Sitting poolside in the Dominican Republic earlier this year, Lola Booth didn't see a single mosquito despite the many warnings about the Zika virus and the insects' abundance.
She attributes that to the amazing lavender plant. From her garden of 75 lavender plants, she makes soaps, lotions and balms, which she uses every day.
Her lavender interest did not begin as an insect repellent, but that is one of the many happy side stories to her efforts to relieve her own allergies to various commercial hygiene products.
Before her mid-40s, Booth was allergic to almost nothing. But, about 2010, she developed a reaction to her face cream and then her chapstick and then soap.
She made her own replacements and began adding lavender from the few plants she had in her flower beds.
"I hate this allergic thing; it's no fun whatsoever," she said.
As she researched, she discovered lavender's abundant benefits.
Her lavender-infused cream helps fight eczema, psoriasis, itchy sunburn or dry skin, and diaper rash. It repels mosquitoes, ticks, sand fleas and lice. And it soothes insect bites, muscle and joint pain.
"Lavender has been used for centuries and in many different ways," Booth said. "Lavender is a natural, chemical-free alternative for health and beauty products."
Booth also adds vitamin E to her products, knowing from personal experience its healing benefits.
In 2013, a wide swath of unused pasture was converted into a rock garden for 200 munstead and hidcote lavender plants.
"Lavender loves sunny, dry, rocky, bad soil," Booth said.
It grows wild in its native Mediterranean but not here.
She lost more than half of those initial plants. But in hindsight she said that's OK.
She harvests every month, leaving a few flowers for the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Hand-sized bundles are hung on drying racks for several weeks and then she shells the dried blooms from the stems.
"Growing lavender is more labor intensive than I had anticipated," Booth said.
With the 75 survivors, she collects more than enough blooms to meet her needs, share with others and look for new ways to use it.
This summer, she intends to experiment with recipes she has collected using lavender.
Booth also hopes to create a tea, which is said to help with problems sleeping.
She's made sachets, which keep the bugs out of her clothing and she sets stems in crystal throughout her house for a nice fragrance.
And then she made bath salts, which she said is cool and relaxing.
Last summer, she created "bug sticks," to help her grandson who was suffering from many bug bites. The lavender-heavy application relieves itching.
The cream helped relieve her husband's skin tears on his hands from outdoor work.
She even applies lavender oil to her dachshund, Cooper, especially inside the ears where ticks tend to attach.
Booth is amazed at lavender's effects.
"The more I use it, the more I like it," she said.
What she started as caretaking for herself and her family has blossomed into a small home business - Lola's Lavender.
"I love it; it's beautiful and so good for you in so many different ways," she said.
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