Store-bought products might be pricey, but homemade products are priceless!

One question that I always get from many people- how did you come up with the idea of doing Mary Jardin? When a start-up brand suddenly suddenly steals the lime light in any market, people start to wonder. And here is the story..

I have just gotten back from a plant nursery and I rarely come back empty-handed. I actually bought more Lavender plants, despite the 3 rows of Lavender in my garden. I am trying to build a Lavender field, just to fulfil my satisfaction. I actually have 3 Lavender species in my garden. 1 is called Mona Lavender, the second one I am not sure, and the 3rd is French Lavender which can withstand our tropical climate and hot sun. Of course I love the french Lavender the most, for it's very nice Lavender smell, very similar to our Mary Jardin Face Oil.

I actually have a part-time gardener and 2 maids to help me with gardening. But even with that fact, I still do pretty much myself. The gardener few times suggested to me to leave everything to him, from the process of selecting what to plant, up to maintenance. And what do I have to do? Sit back, relax and enjoy the blooms.

At one point I almost picked up a fight with him when he was too persistent with his suggestion. I told him that this is my garden, I love gardening and I want to plan the landscape myself. He is here to help me taking care of the plants and not to handle everything from A to Z. I made it clear to him that this is my garden and not yours. And I ended whatsapp him so many pictures of my dream garden haha. He got the point and continues to be very helpful.

That was the case with Mary Jardin. Beauty and nature has always been my passion since as long as I can remember. I have always believed that homemade products have better quality than mass-produced store-bought product. I found it hard to find a skincare product that combines every goodness in a bottle. For example I want a lavender serum, but it might not contain hyaluronic acid. Lavender serum that contains lavender extract and hyaluronic acid might not have SPF effect etc etc.

Similar to making chocolate chip cookies. If you make it yourself, no doubt you would throw in the best chocolate chips without being stingy on the quantity, the finest and creamiest butter you can find and high grade flour. If you buy ready made choc chip cookies? You would have a hard time to find the chocolate chips, they don't taste as creamy or as crunch as yours.

Because of this very strong reason, I decided to make my own products- Mary Jardin. When they turned out to be so good, I thought that it would be such a waste not to share them with all the lovely women out there. But another problem arose when demand was too high. We wanted to reproduce them in an OEM factory but the quality was just not the same. They tried to find cheap substitutes for all ingredients and it defeated the purpose of Mary Jardin's existence in the first place. So we took the challenge to make our own GMP factory which manufacture products with homemade quality.

Up till today, I have never made my own skincare. I simply restock my own beauty stash from our GMP Factory. That shows how much trust I put in our production team, to continue making high quality homemade products and deliver them to other women. And whenever I formulate new thing for myself (such as Honey and Calendula skincare), I immediately put them in the production line so that the goodness can be shared, experienced and enjoyed by others too! We don't thrive on paid reviews because our customers willingly share their positive feedback out of excitement. And we know that we are doing the right thing, we are giving values to others.

Mary Jardin is different because of this. I am just a retired general medical practitioner who is so passionate in beauty and nature. I aspire to be a successful and lovely home maker who can inspire others and spread the positive vibes. I don't just share about natural beauty, I also share about gardening, and no-frill home making. This is me and this is Mary Jardin

p/s hoping that my garden will turn out to be like this

Planting Lavender

I have always believed that Lavender can only be planted in 4-season climate. But I took that as a challenge to plant it in my garden. However when I read about Lavenders I was surprised to find that many species of Lavender actually prefer hot climate with sun exposure at least 6 hours a day. This fact is enough to make me happy and dream of owning a Lavender field within the boundaries of my garden fence.

I learnt few interesting facts about Lavender.

Initially I planted my Lavender in black soil which is usually preferred by vegetables. But I notice that my Lavender is having trouble to survive. Only then I found out that black soil is actually not suitable for Lavender. They prefer drier and more porous soil with excellent water drainage. This is the suggested mix for Lavender: 

• one part finished compost
• one part pumice or perlite
• one part coarse sand
• one part fine soil
• lime to adjust ph to at least 7.0 (depends on amount of mix prepared)
• a few crushed eggshells (optional - provides alkaline ph as they degrade)

Over wet soil conditions leads to fungus and root rot problems.  This can cause wilted black leaves where the plant is dying back

The best soil mixture for Lavender in containers has alkaline ph between 7.0-8.0. It is a good idea to put lime in the soil. 

Few problems that we may encounter while planting Lavenders are:

Fungal infection

The most common fungii are Botrytis (gray mold) and Pytophthora (root rot.) They occur due to excess moisture either in the air or soil. 

If this happens, clear out around the plant such as removing dead leaves, stems or debris. Use a heat reflecting mulch of coarse builders sand, pea gravel or washed shells. Use proper spacing when planting to allow good air circulation. You can take cuttings from the remaining healthy sections and root them to get a new plant. 

Plants occasionally wilt during the heat of the day to conserve moisture if it's really hot. Do not over water them but check back in the early evening and see if the plant is really drying out

Plants can also wilt from too much water. It drowns in the excessive water. Plants do well in dry, stony poor soils.

Yellow Leaves

May be due to too much or too little nitrogen. it may also be due to humidity or fungal infection.