The Healing Garden: Cultivating and Handcrafting Herbal Remedies

Product Information

Growing medicinal herbs may seem difficult, and preparing teas or tinctures from them might appear complicated and time-consuming. But the truth is you don’t have to be a skilled gardener to grow a few basic medicinal herbs successfully or be a trained pharmacist to easily prepare them for use. In the process, you may save some money and enjoy yourself. Five Basic Herbs Whatever you plant, be sure to do your research to ensure that you are planting things that will benefit each other. Starting Your Herb Garden So, I think that was it within budget, but just looking at, and you'll see a lot of people say really easy to start from seed and then you'll see where usually all you'll find are the live crowns, and that's because those ones are usually a lot harder and there's a reason you don't see people growing them from seed as much. I can’t let this article end without mentioning that the mints—although beloved medicinal herbs—can easily take over your garden, so plant them in containers before you regret having given them free range. Same goes for stinging nettles ( Urtica dioca), who can get out of control. In one year, one plant spread in our garden to roughly a 70 square foot area, as well as jumped the creek. Chrysanthemum –Another beautiful flower that also has medicinal purposes. In southern China, chrysanthemum is brewed into a summertime tea. It is also used to treat chest pain (angina), high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, fever, cold, headache, dizziness, and swelling. In combination with other herbs, chrysanthemum is also used to treat prostate cancer. ( Source)

Ask your gardener friend for a volunteer plant start. Likes morning sun better than afternoon, and well-fertilized beds. Great edging herb with musky scent. Ally for reducing fevers. Friend of babies, adults, and cats. Perennial. Melissa: But is there any particular health conditions or something like that or just overall wellness, cold and flu, common stuff that we would be dealing with most people.

Heartsease

Lemon balm is a great medicinal herb to grow yourself because it is more effective when used fresh or freshly dried. Harvest it just as the plant comes into bloom. Lemon balm is easy to dry but loses much of its scent upon drying. The fresh leaves make a refreshing tea. Pour a cup of boiling water over a small handful of fresh leaves (or 1 to 2 teaspoons of dried leaves) and steep, covered, for 10 minutes. It is delicious either hot or iced. Peppermint: Spicy-Sweet Digestive Aid Melissa: Yeah, I should say, if you have the space. If you've got the space and you have a location where you're pretty sure it's going to do better, and this was, like I said, the leaves on it just kept looking like they got burnt. They were getting burnt by the sun, and so just moving it to a spot where it had shade in the afternoon was the whole answer, but I just didn't do it the first year. Yeah, hopefully that's helpful. Those are probably my biggest regrets or things that I would do differently. Healing and Botanical Gardens hold a special connection with the local healers, plant collectors and sum total of the human knowledge we have gathered about our plant world. From Padua and Pisa in Italy, Jardin des Plantes in Paris, Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam, The Linnaeus Garden in Sweden, Nanjing in China and beyond through the main cultural centres of the world, the Healing Garden thrive as centres of academic, artistic and spiritual upliftment. Possibly the most helpful thing you can do is to consider the native flora—most woodland medicinals grow in the companionship of certain tree and understory species. This means that the plants already present in a forest will give you valuable information about what else might be able to grow there. If you notice, for example, that ginseng and wild ginger ( Asarum canadense) are thriving, you can infer that other medicinals who prefer similar growing conditions might do well there. Divide hardy herbs such as sweet marjoram, oregano, mint and thyme in spring or after flowering in late summer.

Echinacea, astragalus, elecampane ( Inula helenium), licorice ( Glycyrrhiza glabra), and ashwagandha ( Withania somnifera) are some popular herbs whose roots carry the most medicine rather than their above-ground parts. When planting them, make sure to give plenty of space to be able to dig those roots out in the future without disturbing other plants in the process. I learned this the hard way. The first time I planted echinacea, I had yarrow growing all around it, hugging it close. I couldn’t get to the roots of the echinacea without sacrificing some of my yarrow plants! In the end it turned out OK, as I just dug up the yarrow too and shared it with friends. Hindsight is 20/20 and so I’m sharing mine with you so (hopefully) you don’t have to make the same mistakes! How much light will your window herb garden or patch of land receive? Lots of sun? A little? Is it mostly shade? Observe how many hours of sun each day your area gets and learn which plants will do well with that amount of light. There are many plants that will grow in shade or sun, but if a sun-loving plant is put in the shade (or vice versa), it won’t be able to reach its potential or yield its most potent medicine. Valerian– Valerian will grow very tall, and you want to get it established so you can harvest the roots and rhizomes. “Historically, valerian was used to treat insomnia, migraine, fatigue, and stomach cramps. Today, valerian is promoted for insomnia, anxiety, depression, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), menopause symptoms, and headaches.” ( Source)There is of course no harm in responsibly growing non-Native, non-invasive medicinals plants. When we are choosing, however, to cultivate plants of the same species as our Local Native plants, then we must consider the genetic differences of non-endemic population (of the same species) and our local Southern Appalachian populations. Endemic populations have developed many special adaptations to harmonize with our local ecological web. Timing, color, taste, height, toxicity,… there are simply innumerable connections between every plant, bird, insect, mushroom, garden, river and human. Unfortunately, not all of the local endemic genetic traits will be dominant when crossed with those non-local gene pools of the same species( ie in a Wild Ginger from Vermont or Oregon). In collecting seeds from our local plants we also collect thousands of years of wisdom of how to give and receive and communally thrive within this very special area. Furthermore, collecting seed of our native flora has always been one of my favorite ways to continually deepen my relationship with the astounding lives of the many green beings.