An Ultra Easy Medicinal Tea Herb Garden
Jeanie
Easy to Grow and Easy to Use!
This garden will provide some basic medicines, and some delicious teas.
All the plants require a minimum of four hours of direct sunlight each
day so keep an eye on your property to see where they would be happy.
Usually an Eastern exposure will make them all happy but isn't
absolutely necessary.
This introductory herb garden can be viewed as you would a medicine
cabinet.
These plants have been selected with three criteria in mind. 1) they
must be
extremely easy to grow and low maintenance plants and 2) they must each
serve
a multitude of medicinal uses and 3) they must be aesthetically
pleasing.
This garden is not intended for intense herbal medicine that would be
used
for treatment of serious illnesses such as liver diseases or AIDS, but
is
meant to provide basic remedies for the average ailment such as
headaches,
constipation, cold and flu symptoms, diareahh, menstral cramps,
sleeplessness,
minor cuts, scrapes and bruises, tax season and aunt Gladys's cooking
symptoms.
Of course, for serious or repeating symptoms, see your health care
practitioner.
You can find the following eleven plants at your local nursery or
garden center.
If they are unavailable there, check with friends, mail order, do a
search on
the internet, check gardening and herbs sections, or start them from
seed.
* Thyme Thymus vulgaris best planted from starts (small plants at the
nursery)
* Balm or Lemon Balm Melissa officinalis best planted from starts or
divisions
(cut your friend's plant in half)
* Catnip Nepeta cataria grow from seed
* Dandelion Taraxacum officinale less invasive strains can be found
through mail
order suppliers who specialize in exotic and European 'greens' or you
can just
let one pop up wherever, but be certain of your identification.
* Fennel Foeniculum vulgare grow from seed
* Feverfew Chrysanthemum parthenium best planted from starts
* German Chamomile Matricaria chamomilla grow from seed
* Hibiscus Hibiscus rosa-sinensis grow from established plants
available at most
nurseries (larger perennials in 1/2 gallon or larger pots)
* Peppermint Mentha piperita divisions or starts
* Purple Cone Flower Echinacea angustifolia if available, or purpurea
established
plants from the nursery
* Red Clover Trifolium pratense, grow from seed
Mark out the shape of a garden bed that will be 50-70 square feet. For
this
particular plan, the area is 5 feet by 10 feet and is intended to be
placed
at the edge of your property or against a fence or other obstacle. In
other
words, it should be viewed from the sides or the front (thyme is in
front)
for the best display. Feel free to design your own bed shape. If
aesthetics
are not a concern for you, an old ladder can be placed on the ground,
and
one of each herb can be planted between the rungs.
If you will be planting where there is now a lawn or grass, try the
following
easy method of ground preparation to prevent having to till the soil.
Lay down
a thick layer of color-free newspapers. Soy based ink is best and be
sure that
no colored print is on them. Use 17 layers of paper for most lawns, or
25
layers for lawns with persistant weeds. Weight down the papers with a
few
bricks or rocks, then cover all the paper with 1/2 inch to 2 inches of
compost,
potting soil, grass clippings, or any organic matter that is free of
seeds. If
you can afford it, bark mulch is very attractive. Set the sprinkler on
the area
for about three hours to slowly soak everything down, and let it all
sit for at
least a week. When you are ready to plant, cut an X in the
deteriorating paper
and pop the plant in. Start indoors the plants that you will be growing
from
seed. Don't worry if it is late in the season when you are starting the
seeds,
most of these herbs are perennials and the garden plot will only be
improved by
the wait. I like to start new beds using this method in late autumn or
early
spring and try to let it 'rot' for about a month before planting. Be
sure to
plant the peppermint, catnip and lemon balm in containers without
bottoms or
they will take over faster than an alien invasion. Five gallon buckets
or plastic
flower pots with the bottoms cut off work great for this. Sink the
containers
into the soil until the rim of the pot is 2 or 3 inches above the
soil/mulch
line. This will prevent these plants from spreading over the entire
garden.
Use any shape of planter to design interesting growth forms. The other
plants
will spread and grow but with average harvesting, they should stay in
their
spots pretty well.
What a long, strange trip it's been...
Jerry Garcia {1942-95}
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A garden of healing... a community of friends...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreenWitchGarden/
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About the Green Witch Garden ... A website in
progress...
http://katybugdidit.tripod.com
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A webring of sharing...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pagan_Promotions/
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