the picture shows.

IT'S SO EASY TO CUSTOMISE YOUR M&P SOAP BASE! Turn it into cocoa butter M&P, hemp oil M&P, shea butter M&P, oatmeal M&P (and whatever else you fancy). Simply add these ingredients to your base when you melt it. Add them at about 5%. This means that for every kilo of soap base, add 50g of extra ingredient. I wouldn't add hemp oil ( or other oil) AND a butter. This may be too much for the base to handle, but ingredients like oatmeal could be added along with the butters or an oil. So the variations are endless!

400g NZ rapeseed oil or pomace olive oil
160g avocado oil
160g RBD coconut oil

250g water
114g sodium hydroxide
20g essential oil

Massage oils are usually a blend of a couple of carrier oils, perfumed with
one or more essential oils which bring healing qualities as well as fragrance.
 
Almond oil and grapeseed oil are excellent bases. Start with one or both, and add smaller amounts of oils with intense moisturising or nourishing qualities.  Almond and grapeseed are both light oils, so you can choose between cold-pressed refined or cold-pressed organic. They all spread easily, and are full of goodness.
 
Below is a simple recipe to get you going. It’s more of a description, really.
Use what you’ve got, or order a gorgeous new oil or two – and maybe an exotic fragrance…

1. Choose a container
What are you going to put your massage oil in?
A new bottle with an elegant black lotion pump? Or a recycled Go Native bottle with a handmade label?
Or maybe you have a beautiful empty bottle in the back of the cupboard - I seem to collect blue glass ones. Brown or blue glass helps to protect your oil from the effects of light.

2. Blend the base
To make the base for 100ml of massage oil:

• Start with 80ml of a light, smooth, spreadable oil such as almond, grapeseed, apricot kernel or peach kernel – or a mix of any of these.  (If you don’t have other oils you want to include, increase this to just under 100ml.)

3. Add other oils

• Add 10ml of a rich or special oil: avocado, or macadamia, melted organic virgin coconut, or your current favourite (mine is kiwi seed oil).
• There are many other oils that bring their own special qualities, so add 7-8ml of another oil, to make 97-98ml of blend. (You want to leave a little space for some fragrance.)
  Here are some possibilities:
• Argan oil: Helps to protect and regenerate the skin, leaving it soft and supple.
• Blackcurrant seed oil: Include for its anti-inflammatory qualities – it will help to ease aches and pains.
• Coconut oil: If you haven’t already, it’s hard to resist adding some gently melted organic virgin coconut oil. It is excellent for ‘glide’, and its aroma is evocative.
• Hazelnut oil: At around 85% monounsaturated fatty acids (omega 7 and 9), it’s great in blends as it spreads easily and provides good lubrication.
• Jojoba is wonderful in massage blends – it’s silky and nutritious and great for ‘glide’.
• Rosehip oil: Our organic rosehip oils are full of nutrients to leave the skin feeling alive and cared for.
• Sesame oil is widely used in the Ayurvedic tradition.
• Sensitive skin? Add some soothing apricot kernel or peach kernel oil, if you haven’t already used it in your base.
• Take a stroll though our carrier oils for more possibilities, or look through what you already have - but be sure to check for freshness.

 
3. Essential oils / Fragrance
A small amount of essential oil contributes both pleasurable aroma and healing qualities. Essential oils can work on two levels: The volatile perfume can soothe our emotions, and the non-volatile healing compounds can be absorbed by our skin.
 
One way of thinking about fragrance: What effect do you want?
Sensuous:  Patchouli, rose, sandalwood, vetiver, amyris
Energising:  Citrus (lemon, tangerine, grapefruit, orange, mandarin), mint (peppermint, spearmint), rosemary
Relaxing:  Lavender, ylang ylang (sensuous too!), clary sage, bergamot
 
A note on woody, earthy fragrances: Traditional Indian sandalwood essential oil has become very rare and expensive, but there are other oils with similar qualities:

• Australian sandalwood essential oil
• Our sandalwood fragrance oil, designed for skincare, is a very good synthetic version of the molecules that make Indian sandalwood so special.
• West Indian sandalwood or Amyris has a lighter fragrance than sandalwood, but really nice.
• Vetiver is deeply soothing and relaxing.

 
Which oil – refined, cold pressed, organic?
In general, refined oils are clearer, lighter and less sticky – but they have lost some of the wide variety of valuable nutrients that are in a cold-pressed oil.
Oils from organically grown plants are likely to be more nutritious, and free of traces of pesticide residues.
So it’s a balancing act. For lighter oils (such as the ones suggested for the base), the organic, cold-pressed versions are great for massage.
Just keep in mind the basic idea of light, spreadable base oils, and smaller amounts of richer oils. And also remember that jojoba and organic virgin coconut are great for ‘glide’.
I’ve tried many combinations of these oils, and all of them worked. I think I can safely say it’s hard to go wrong! (Of course, this assumes you are using fresh, top-quality oils.)
Have fun!

Coping with curly hair
 
What makes curly hair curl? It has a quite different structure from straight or wavy hair. In particular, ethnic hair structure is unique.
 
If you slice across a single hair and examine the cross-section under a microscope, the shape will vary – depending on the origin of the person.

• Asian hair is straight, and circular in cross section.
• Hair of European (Caucasian) origin is somewhat oval, depending on how curly it is.
• Ethnic hair is elliptical, varying from oval to almost flat.

Ethnic hair has other distinctive features:

• Rather than being uniform, the cuticle layers vary around the diameter of the hair, giving it more texture than straight, uniform hair.
• In addition, the diameter varies along the hair shaft, with narrow parts being more easily broken.
• Our scalps produce a natural moisturizer called sebum. For ethnic hair, sebum migration along the hair shaft is low and uneven.

 
Clearly ethnic hair needs special care because of its distinctive structure.
 
Long, straight hair has been the desired look for a while now. But there are signs that a different kind of “natural” look is once more becoming desirable – with curly hair appreciated for its bounce and beauty.
This is great news for people with seriously curly hair, because turning curly hair into straight hair usually has damaging side effects:

• Straightening and hair-relaxing products make it even more fragile and prone to breakage, and combing weakens hair where it bends
• After treatment it often has a dry, rough feel and a dull appearance

 
Healthier, stronger hair with a good feel is the main aim of people choosing the naturalista look, with frizz control and protection against breakage the two big issues.
Leave-in oil products used daily can control frizz and enhance manageability and gloss. We have customers who use a little wild shea butter or jojoba oil spread on their palms then smoothed over their hair each morning.
 
Washing ethnic hair is a delicate process. According to one US survey, 4% of black women shampoo every day, compared with 34% of women overall. Weekly shampooing and deep conditioning, combined with a daily anti-frizz, can work well for this kind of hair.
 
Behentrimonium-based conditioners are particularly recommended for their outstanding conditioning properties. You can make your own conditioner using Go Native’s conditioner pellets, which contain behentrimonium methosulphate.
Here is a recipe: http://www.gonative.co.nz/Recipes/Hair+care/Luxurious+conditioner.html
 
Give your hair a special treat with our Amazing Hair Mask, which is
a great deep conditioning treatment: http://www.gonative.co.nz/Recipes/Hair+care/Amazing+hair+mask.html
 
So if you have wonderful curly hair, maybe the time has come to put your effort into maintaining its health and shine, so you can delight in it just the way it is.

Neem oil has been treasured for thousands of years in India, extracted from the seeds of trees that may be 200 years old. Traditionally it was used to treat skin conditions and many other afflictions.
It has a strong aroma and brownish colour, which make it tricky to use in skincare products. But in some situations we don’t mind a bit, because it’s an effective alternative to really unpleasant chemical treatments for really unpleasant conditions.

• When my mother came out of hospital and was itchy around the back of her neck, the doctor suspected scabies. There was nothing visible, but he suggested applying neem oil to stop further developments! A day later, no more itching.
• Moving a little higher up… some children have a terrible time with head lice. Maybe there is a genetic element –I know twin girls (not identical) who react totally differently to the presence of lice – one is never affected, the other often picks them up.  Neem oil is a non-toxic alternative to chemicals. Mix with jojoba oil, which has an affinity with hair.
• Fungal infections of the feet or nails are another unpleasant thing that respond well to neem oil.  
• And at the less horrible end of the spectrum: a hair oil of jojoba mixed with neem is great for treating dandruff.
• It is also effective at dealing with insect pests in the garden, but doesn’t harm bees or ladybugs. I make a simple spray in a trigger-top bottle, with about 5% neem oil, about 5% liquid soap, and 90% water. I’ve never seen dead insects, so maybe it works as a repellant more than a killing agent. Whatever, my veges and young trees stop being eaten! My recipe is stronger than those I’ve seen on the net – 5ml to a litre is typical, so maybe that’s a good ratio to start with. Shake regularly while spraying!
  Neem’s anti-fungal properties mean this spray is also useful against things like powdery mildew and black spot.

So… try it in your problem areas – you’ll be delighted with the results. And I know I’ve become accustomed to the distinctive aroma – I don’t exactly like it, but it has such good associations that I’m very happy to have it around!

A very interesting enquiry this morning - What can be added to soap to preserve it?
The answer goes to the heart of what Go Native is all about!
The fascinating thing about real soap is that it keeps for ages, just as it is.

Soap has been made for a very long time: Wikipedia says, "A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali, and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC." Over four thousand years ago...

We are bombarded with media messages about what to put on our skin, and the idea of washing sensitive skin with soap has been given a hard time. But pure cold-process soap and hot-process liquid soap are very gentle on skin, in spite of having a pH that is to the alkaline side of neutral. Strangely, sensitive skin often copes better with a little soapy lather than it does with complex concoctions...

What do you think? What is your experience of using pure soap?

The tamanu tree is native to the tropical coast of Africa and southern India, and to tropical South-East Asia and the Pacific Islands. It has a long history of traditional medicinal use: The oil is applied generously to problem skin (psoriasis, acne, eczema, rashes) and to cuts and scrapes as well as fungal conditions. It is also rubbed on joints that are painful from arthritis and rheumatism. We now know that it contains substances that promote the formation of healthy new tissue, as well as substances with antimicrobial properties.

Tamanu fruit are collected for their oil-rich kernels, which are dried then cold pressed to give a rich, long-lived oil. One hundred kilos of fruit yields 5 kilos of oil. Although they begin fruiting at around 5 years old, the trees are long-lived, growing into gnarled giants.

When you use tamanu oil, you are supporting the survival of these wonderful trees. The timber of the tamanu tree, marketed as calophyllum, has a similar appearance to kwila, another tropical hardwood. It is not yet grown in plantations, and most timber comes from Pacific islands. Unless strongly regulated, the forestry industry is not known for its commitment to sustainability – short-term cash flow can trump long-term considerations. So the greater the demand for tamanu oil, the greater the value of a living tree (compared with a dead tree).

For more information on the uses of tamanu oil, select Tamanu oil on our website, then click on its name.

According to Yana Grammer, a consultant to the USA beauty industry, "Many brands are now launching goat-milk derived skin care formulas that offer consumers countless anti-aging and skin softening benefits."

Goats milk has been historically used for psoriasis and eczema, as the  naturally occurring capric, caprylic and caprionic acids and triglycerides gently stabilise skin pH.

Goats milk is also good in hair formulations, as it promotes healthy hair and scalp, improving softness and moisture levels.

The protein and fatty acid composition of goats milk is not easily replicated, so there is "vast potential for market innovation"  utilising goats milk.

Go Native's goats milk soap is one of our most popular products - or make your own by adding fresh goats milk to our melt and pour soap.

Jumping into the shower and lathering up a bar of exquisitely scented soap is a simple but delightful pleasure.
When I was small, my childless godmother gave me a beautifully packaged soap: Dorothy Gray Midnight. It was my first experience of perfume, and it sat in my bedside cupboard for more than a decade, available to evoke glamour and mystery at one sniff. When I turned 21 I unwrapped it, and it provided numerous beautifully scented showers and baths. I don’t know how Dorothy Gray managed to get such a lovely fragrance to endure – she is a hard act to follow!
 
So… what are the options for fragrance in soap?
Essential oils are pure and natural, but need to be used with care and discretion.
Fragrance oils have the disadvantage of being manufactured rather than extracted simply from plants. Care is also needed with them.
It’s likely that my childhood soap was perfumed with a mix of synthetic and natural fragrances, with fixatives added to slow the evaporation of the perfumes.

For our kits, we have chosen some of our favourite fragrances, ones that are well behaved and distinctive: lavender, rose geranium and litsea cubeba essential oils, and rose fragrance oil.

Lavender is an all-time favourite perfume and rose geranium is a delightful floral perfume that is even popular with men. We also use rose fragrance oil as the cost of rose essential oil is prohibitive.
Litsea cubeba colours the soap yellow and gives a lovely lemon smell, less harsh than lemongrass, and it lasts much better than citrus essential oils, which tend to fade quickly.

Other oils to think about are palmarosa, with a fragrance which Chelsea describes as 'fruity, light and playful', and oils from the mint family, fragrances that you either love or loathe. Peppermint and spearmint are favourites around here. We find them invigorating, and appreciate their 'tenacity' - they don't fade away quickly.
 
With melt and pour soup, it is relatively simple to make it smell divine because there is rarely any reaction between the soap and the fragrance.
But with cold-process soap, it can be a tricky business. More on that later.
 
How much?
Essential oils and fragrance oils are a similar strength, and are added at a rate of around 20ml per kilo of soap. 
That’s 1:50, or 2%.
If you are using a very expensive oil, you may want to add only 1%. If you want the fragrance to come through clearly, or if the oil is delicate rather than strong, you can add 3%.
 
Adding fragrance to melt and pour soap
 Add after colouring, just before pouring into moulds. Gently but thoroughly stir in the measured amount of fragrance. Essential oils vary in intensity, even the same oil from one batch to another. If you find that you want a stronger perfume, you can add a wee bit more and stir again. And if the soap starts to set, warm gently before pouring!
 
Adding fragrance to cold-process soap
 The thing that makes cold-process soapmaking so fascinating and addictive is that it has a life of its own – it’s a series of chemical reactions that humans have made use of for five thousand years, a process of transformation that seems so unlikely that it’s got the magic of alchemy.
Because these reactions are happening from the moment you combine the lye and the oils, the soap is more open to influence than melt and pour, where you are adding fragrance to a stable, finished product.
 
Fragrance is usually added to cold-process soap at trace – when a spoonful of the mixture is poured on top of the rest and it doesn't sink in. Some fragrance oils and a few essential oils cause unwanted changes in the soap. The most frustrating thing that can happen: Your batch may seize, ie suddenly go hard when you add the oil - before you have a chance to pour it into moulds!

Spicy oils can be tricky.
They often affect colour. Essential oils such as cinnamon and clove will turn your soap brown. You may be perfectly happy with this, as the colour is appropriate!

Spicy fragrances sometimes affect the setting process, and may cause your batch to seize.
So when you use spicy oils or fragrance oils, add them at the first sign of trace, or before, and mix them in by hand, quickly and thoroughly.
 
The fragrance may have other effects on your batch.
It can develop texture problems: become grainy, oily or otherwise unpleasant.
 
Most annoying is when saponification isn’t perfect throughout the batch. You are probably using a stick blender or something similar, but this doesn’t actually move everything off the sides of the pot. It’s a really good idea to hand stir as trace approaches, using a spatula to scrape the sides of the pot.
Even then, you may have problems. Sometimes the soap looks fine – nicely homogenous – but it sets with veins or crystals of sodium hydroxide, which makes it a disaster area. It’s the soap around the side of the pot that is especially vulnerable. Make sure you have scraped the side a few times during the mixing process so that soap is incorporated into the body of the pot.
While you are building up experience, it’s a good idea to leave the scrapings behind when you fill your moulds. There is nothing more disheartening than discovering that the last bits you scraped into the middle of your mould have developed veins of sodium hydroxide, ruining the whole lot!
 
There will be lots of chemical reactions taking place in the 24 hours after you fill your mould, and essential oils can influence some of these.
 Your soap may:

• Change colour during the curing process
• Quickly lose fragrance
• Heat up more than usual

As a soapmaker, always take notes. Write down all the details about the batch you are making. Your notes will be invaluable when the unexpected happens, and will enable you to become well acquainted with your ingredients and equipment. Best of all, they will mean that you won’t make the same mistake twice!
 
Every batch of essential oil is slightly different, so there are no hard-and-fast rules. Some serious soapmakers test oils before committing themselves to using them in a big batch. They gather all the fragrance and essential oils they are considering using, and prepare a small labelled container for each one – then make some soap and pour into the small containers, stirring in the named oil. This way you get to see which oils cause sudden and extreme reactions.

Storing soap to preserve fragrance
You can help retain the fragrance in your soap by storing it wrapped or at least covered. Left exposed to the air, most fragrances evaporate. And it seems to be the expensive oils that evaporate most quickly!

Making gorgeous-smelling soap is a fascinating undertaking. Observe carefully, write down everything, and soon you will develop routines for making perfect soap that looks and smells just the way you want it.

Colouring your soap

Lets start with colouring your soap, a perfectly sensible thing to do when you are using our high-quality ‘melt and pour’ soap.
 
You have two main colouring ingredients: mica and titanium dioxide. Mica gives the colour, and titanium dioxide changes the opacity – how transparent your soap is.
 
Mica is a shiny, glittery naturally occurring mineral, and we stock all the colours of the rainbow (it’s true!) plus silver and gold and bronze in different sized particles.
 
Titanium dioxide is a white powder that is unreactive.
 
Both these ingredients have been used in all kinds of products for a long time, and are considered to be extremely safe. (Titanium dioxide in nanoparticle form may be less desirable – nanoparticles are incredibly tiny, and may be absorbed by our bodies in ways that ordinary particles can’t. Yet another reason to make your own skin care products!)
 
 Time to choose a colour. The trick is to select one that complements your perfume (next time we’ll talk about making soap smell nice). Lavender is purple, rose is red, mint is green – or maybe you’d enjoy mixing it up! What perfume is black?
 
Soap made with mica alone can have a translucent look that can be attractive. It looks more watery, somehow – less substantial.
But you can also add just mica to get a colour you want. For example, when Chelsea was making a black soap for Valentine’s Day, she used only black mica, adding it until it was the depth of colour she wanted.
 
Add only titanium dioxide, and you have a solid-looking white soap. Adding goats milk is another way to make a soap look white.
 
In between is an infinite range of possibilities! This is where your creativity gets to flow.
 
Pastel colours
Once a soap has titanium dioxide added, the colour from mica will be more muted. The same thing happens when you add mica to goats milk soap.
 
So…
If you want delicate pastel shades, use more titanium dioxide and less mica.
If you want a brighter colour, use just a touch of titanium dioxide, or none at all.
For a translucent colour, add a touch of mica.
For a clearer colour, add more mica.
 
How much?
What sort of ratios are we are talking about ? In our melt & pour kits, we include 10g of titanium dioxide and 20g mica to a kilogram of soap, for you to add as needed. That’s a maximum of 1% titanium dioxide, and a maximum of 2% mica – quite small amounts.
 
Some colours are pretty much impossible to achieve in soap: we have never seen a truly red soap. All shades of pink, from pale and delicate to robustly reddish, but not a bright red.
 
Layers
Some silicone moulds have a figure of some sort on a plain background, opening up the possibility of using layers of colour: eg a pink fairy (arriving soon) on a white background.  And some people make amazing soaps with layers of complementing or contrasting colours.

Our melt and pour soap with mica is very good for this – we have had no sign of ‘bleeding’ from one layer to the other, which can be an issue with vegetable dyes.  The only tricky part is preparing just the right amount of coloured soap for each layer! But at least leftovers can be reheated and reshaped.
 
Colour and pattern
Patterns show up more strongly with darker colours. Somehow the shadows are more pronounced. So if you want the design to stand out, choose a fairly solid colour – and if you want something more ethereal, keep it pale.
 
Final touches
If you are making soap as gifts, you may like to dust the end product lightly with a gold, silver or bronze glittery mica – you can use a cheap little paintbrush to waft some on. Sparkle and satin will give different effects on different coloured soaps, though the satin may show up better. Experiment – and have fun!
 
Remember melt and pour soap needs to be wrapped until it’s in use, or it will pick up moisture from the atmosphere and start to feel damp and sticky.
 
Here's Chelsea's Valentine's Day melt & pour creation, just in case you haven't seen it.

Have a wild and wonderful time!

 
Next time:

Adding perfume to your soap.

We are proud to announce that we have two new kawakawa products, a hydrosol and an infused oil.
Both have an exquisite aroma, and are lovely to be around!

Kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum) is a New Zealand native shrub or small tree which has family members around the Pacific.

Kawakawa grows throughout New Zealand. Its beautiful heart shaped leaves are very aromatic, and native looper moth caterpillars find them irresistible - you can see some holes in the leaves in the photo! As a defence against being chewed to bits, the kawakawa plant releases an oil that gives the leaves their medicinal value.

Kawakawa leaves contain up to 3.5% volatile oil, comprised mainly of myristicin (70%), an aromatic ether related to eugenol (a local anaesthetic found in clove oil). These aromatic volatile oils give a unique scent to the hydrosol and infused oil – it’s an uplifting and refreshing perfume, quite unlike anything else – distinctly New Zealand.

Kawakawa has a long history of traditional and modern use, both internally and externally. Here we will concentrate on the external applications. (Internally, it has been taken to help the body adapt to stress, to relieve digestive problems, to treat internal parasites, and as a blood purifier and diuretic. Kawakawa is also used to treat coughs, colds and bronchitis.)

The hydrosol is a clear liquid, while the oil is made by infusing kawakawa in extra virgin olive oil.

Here are some ways of using the hydrosol:

Baby wipes: Being antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, the hydrosol is a wonderful base liquid for home-made baby wipes.

Skin conditions: Kawakawa hydrosol’s analgesic properties help to sooth a range of skin conditions, from neuralgia to some kinds of eczema.

Cuts, wounds, abrasions, boils & abscesses: An effective antimicrobial plant, Kawakawa is popular for treating injuries and wounds – great for cleaning kids’ scrapes and cuts.

As an insect repellant: Combine the hydrosol with a few drops of essential oils such as manuka, citronella, lavender and/or lemongrass.

Some ways of using the oil:
 
Baby nappy balm: Combine the oil with beeswax in a proportion of 85:15 – see the recipes on our website for more info.
 
Eczema: For dry eczema, make a barrier cream by combining the oil with beeswax.

Moisturiser for skin conditions: Add the oil to a high-quality unfragranced moisturising cream.

Circulatory stimulant: Rub the oil gently into the skin to improve circulation in conditions such as bruising, chilblains and Raynaud’s.  

Aches and pains, arthritis: Add kawakawa oil to a high-quality unfragranced moisturizer, and rub this on aching joints.

Muscular cramps: Use as a massage oil.

Kawakawa is a nice plant to become acquainted with. I have had a series of kawakawa plants as indoor pot plants – I love their shapely bright green leaves. When they get too big or spindly, I move them into the garden to join the other natives.

When I read your Facebook posts, I realise I need to think of my kawakawa patch as a herb garden! Some of you have said that it's the holey leaves that have the most medicinal value - I guess those leaves are working hardest to repel the caterpillars!