Whether you live in an apartment, a house in the city, the suburbs, or even on a farm, an Herb garden is in many ways – as important as a regular garden. In today’s post, we’re going to discuss the four main purposes for an Herb garden – taste, medicinal, decoration, and tea.
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Purposes of an Herb Garden
There are many different purposes for an herb garden and each one is a valid reason to itself, but when you put them all together, you can’t ignore the importance of an herb garden. Some of the most common reasons to grow an herb garden are for taste, for medicinals, for teas, and for decoration. Let’s take each one at a time.
Herbs for Taste
Most of the time we purchase Herbs to use for flavoring our food, but using your own fresh herbs gives you a more robust taste than dried herbs purchased from a store – even if you dry your own herbs. Fresh herbs add wonderful flavor to fresh salads and other recipes.
As you get started with herbs as a seasoning or for flavor, I would recommend that you start with perennials, since you plant them once, and they will come back year after year. It’s a great way to go. Some good ones to get started with are chives, oregano, rosemary, sage, tarragon, and thyme.
If you’re looking for a book that will help you grow herbs in your garden, I would highly recommend that you check out the book The Family Kitchen Garden. It has a whole section on how to grow specific herbs, what each herb needs to thrive, and how you can best care for it.
When people start in on preparedness, getting their food in order is usually one of the first areas that they tackle. One of the glaring omissions that most people make is stocking spices, but if you have your own herb gardening that contains seasonings, you’re already a step ahead of most people.
Herbs as Medicinals
I want to park here a minute. I do believe in alternative medicine, but I also do believe that traditional allopathic medicine has a place too. BUT if I want to be more self-sufficient, I want to look into using herbal medicine as much as I can and only using allopathic medicine when I need to.
The interesting thing is that a lot of your herbal medicinals also fall into other categories. Echinacea (also called Purple Cone Flower) is great as an immune booster as well as being beautiful enough to place on your table. Peppermint is a great medicinal for stomachs, yet it’s a wonderful herb to use as a flavoring or in cooking. Chamomile makes a wonderful tea, yet it is also a medicinal.
Getting Started with Medicinals
For someone who is getting started with herbs as medicinals, I would highly recommend the beginner’s book called Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs – A Beginner’s Guide. I recommend this book for so many reasons. If you’re a beginner, it starts off small. It’s just 33 plants that she covers – so while it’s not exhaustive, it is a great guide for the most used medicinal herbs around! She walks you through the plants characteristics, tells you how to grow each plant, and then shows you ways to use the herbs medicinally – whether a syrup, oil, salve, tincture, decoction, or even a tea. She includes recipes for the herbs as well.
Already know some medicinals, but want to grow in your knowledge and application?
If you’re a bit past the beginner stage, I have three other books that I highly recommend.
Prepper’s Natural Medicine by Cat Ellis
Of the three books, this is the easiest to use. As I read through it, I found myself going, “Wow! I need this herb. And this herb. Oh my, and this one!” Cat gives great explanations of what each herb is good for, who shouldn’t use that herb, how each herb can be used, and recipes for using herbs. She includes more herbs than Rosemary Gladstar’s book, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming.
The Modern Herbal Dispensary by Thomas Easley
While this is a good book, it is a more technical book than the other two books I’ve mentioned so far. he gets into “Equipment, Solvents, and calculations”, “Advanced Extraction techniques”, “Concentrates, Lozenges, and Traditional Chinese Methods”, and many other more advanced topics. He also has 170 pages just on individual herbs, their uses, their uses, their warnings, and their dosages.
Herbal Antibiotics – Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria by Stephen Harrod Buhner
Now, if you are looking for a much more advanced book on Herb as medicine, I’d recommend Buhner’s Herbal Antibiotics. He gets into the technical issues of the studies and what they prove, disprove, or how stupid certain studies actually are. His focus is specifically on herbs as antibiotics to treat bacterial infections which have become drug-resistant. This is not a book I read for fun, but it is on my bookshelf for reference if the “S” ever does “HTF.”
Herbs for Decoration
I’m finding out that there are many decorative herbs that can be cut and put on our tables. Two of my favorite decorative herbs are echinacea and lavender. Each of these can be cut and placed on your tables as decorations. They are both beautiful and aromatic.
Other herbs that can be cut and placed on your tables (or other places around your house) are calendula, chamomile, Sweet Alyssum, Ammi, Yarrow, Feverfew, Trillium, Aconite, and so many more.
Herbs for Teas
There are so many different and wonderful herbs to use in making teas! Many teas just taste good. Others have healing or restorative properties associated with them.
Peppermint
The most basic tea that people spend good money in a store to purchase is peppermint. Peppermint is easily grown at home and makes a great tea. It helps keep you awake and is really good for digestive issues.
Chamomile
Chamomile is a wonderful herb with calming properties. Many people will drink chamomile tea before bed to help them wind down.
Hibiscus
This herb lowers blood pressure and cholesterol. It also helps menopausal women deal with hot flashes. When I’m making a tea with hibiscus, I like to add in dried orange peel and some stevia leaf for a nice flavor.
Lemon Thyme
Lemon Thyme helps control heart rate and blood pressure. It can also help lymph circulation and boost the immune system. It’s historically been used to treat respiratory tract issues. It’s also good for boosting digestion.
Lavender
Lavender has so many amazing properties from reducing stress and anxiety. It aids in getting a body ready for sleep. It also can aid in the relaxation of blood vessels.
Rose Hips
Do you even know what rose hips are? Rose hips are usually red (though they can be everything from black to purple, to orange). Once the rose flower is fertilized in the spring, once the flower dies, you have an orb behind the flower. This is called the “rose hip.”
Rose hips have some amazing medicinal qualities including lowering cholesterol, boosting your immune system, controlling diabetes, aiding in digestion, and aiding in circulation.
Ginger
Ginger is another of those herbs that has so many amazing uses. Many studies have included ginger. One such study was done to see if it aided in wound healing and post-surgery pain. Not only did it help with the pain, but the patients that were given ginger after their surgery showed a quicker recovery time. It’s also been shown to lower inflammation, to help people with osteoarthritis, to help with digestive issues, and to even help people who had cancer.
Other herbs which make wonderful teas include: Lemon balm, lemon verbena, jasmine, stevia, annise hyssop, cinnamon, elderberry, elderflower, tulsi, cardamon, feverfew, manuka, raspberry leaf, winter savory, and so many others!
What About You?
Have you been gotten into herb gardening? What are your favorite herbs to grow? What are your favorite herbs for decorating your house or for using in delicious teas? Share with us below so that we can all be better prepared.
Together, let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome!
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