Spotlight on the Herb Garden

I have been a busy little bee this spring!  Finally I have pics to show off.
Here is the herb garden, where most of the herbs call home.  I have nettle in pots WAY away from traffic flow.  Just yesterday I was reminded what a nettle sting feels like - it's been 10+ years, but oh yeah... I remember now!  It turns out that lemon balm pretty much instantly relieves the pain and itching... I just plucked a leaf, chewed it once or twice, held it on the "nettled" area for a moment and then rubbed it in a bit.  Nearly instantaneously I was all better!  There are a few herbs in this picture that are still quite small, but I'm sure as the spring and summer progress, this area will fill in nicely.  
In this patch: Feverfew, Lemon Balm, Catnip, Burdock, Chamomile, Lavender, Hardy Hill and Arp Rosemary, Milk Thistle, Clary Sage, Hyssop, Thyme, Echinacea, Oregano, Peppermint, Chives, Dill, Parsley, Calendula and Valerian.
So far, I have only used a mixture of rosemary and peppermint essential oils in warm water for keeping insects at bay.  I am hopeful that I won't have to use anything more than this.

Here is a corner with potted peppermint, dill and chives planted in pots in the ground and a glimpse of hyssop, valerian and calendula.

A lovely calendula blooming!

A great view of the feverfew, lemon balm, chamomile, burdock, rosemary and thyme :)

Lovely, but sometimes quite painful, milk thistle near the top of the photo.

It bites if you let it :(

Another view

Tiny echinacea try to grow big enough to show up in photos!  They are SO slow growing.

Notice the kitty on the left.  She is eye-balling the area where she knows the catnip to be.  It's between the burdock and lemon balm... out of view in pics for now.  She has already somehow broken in and eaten the plants down to almost nothing!  We had to seal all of the possible infiltration areas of the fence and hope that the catnip would make a comeback.  It's getting there - but there are only 2 plants left and they are rather small for now.  Patience, Miss Kitty.  There will be more catnip for you later.

Next post will be a spotlight on the vegetable garden... you didn't think that I was only going to grow herbs, did you?

Why should you listen to the Herb Lady?

Have you asked yourself the following question yet?
"Why should I listen to what Mary the Herb Lady has to say?
What makes her qualified to put together these wellness "concoctions"?

Well, if you have not asked yourself this question yet, you really should.  Just because you have a duty to yourself and your health to question what's best for you.

Let me start by saying this:  You should not trust me to be your doctor.  You should not trust the information that I give to you on blind faith.  I encourage you to do your own research - and LOTS of it.  The more sources you can compare and contrast, the more likely the information that you end up with will be accurate.

That's where I come in.  I think I'm pretty good at digging deep enough to weed out the information that appears iffy or stated by only one person or group who stands to gain financially from the information.  I have the following in my arsenal currently:
(First and foremost) The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook - A Home Manual by James Green (whom I consider one of the most knowledgeable and gentle herbalists of our time)
The Aromatherapy Bible
Bach Flowers for Crisis Care
Herbal Antivirals and Herbal Antibiotics - both by Stephen Harrod Buhner
The Complete Book of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy by Valerie Ann Worwood
Surviving When Modern Medicine Fails by Dr. Scott A. Johnson (not the most impressive literary work, but has lots of great straightforward recipes for tons of ailments)
Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health by Rosemary Gladstar (probably the most famous herbalist today)
500 Formulas for Aromatherapy by Carol and David Schiller
The Essential Guide to Herbs
plus lots of books on gardening and organic body care and that sort of thing.  The point is that I didn't pick up a dollar store book of recipes and decide to repeat them for personal gain.

I started more than 10 years ago - probably closer to 15 now... with essential oils.  I have never been a proponent of prescription medication for pain or emotional troubles or days where I'm down, or allergies or even my chronic acne and eczema.  More often than not, the side effects of whatever medication I would take would be worse than the original problem.  I read everything I could get my hands on.  Back then it was still books - we didn't have a computer in every household just yet - DAMN, I feel old all of a sudden!!!

I digress.

I began to treat myself, physically and emotionally, with essential oils.  I would experiment, usually using only my trusty sniffer as my guide :)  If it's offensive to your nose, it's probably not going to be very helpful overall is what I've found.  Some may disagree, but I personally am very sensitive to scents - especially artificial ones.  If you want to know if an essential oil is pure, just let me take a sniff - if there is anything synthetic in it, my nose knows.  Over the years, I have developed a strong sensitivity to scents, so I use only therapeutic grade essential oils and only from Aura Cacia at the time being.  Why Aura Cacia?  Because I have always gotten great quality oils from their company and I inherently don't trust "The Big Two" companies that seem more like pyramid schemes to me than a source for good quality oils.  I haven't tried them, so I cannot say whether I personally like them or not - I just don't agree with people making money off of other people selling products... that seems to me like someone is ending up paying too much so that someone else can make money for doing nothing.  Are the prices too high or is the quality of the oil compromised?  To me, it has to be one or the other.  Maybe I'm wrong - it wouldn't be the first time and certainly won't be the last!

After years of dabbling in essential oils, I discovered Elderberry syrup.  That's all it took, folks. I was hooked on medicinal herbs.  Elderberry cures anything bacterial or viral that ails you (as far as I know, anyway).  I have used it time and time again with enormous success.  From there, I again jumped head first into books on the subject (as you see above) of medicinal herbs and natural wellness in general.  This all fit right into my wheelhouse of wanting to avoid prescription and even over-the-counter drugs as much as possible for my day-to-day ailments.  Not only do I have my library, but we're smack-dab in the middle of the information age now.  I hit the internet - hard.  Now, it turns out that you can't believe everything you read on the internet.  Being a "distance learner" - meaning I go to college online - I have learned that there are websites that are more dependable than others when it comes to cold hard facts.  I try to lean more heavily on .org and .gov sites, and if I find interesting information on someone's blog here or there, I try to back that up using more sources.  If someone cites a medical study, I oftentimes check out that study.

So I personally put in a lot of work trying to sift through the bullshit to get to the nitty gritty, but you should do the same!  Remember - we're in the information age... all of this information is at your fingertips if you just take the time to do some searching.

The take-away here; you can listen to me if you want to because I do put a lot of time and effort into my research, but you should not listen to me as if I were the source for all sources... not only can I be wrong (after all, I am human), but not everyone is the same.  Catnip tea may make me drowsy, but it may keep you up all night (not very likely, but it's an example).

And a very important note: PLEASE talk to your doctor about ingesting herbs.  When he or she asks you what you are taking, don't stop at your blood thinners, high blood pressure medication, or even Advil.  Make sure you tell him or her that you plan on or are currently taking whatever it is that you plan on or are currently taking.  These are the guys and gals who went to medical school.  They may know something about an interaction between prescription drugs and herbal supplements that isn't widely known, or they may know that taking a certain herbal supplement may decrease the efficacy of another medication you are on.  While herbs are most often very gentle and benign, there are exceptions to all rules.  Keep your doctor informed, people.  They are there to help and they cannot make accurate judgment calls on your behalf if they don't know the full story.

Please always feel free to ask me any questions - I am more than happy to do my best to answer any that you may have!

Garlic

Garlic

Although there has not as of yet been an outpouring of vampires in our area, let's not be naive in thinking that it's not going to happen at all!  If (when) it does, we're all going to be in deep doo-doo if we don't have lots and lots of Garlic!








Besides fending off bloodsuckers, Garlic also touts some pretty awesome every-day benefits. These include:

*Ability to grab hold of and flush heavy metals from our bodies

*Safely and naturally lowers cholesterol levels

*Enhances the immune system (I have seen TONS of recipes for cold and flu remedies that use minced garlic as one of the main ingredients - I'm just too chicken to try it yet... probably because I'm so infatuated with the powers of Elderberries)

*One of the best detoxifiers of all of the herbs

*Lowers blood pressure

*It's antibiotic and antimicrobial - again, one of the main ingredients in lots of general herbal antibiotic formulas that I've seen.

In addition to the healing benefits that Garlic offers, it's also quite delicious!  If the taste of garlic turns you off, try roasting it to get a much sweeter and more delicate flavor :)

Garlic has also been given credit for fending off nasty mosquitoes.  If you are blood type O like I am, you likely have to deal with being a walking buffet when those suckers are present - they especially like our blood type :(  Old wives tales consistently say that eating raw garlic produces a scent that is released from your pores that mosquitoes really don't like.  Now, keep in mind, this scent coming from your pores might drive away more than just mosquitoes, so you may want to try a simple topical spray with essential oils like Eucalyptus and Citronella if you're going to be around your sweetheart!
(Insert shameless ad for product here) Ask me if you'd like a purse or pocket sized spray bottle of natural, organic bug repellent for the low low price of only $2.50 ;)

Here's hoping that everyone has a stellar day today!
Cheers!!

Tales from the herb garden - Part 1

So yesterday I took the big brother and sister herbs outside to begin their hardening process... I sat them in a chair to discourage our kitty "Miss Kitty", from digging or pooping or whatever it is that she may feel inclined to do.

It took a good 3 hours for her to notice the herbs in the chair and she slinked toward them like a Puma stalking her prey.  She snuck up, began to sniff, and proceeded to hop up with her front legs so that she could get a better view.

Luckily I was watching from a distance.  I "psst"-ed her, and gave an "ack - ack - hey!  get outta there".  She listened - after all, she's a pretty good kitty.  But it wasn't long before she was snooping around again.  I knew what she smelled - it was the Catnip.

I chuckled to myself and walked over to the little plants.  I carefully pinched a leaf off of one of the heartier-looking Catnip plants and presented it to Miss Kitty.  She immediately grabbed the leaf and wolfed it right down.  She then "meowed" at me, quite loudly, which is very unusual for our shy little kitty.  She obviously loved the Catnip and wanted more.



After 6 leaves and laughing my arse off at how the cat was acting, I came to the definite conclusion that the Catnip will need to be grown indoors this year...
...otherwise, it'll look like this...



... and that's the BEST case scenario!

It could turn out like this:







... and I can't have THAT on my conscience!!!

(Disclaimer - none of these pics are my kitty.  In fact, my kitty is not my kitty - she's just a stray that never went away and won a place in our hearts - now we belong to her).

Nettle

Nettle

You definitely don't want to brush up against this innocent looking plant!  It's not called "Stinging Nettle" for no reason ;)

Luckily the "stingers" on the Nettle leaves only "bite" when the plant is flowering and the sting can be taken out of the leaves for human consumption by either heat or drying.  It's a good thing, because Nettle has all kinds of great benefits!

For instance:
*It helps to cleanse your bladder and kidneys (that's a big one for those who have frequent UTIs and kidney infections!)
*Helps to relieve gout
*Soothes arthritis pains
*Calms eczema
*Treats anemia
*Increases circulation
*Reduces inflammation of the prostate
*Reduces severity of progressive baldness in men

It is note worthy that Nettle naturally stimulates the bladder and kidneys to rapidly remove excess toxins... there's not much better than mother nature helping our organs to take better care of themselves!!!

Many people around the world drink tea made from steeped nettle leaves.  It is touted to be a very effective aid for those who have trouble winding down to go to sleep.  I'll let you know what I think when I try this for myself :)

They grow up so fast...

Lemon Balm

It's amazing that some of the kids are already going off to larger pots!

The transplanting went well - all seemed quite happy to be moving to more roomy homes :)
I'm pretty sure a couple of them smiled at me after their gentle watering through the cracks between my fingers.

Valerian

Catnip

Hyssop

Burdock

The Lemon Balm (above) is absolutely amazing - looking like little versions of their full grown counterparts... much like little baby boys look like little old men!










I was only able to get one at a time on the Valerian (above) and Burdock (far below) pics because the pots are larger and I wanted to get as much detail as possible.








The Valerian and Hyssop (right) started to grow so fast that I had to scramble to get them in pots before they fell over from their own weight!








There are many more in line for their own roomy vessels - it won't be long at all for the rest of the transplants.  I can only hope that they go as well as these have. I'll be sure to report back in a few days with updated pics of how the babies are faring after their move.



Thanks to all for checking in and joining me on this wonderful and very enjoyable venture :)

Be good to yourself and each other.

Licorice

Licorice

  ~~~ Licorice ~~~

Oh, the things that Licorice can do!  The hubby had an ulcer a while back, and, instead of hitting it with eleventy-billion types of antibiotics, we decided to try the homeopathic path first.  A big part of this was Licorice root.  The healing was slow, but, from what I understand, ulcers are just slow to heal.  The important part is that, with a handful of herbs, we were able to get him healed and we never had to turn to antibiotics.

Not only does Licorice help to heal ulcers, it also:
*Enhances your immune system
*Eases heartburn
*Helps to calm bronchial inflammation
and related to that...
*Soothes respiratory ailments
*Treats Herpes simplex 1 and 2
*Neutralizes toxins in the body

This may seem like a short list, but each of the attributes are highly valuable in our day to day lives.

A note about Licorice:
There is a compound in Licorice that can, especially with long term use, exacerbate high blood pressure issues.  There is a supplement out there that has this compound removed and is safe to use long term even if you do suffer from high blood pressure (just ask me and I can tell you more about this), but if you're using 100% natural, untouched herbs, please consult your doctor, especially if you plan on using Licorice long term (like to treat an ulcer).

Well, boys and girls - I think that's all for today... tomorrow we talk about Stinging Nettle. You may want to think twice before you go waging war against this little bugger if it's on your property ~ there's more to Nettle than meets the eye ;)