Medicinals in Your Flower Bed and Herb Garden

Last week I shared a bit of information about Gardening and Foraging here on the blog.  This week, I want to share about flowers and herbs that are easy to grow and good for medicinal purposes as well.  This is not an all inclusive list, it's made up of things I already have growing in my flower beds and gardens.  I don't necessarily have photos of each since it's early in the season here.

Disclaimer: "I am not a medical doctor and I am not giving medical advice in this post."

Feverfew (shown below) looks a great deal like chamomile and can be used to treat headaches, fever, arthritis and other aches and pains.

Lemon balm is used for anxiety, stress, indigestion, dementia and Alzheimer's.

Bee balm is used to treat intestinal problems, colic and gas; common cold and sore throat symptoms and the leaves contain thymol which is a natural antiseptic.

Mint tastes great in tea, but can also be used to freshen breath, help with inflammation and  helps with relaxation.  It also helps break up phlegm and mucus and is an expectorant.  On a side note, I have a wonderful chocolate mint in my garden and it is SO tasty.

Calendula helps induce menstruation if your cycle is abnormal (do not use if pregnant or nursing), breaks fever, heals open sores and helps with jaundice.  It also has anti-inflammatory properties and is a natural antiseptic and helps with slow healing external wounds.

Cone flower (echinachea) is used to treat the common cold and flu, boosts the immune system and treats sore throat.  It is a natural detoxifier and has antiviral, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial uses.

Peony is used to treat gout, osteoarthritis, fever, respiratory tract issues, cough and premenstrual syndrome.

Lambs ear (shown below) can be used to treat pink eye and sties, helps with bee stings and bug bites and has antibacterial properties that can help speed up the healing of cuts.

Sage is delicious in soups, stuffing and poultry dishes, but it's also good for treating depression, memory loss, Alzheimer's; as well as stomach pain, gas, diarrhea and indigestion.

Purple basil (shown below) is known to improve digestive functions, treat acne and insect bites, improve nausea and help treat muscle spasms and cramps.

Aloe vera (shown below) is helpful in healing wounds and burns and is also good for treating digestive issues.

Horseradish is a rhizome vegetable/herb that can be used to help with weight loss, lower blood pressure, help with respiratory issues, and helps prevent cancer.  It can also be used to treat urinary tract infections as it has antibacterial properties.  It can neutralize food poisoning, help prevent cavities and asthma and promotes a heathy cardiovascular system.

Onions can help prevent and treat heat exhaustion, treats joint pain, can be used as an expectorant.  They also cure migraines, treat amoebic diarrhea and can help with ear aches and cataracts.

Garlic has antifungal, antiviral, antibacterial and antioxidant properties.  It can be used to treat acne, helps with insulin resistance and helps prevent cancer.  Studies show that garlic is as effective as penicillin in treating infection.

As you can see, our gardens and flower beds can add flavor, nutrition and health benefits while adding beauty to our surroundings.  God put everything we needed for health and longevity into the earth around us.

Gardening and Foraging

Due to the pandemic and fear of the food supply becoming disjointed, more people are looking at gardening this year. I'll share a few tips on gardening, but will also delve into the little talked about world of foraging, because there is food everywhere, we've just been told it's a weed.  This will in no way be an exhaustive list of gardening or foraging tips, but hopefully it will be enough to pique your interest and get you started towards a more self sustainable life style.

You don't have to have a lot of land to be successful with gardening.  You can do a few tomato plants on your patio and a little herb garden in your window sill if that's all the room (and interest) you have.  However for those with a larger patio you can vary the size of your planters, growing potatoes in a trash can, a salad bowl garden in a nice planter or a wood pallet turned into a planter for multiple vegetables.

What and when you plant will of course depend on your location.  Here in Virginia we can still get frost as late as May 15. False spring is not uncommon here, so you have to resist the urge to get your vegetables in the ground too early.   Beets, peas, carrots, chard, collard greens and mustard greens can be planted in late February/early March.  Salad greens such as lettuces, spinach, and endive can be planted in early spring and again in early fall.

Potatoes (in VA) should be planted from the last chance of frost until about 6 weeks past that time.  Tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and cucumbers are best started as seeds indoors in early-mid April and then transplanted outside after the threat of frost is gone.  If a freak freeze does happen after you plant, you'll need to cover your plants to keep the frost from killing them. Old sheets, glass jars, and even plastic shopping bags work well for this task.

Foraging:  A Lost Art

There are lots of edible items around you all the time, but most you'd never consider because you've been told they are weeds.  Here is a a short list of some pretty easy to spot plants that can be of benefit to your diet and budget.

Dandelions:  As we all know, dandelions are pretty prolific.  I personally think they are pretty in a lawn, but I know the majority of people try to kill them.   However, the maligned dandelion packs quite the punch when it comes to nutrients.

One half cup of dandelions contain more calcium than a glass of milk, and more iron than spinach.  One of dandelion greens contains 19mg of Vitamin C, and the leaves contain more Vitamin A than carrots.   Dandelions are also a great source of Vitamin K, potassium, folic acid and magnesium.

The flowers of the dandelion can be used to make jelly and wine, and can be added to salads.  The leaves can be cooked as greens, or added to a salad and the root can be roasted and used to replace coffee.

Violets (and pansies):  These lovely flowers and their leaves are rich in Vitamins A and C. The flowers can be used in salands and also to make jelly.  The leaves can be added to salads or cooked.  Both are natural pain killers.

Henbit: These cute little "weeds" are high in iron and Vitamin K.  These little beauties aid in digestion, reduces fever and can be used to help induce sweating.   The leaves can be eaten raw, used as an herb to season with, or boiled to make a tea.

Lilac bushes smell beautiful and add an intoxicating aroma to flower arrangements.  But did you know you can also make jelly out of those lovely flowers?   You may not get the deep purple color, but the fragrance and taste will be a wonderful addition to your toast and biscuits.

Poppies are a lovely addition to your flower bed, and their seeds are of course edible.  Poppy seeds can be used in cakes, breads, cole slaw and porridge, to name just a few options.

As we all know, aloe vera is great for treating burns (including radiation burns), however it is also edible.  When ingested, aloe vera helps reduce blood sugar, inflammation and help with constipation.  It can be added to salads, poached and juiced to start with.

Like I said, this is not an exhaustive list, but it should get you started if you're so inclined.  All of the "weeds" I've shared here are things that are just in my yard on their own.  Obviously you don't want to use pesticides and weed killer in an area you're going to forage from.  You can also go into the woods to forage for morels, blackberries and nuts.  Always be alert around berry bushes, they are prone to attract snakes, and bears.

How are your food habits changing?

My Happy Place

My flower gardens are my happy place.  I enjoy working in the dirt and seeing the beautiful blooms popping up all around.   I thought I'd share a few shots of my spring flowers.   

This flower bed blooms year round with various flowers.  It currently has poppies (transplanted from a friends garden), peonies and pinks in bloom.

The back yard has several flower gardens, most of which are later season flowers.  I have an "L" shaped garden in the corner of the yard that houses various lilies and tulips.  It also has two wisteria trees/bushes, and one is beginning to bloom already (left corner).

When we first moved here, 11 years ago, I bought a couple of azalea bushes on clearance for .50 each.  All four of them have managed to stay alive and are finally starting to flourish in the side flower beds.

Year two of having a clematis is a go!  I've killed more of these things than I care to mention, but this hardy plant seems to like the soil here.  Go me!

 I take no credit for this bush, it was here when we bought the house and I've done nothing to it over the years, but it's lovely.  It's also a great source of giggles for me when the dog goes trailing under there and gets the whole bush to shaking while he's chasing squirrels.

My little garden bug lives in my newest flower bed under my bedroom window.  Most of the flowers there bloom later in the year, so this is my pop of color in there for now. Doesn't he just make you  smile?

I hope you enjoyed my little virtual garden tour.

Weekly Wrap Up–Learning With Grandma

What a wonderful, busy week…and only one more week of school left for the year!

Academically, the girls are reviewing and finishing up their math and language arts curriculums for the year.  Nothing new, just review this week.

The majority of the learning took place outside, in the gardens with “Mamaw”.   She’s teaching the girls about vegetable gardening and flowers.  You know, the things you learn by years of doing instead of years of reading about others doing.  The things that make your body tired and get your hands dirty.

The three musketeers planted potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, collard greens, lettuce, eggplant and strawberries this week.  (All of these are cool weather crops.)  So here is the week in photos, you can tell one of the children is more eager to do manual labor than the other.   Oh, and a disclaimer, the girls also took a lot of the photos…ahem.

Onion rows…

Potato planting…

Hoeing the rows….

Planting strawberries…

Remember last week, when I said we had to put the fence up to keep the dog out of the garden?  Yeah, well…is it just me, or is he sticking his tongue out at me?

Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up and link up!

HSV Garden Challenge–June Edition

My goodness it’s hard to believe that the end of June is here already!!   The gardens have gone from being bleak and lifeless…

…to lush and thriving!

We’ve already harvested all the peas, spinach and endive for the year.  A couple of the lettuces are hanging on nicely.   We have lots of green tomatoes, teeny peppers and baby squash and eggplant!

The green beans are loving their homes along the fence line.

The girls helped with harvesting the peas.

This week Olivia and Lindsey planted pumpkin seeds in the spot where the peas had been.  I’m hoping we didn’t get the seeds in the ground too late, but we’ve had an over abundance of rain again the last few weeks.

The little herb garden is doing wonderfully!  We were able to use some of our fresh basil and oregano this week in a pasta salad!

I mustn’t forget my lovely flower beds.  I rescued several abandoned Easter lilies from our church dumpster one year and planted them in with my tulips and gladiolas. The tulips are long gone for the year, the gladiolas are on their way, but now I have LOTS of lovely Easter lilies!

In the adjacent flower bed, I have a bounty of red bee balm, Shasta daisies, purple spiderwort, woods violets, gladiolas are forth coming.

My mother in law thinks we have too many things planted on our property.  I think that’s just absurd!  How can one have too much of God’s beauty??

Be sure to visit other gardens at this months HSV Garden Challenge!

HSV Garden Challenge–May Edition

The garden is looking much more garden like than it did last month!  We’ve added tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumber plants, and also planted corn and green beans.

We’ve been enjoying fresh lettuces, endive and spinach for several weeks now.   Nothing like a garden fresh salad…if only the tomatoes and lettuces came at the same time!   I’ve been adding Gala apples, chicken breast and shredded cheese to the salad greens for yummy dinners.  

One thing I’ll do different next year is plant the lettuce/salad greens in stages so it isn’t all coming on at one time.  You can only eat so much at one time.   We’ve been blessing lots of folks though.   In the last week alone we’ve given away 10 GALLONS of lettuces!   

The peas (in the back of the photo) should be ready to pick by the end of the week if the weather holds out.  When the peas are finished, they’ll be replaced with pumpkins.   Part of the lettuce, peppers and the onions are also in this garden.

This garden has corn (far right) and 3 types of tomatoes.   There were a couple of cucumbers but I’m thinking the squirrels got them.

To conserve some space we made little gardens along the side of the privacy fence.  We’ve planted green beans and squashes there.

Lindsey’s herb garden is making progress as well.  The sage, basil and cilantro are doing really well.  The chives, mint and oregano are taking a bit more time getting started (uh, yeah, the squirrels have been digging in the pots).

My flower beds are still my pride and joy.   The tulips are long gone.  But now my peonies, primrose, spiderwort, lamium, salvia and blanket flowers are in bloom.

I love my peonies!

The red hot pokers have gone wild this year!  Will have to divide these in the fall!

How is your gardening going so far?  Don’t forget to stop by the HSV Garden Challenge and check on everyone’s progress this month!