The Healing Garden: Cultivating and Handcrafting Herbal Remedies

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Mint – When it comes to the mint family, you really only need one plant because they’re so prolific. It might even be a good idea to plant these in a container so they don’t spread and take over your garden area. This really depends on how wild you want your herb garden to be. Mint aids digestion and can help with headaches, fever, and congestion.

Fresh or dried leaves are used for flavouring, especially meat such as lamb. Fresh sprigs can be steeped in vinegar or olive oil Leaves are cut in spring and summer for using fresh or dried; seeds harvested in summer for use dried, all widely used in cooking, especially Scandinavian cookery Bronze Fennel –Like other fennels, the bronze fennel has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic properties. Once you have decided what you want to plant, what kind of soil you need and where to plant it, it’s time to get to work. I like to make a rough sketch of my garden area and then plan out what herbs I want to place and where, while also keeping in mind the mature height and width of the plants. Feverfew– This is a very pretty herb that grows into a pretty little flower, great for flower arrangements but also good for fevers. It helps aid the body with headaches, fevers, and respiratory issues.Yarrow ( Achillea millefolium), another member of the aster family, is known to many as a perennial weed that grows wild along roadsides, meadows and dry wastelands throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The generic name Achillea comes from the legend that Achilles used a poultice of the plant to stop the bleeding of his soldiers’ wounds during the Trojan War. Scientists have since discovered that an alkaloid called achilleine is responsible for stanching blood flow. Yarrow contains more than 120 other chemical components, some of which have been shown to reduce inflammation and muscle spasms and relieve pain. Others are believed to ease digestion, calm anxiety and reduce inflammation. I’m sharing my favorite 20 best herbs you sh And you may have mullein already growing around you that some parts of the country, it's just this prolific thing and people are like, "Why on earth would you grow that? You can go to any field and find it." But that's not the case for every geographical location. It's not the case actually in mine, on our side of the mountains. We're a little too wet for it to self-populate. It does in a little bit drier areas, but it grows really well in gravel because I had purposely planted a mullein and stuffed with the seed, [inaudible 00:33:41] to the gravel and it was very, very happy in our driveway. Not so great though because it kept getting ran over, so I did transplant over. Lemon balm ( Melissa officinalis) is a favorite of bees, as its generic name attests: Melissa is Greek for “bee.” Popular among herbalists for 2,000 years, this lemon-scented perennial member of the mint family is also high in essential oil content. (“Balm,” which is derived from “balsam,” refers to aromatic, healing plant resins or oils.) It is native to the Mediterranean region, western Asia, southwestern Siberia and northern Africa, but it is widely naturalized in North America.

Melissa: And then, as I was thinking as I was going through the list, one of my other favorites of course is Echinacea. Echinacea, again, is one of those that has multiple purposes. It's pretty easy to grow. Its native environment was in a prairie type environment, so it will go through drought issues pretty well. Definitely, it will make it through winters in 7a and even down into the colder zones. I think it's down to zone three and four that it will go. So, it has a versatile range as far as growing. And the moral of that story is, so the first one reached about two years beforehand the size where it would produce berries because usually it takes it a couple of years before it's going to start producing the blossoms and whatnot. However, the pollinator variety that I'd gotten because it had gotten so damaged from not being happy in that spot and the transplanting, it didn't produce any blossoms. And so, I knew I wasn't going to get any berries. I did leave a couple just like, "Well, maybe there'll be enough of an elderberry somewhere nearby, in somebody's yard or field." White Horehound –You may have seen cough drops or cough syrups that include horehound as an ingredient. That’s because it’s great for relieving coughs and upper respiratory issues. You utilize the plant that’s above ground and do keep in mind that it’s part of the mint family, so if you don’t want it to expand, plant it in a pot to keep it contained. Horehound is good for digestion problems, including diabetes, loss of appetite, indigestion, bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation, and liver and gallbladder complaints. ( Source)

Fennel

In this present time of COVID-19, and the food and herb shortages we have already experienced, growing your own medicine becomes even more essential. Lavender –Great for inhalation therapy to treat headaches or exhaustion. Lavender oil is also fantastic in salves to soothe skin issues like fungal infections (candidiasis), wounds, eczema and acne. Use it in a bath for joint and muscle pain ( Source) and in natural insect repellent. This also applies when it comes to supplying your plants nutrients.Make sure to note how much fertilizer your particular plants prefer and don’t assume that all herbs want the same amount. 6 Big Mistakes to Avoid 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. E. purpurea has been grown as an ornamental in flower gardens for more than 200 years. The Plains Indians used narrow-leaved purple coneflower ( E. angustifolia), a common prairie species, as medicine more than they did any other plant. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this species was widely touted as a blood purifier and “cure for what ails you.” Sales of echinacea preparations were brisk through the 1920s, even among physicians, but the herb fell into disuse soon after the introduction of sulfa drugs and a shift from plant preparations to synthetic drugs.

Know your growing zone (which is based upon the average annual minimum wintertime temperature in your area), so you don’t make the mistake of trying to grow medicinal plants or trees that just aren’t hardy in your region. In the mountains of western North Carolina, we are in Zone 6, so I can’t grow the life-giving Moringa tree ( Moringa oleifera) outside for the life of me. The berries of the elder shrub are a traditional food and tonic remedy for many cold-season ailments, including influenza and the common cold. Elderberries possess antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. They are high in vitamin C, anthocyanins, and other flavonoids. Along with other richly hued foods, elderberries are a preventative for arterial deterioration, heart disease, and atherosclerosis. 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. Use the lists in the section on Choosing Woodland Herbs for Your Garden below to learn which plants and trees grow well together and enjoy the same habitats. Melissa: Yeah, that's a great question. And when COVID-19 first really, when we first all found out about it, right? Elderberry, that was a concern that a lot of people had and expressed about not being sure if you could use elderberry because of possible cytokine storms. But we have a lot of herbalist who went in research and cases and found that it's really not a concern. It was one of those things where one person posted possible to be aware of, and then everybody just ran with it.Melissa: They grow crazy. You really only need one. Really, I've got one oregano, I've got one thyme, I've got one peppermint, I have one lemon balm. Of course, the lemon balm, I let some go to seed and now I've got lots of little baby plants that have popped up and I'm like, "Ooh, do I let you grow or do I take you out?" We haven't decided yet. So, anything in the mint family, I think you're really, for most families, one plant, just because they are so prolific, you're probably going to be fine. I would say two max, and that's just going to depend on the family size and if you're using it more. Easy to germinate from seed. Plant out after last frost date. Loves sun. Gets kids excited about herbs and herbal tea. Ally for your digestion. Pretty purple flowers. Annual that self-sows. See this article for a feature on how to grow anise hyssop in containers. So, that makes it a little bit of knowing. Are you root harvesting? Are you aerial parts? Maybe a combination of both. But then again, I mean really with the Echinacea, I mean it is beautiful. It just is gorgeous out in the garden and the bees love it and I always have butterflies on ours. But really, you probably would have enough, especially for just fresh part aerial tincturing. I mean two plants is going to be completely sufficient. For the root harvest part, I would probably say put in at least three plants and then plan on the next year maybe putting in two just so you do have that stagger part. And then obviously when you dig up that one plant, then you'd have the space to just put another one in, but you'd have to stagger them. As far as things like in the mint family, you were mentioning lemon balm and peppermint, those types...

But mullein could be really good for, again, the really the upper respiratory issues. Mullein is really well known for that. So that might be one that would grow well too in the not as ideal soil parts and when to consider. Yeah. And then, this one is going to sound funny as far as actually cultivating because for folks who are listening and it just grows everywhere, you're like, "Oh my gosh, why would someone plant that?" But if you don't have access to it actually has a ton of wonderful properties to it, both medicinally. Note: If your soil is on the acidic end of the spectrum, you can likely still grow hardwood cove medicinals—you’ll just need to add pH-balancing amendments to your soil (powdered dolomitic limestone is classic in this case). Melissa: Yes, you will. Awesome. Well, Maddie, thanks so much for being a member of the academy and coming on today. Melissa: Yeah, that's a great question. And I think a lot of people struggle with that. I mean, because if you've never grown those things, how do you know unless you've forgot somebody who can tell you from experience or give you some averages. And we have so many people that grow vegetables that there's just a lot of that available information out there. It's easy to find that type of thing. But not as many people though we are making a dent in that grow their own medicinal herbs. And just because there's so many different herbs, it's harder to narrow that down to get those averages. 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!Ask your catnip gardener friend for a division. Prefers morning sun more than afternoon. Refreshing lemon taste. Ally for a healthy heart and a happy mind. Perennial that makes hearty patches. 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 something very satisfying about raising plants from seed; it helps create a stronger relationship with the plants that can add another layer of potency if and when you use them to prepare herbal medicines. Looking after your seedlings requires patience and care, and most herb growers will agree that the more you give to the plants, the more you receive in return. Also take note of soils that may be overly clayey or sandy. If this seems to be the case, adding organic matter will vastly improve your forest garden potential. Good options for organic matter include pine bark fines, compost, and homemade leaf mold. So, yarrow of course is great for wounds. It's an antiseptic, meaning it can help if you have too much blood flow, obviously from a cut, that type of a thing. So, it's going to help with that. It also has antibacterial, it has antiviral, so it can be used both with wound management from helping to fight against infection as well as helping to stop the blood aspect. And then, it also can help as far as coughs, colds, immune system because it does have antiviral properties in it. And then, one of the ones that I have in our temperature chamber tea blend inside the cold and flu course. And that's because yarrow helps to induce sweating, which then helps to reduce body temperature. And of course, if you've got a fever that it's going to help bring that down and help if the fever is caused from a virus.