Tansy Workshop at the Village Herb Shop and It's My 900th Post! WOW!

Tansy Blooming in My Garden

Getting Ready for the Tansy Workshop

Ant and Insect Repellent Bags

Kathleen Gips, Herbal Owner of the Village Herb Shop

A Fragrant Pet Pillow

Breaking Up Cinnamon Sticks!

Corn Cob Fixative Waiting for Essential Oil

Moth Chaser Closet Bags

The Beautiful Herb Garden at VHS

Look Out Kathleen, the Garlic Chives Will Take Over!  Not On Your Watch!

Wish I Had Noticed That Truck!

Lots of Statuary and Bird Baths to Look At

The Edible Flowers Garden

Well, my herbal companion, Bonnie and I went up to Chagrin Falls for the day and spent time with our dear friend and herbal teacher extraordinaire, Kathleen Gips at her first tansy workshop at the Village Herb Shop.  Both Bonnie and I have a thick file of recipes and information from Kathleen that we have accumulated over the years.  We keep learning so much from our visits.  We enjoyed lunch with Kathleen as well at Rick's Cafe.


Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) can be an invasive herb that should not be used as a culinary or medicinal plant.  Never ingest tansy.  It is toxic. Tansy contains thujone which is a relatively toxic compound, capable of inducing both convulsions and psychotic effects in human beings. If you have older herb books, they may have recipes using tansy.  Please do not use those recipes.  It was trial and error back in the early days and sometimes mostly error!

In the workshop today, we started by stripping the tansy leaves from the stems to make up 1/2 cup of material and added a couple of stems of lemongrass chopped up and placed half in one small muslin bag and the other half in another bag to make ant/insect repellent bags.  They can be used on windowsills or any place where ants are getting inside your house.  They are also known to repel flies.  We also made a pet pillow (Bonnie took mine home for her kitties.  I couldn't call The Herbal Husband a pet!  Could I?)   Then we also made a couple of moth chaser bags and they are already smelling the closets up nicely.  Kathleen clips all of her very aromatic herbs through the season, drys them on trays in her dining room and then places them in bins to be used for her workshops.  In this case, santolina, tansy, and southernwood to name a few.

In the link above, it talks about interplanting tansy with potatoes and that reduces the Colorado Potato Beetles by 60 to 100%.  That sounds like a very good thing!  They link the reduction in populations from the avoidance of the beetle to the essential oils of tansy.  I would say if you are going to plant it, plant it in a back corner of your garden.  It will take over in a short period of time.  Tansy did attract ladybugs in all stages a few years ago when I wanted the tansy moved!  Yikes!  That was a dilemma!

So a few photos of the workshop and then the Village Herb Shop's lovely gardens.  Kathleen has classes where you work in the gardens and learn about the herbs and how to maintain them.  They may be just about over for the season. You can check out the Village Herb Shop to see what events are upcoming.  They are definitely ready for Halloween!  Hope you had a good day.  Keeping our fingers and toes crossed for all of you on the east coast, especially all of my blogging friends up and down the United States.  Please stay safe and blog when you can to let us know you are OK!