Growing Herbs

Growing Medicinal Herbs

Growing medicinal herbs has been in existence for centuries. It is a well known fact that herbs have been used to treat all kinds of ailments not only in the past but also in the present. As medicine began to evolve, the practice of herbal remedies diminished, however, due to people wanting more "natural" treatments, growing medicinal herbs is taking a well-received revival.

Home gardeners are now including basic medicinal herbs in their herb gardens three of which are outlined below.

Chamomile

This is a great herb for helping to get a good night’s sleep. In saying that, it also can be used to aid digestion, anxiety and migraine. As a poultice it also can be used for canker sores, wound healing and as an anti-inflammatory agent.

Growing chamomile is relatively easy. If you are starting from seeds just scatter them onto the soil but don’t cover – they need to be kept moist. If growing from a seedling, make sure you harden it off first before transplanting into your garden.

This is a herb that will reseed itself each year, but you will need to cut it back in the fall and give it a good covering of mulch to protect it from the cold in winter.

Garlic

Garlic is rich in nutrients and minerals and is used in the natural world as an anti-biotic as well as anti-viral and anti-fungal. A great flu preventative and treatment as well as many other uses especially for the blood and heart.

There are a lot of different varieties of this herb, however, garlic is a bulb and can be grown from the individual clove. The soil shouldn’t be too damp and a good sunny spot is best. Plant the cloves upright and about an inch from the top. Each clove will produce one bulb with about 20 cloves each. The other advantage is that it grows well with other plants and has few pests.

Feverfew

This is a herb that has no culinary use but has lots of benefit in the medicinal line. Used for headaches, arthritis, and to reduce fevers other uses also include stomach aches, menstrual irregularities, skin conditions and asthma.

The plant comes from the daisy family and as it detracts bees it’s best to have this plant somewhere away from the rest of the garden. A good container plant it is a strong biennial it can grow from cuttings, root divisions or seeds. Given the right conditions it will self-seed. The ground needs to be warm before planting and a sunny spot with well draining soil, it will, however, tolerate some shade. One thing to remember with this plant is that it can become a "weed" and will pop up in all sorts of little cracks and crevices.