- Today, I want to share with you 10 essential medicinal herbs to grow for making home remedies. These are all very easy to grow, easy to harvest, and easy to use. (upbeat music) Hi sweet friends, I'm Mary
and welcome to Mary's Nest, where I teach traditional cooking skills for making nutrient dense foods like bone broth, ferments,
sourdough and more. So if you enjoy learning
about those things consider subscribing to my
channel and don't forget to click on the little notification bell below that'll let you know every
time I upload a new video. Now before we get started,
I just want to mention that if you open the description below underneath this video,
I'll have timestamps listing each of the herbs
that I'm going to discuss. So if there's something specific
that you're interested in you'll know exactly where
I'm going to start talking about that and its various
medicinal properties. Now, when it comes to talking about the medicinal properties of
herbs, there are a couple of things that are very
important to keep in mind. Number one, if you're
pregnant, if you're nursing, if you're thinking of
using this for children, if you take medication
either over the counter or prescription, or if you
have allergies of any kind, you really want to talk to your
doctor or your pediatrician or other healthcare
professional that you use to find out if any of the herbal remedies that you're thinking of using
may or may not be appropriate. For example, herbs when used
in their medicinal capacity can actually interact
with over the counter as well as prescription medications and change the effect
of those medications. So it's very important that
you do talk to your doctor about any herbal remedies you're thinking of incorporating into your daily life. Now those of you have
been with me for a while know that I'm a big fan
of integrative medicine. I respect Western medicine
and all it can do for us but I really like the
thought of bringing in, you know, home remedies,
alternative medicines, complimentary medicines so to speak, that can help bring us some comfort and also some various forms of healing in addition to any Western
medicine that we're using. And if you're a fan of
integrative medicine like me, you may enjoy books
written by Dr. Andrew Weil, who's a Harvard educated medical doctor, who put together the
integrative medical center at the university of Arizona,
where doctors are trained in these complementary
treatments to complement in essence Western medicine. And what's nice about the
study of integrative medicine is that a lot of research has
been done on herbal remedies. And so there's information to show you which herbal remedies actually work that have been proved in
science to actually work and not just things that are
based on old wives tales. And I wanted to share that because I've had a
number of you say to me, Oh, Gee is really worth
growing these herbs and making these home remedies, do they really work? Well, the nice thing is
there's so much research on the internet as well as in some books which we'll talk about in
a minute that shows you that yes there are many home remedies made from herbs that do in fact work. Now, the other thing I want
to mention is about books. Do not rush out and buy any
books about herbs or gardening or anything related to the garden. First, check out at your library what they might have on these subjects and start looking through those books and start educating yourself. Also, you can use the internet, there's lots of information there but start educating yourself about herbs about how to grow them and about what remedies
are associated with them. Then once you have educated
yourself on the subject and you found books that
are of interest to you, then you can look into purchasing them, for your home library,
your gardening library, whatever the case may be. But if you are new to all of this a book that I highly
recommend that you look for at your library is, well, first of all anything by Rosemary Gladstar
is going to be excellent. Rosemary has been around
I think writing books on herbs or doing herbal gardening I think going back to the 1970s and she's really an
authority on the subject. But her book of Medicinal
Herbs, A Beginner's Guide is outstanding because it goes over about, you can see it's well loved (chuckles) even it's even excellent
for the non beginner but she's got 24 herbs
listed in here and she talks about how to know them, you
know, how to recognize them, how to grow them and how to use them. So I highly recommend this book. You really can't go wrong and you can't you can't go wrong with any
book that she's written. And I also want to share to
all of you who are joining us on this journey from moving
from a processed foods kitchen to a traditional foods kitchen, beginning to incorporate
herbs into your pantry whether just in the beginning
for culinary purposes and then for medicinal
purposes is something that you really want to consider
and start learning about. Because the traditional foods kitchen, just like every kitchen really
is the heart of the home. And the traditional foods kitchen is the heart of the traditional home and learning about herbs and
what they can be used for not only from a culinary standpoint because often eating
certain herbs help digestion and can calm nausea
and all sorts of things but they can also be used for wonderful for making wonderful
preparations, tinctures and salves and also teas, all sorts of things that can bring natural
healing processes so to speak, into your traditional home. Now, you may be wondering why
I have more than 10 jars here if we're only going to be
talking about 10 herbs today. And the reason is that some
herbs, you're going to want to use both their root as well
as their leaves and flowers. So I always like to keep
those separate rather than mixed together. So that's why, in some
cases, in the case of something like Echinacea
and Marsh Mallow root, Marsh Mallow leaves,
I have those separate, we'll talk about those in
more detail in a minute. Now, as I said in the beginning,
growing herbs is very easy but you want to find out what
hardiness zone you live in. Now I use the term hardiness zones because that's what we use
here in the United States. But if you live in another country you'll just want to check
with whatever agencies tell you what your growing zone is. Now, I live in central Texas
and I'm in the 8b zone, and so I can pretty much
grow anything all year long. Now you can easily look up any of this hardiness zone
information on the internet and often your best source for your area is going to be your extension service. And basically what an
extension services is, is something that's associated with a large state
university in your area. And pretty much all extension
services today have websites and they have wonderful information because they will tell you and not only what your hardiness zone is, what grows well in your area
and what specific varieties of different plants
grow best in your area. So once you know your hardiness zone, you'll know what herbs are
going to grow best in your area and what may not be able
to be grown in your area. Like if you live in a very cold area then you'll want to put, for example something like Rosemary in a pot and bring that inside in
your very cold winter months because it generally doesn't survive if your temperatures go below
around 17 degrees Fahrenheit. And also learning about
your hardiness zone will give you some
indication, if the herbs that you want to grow do best
in full sun or partial sun. For example, a lot of herbs
that will be described as herbs that grow well in full sun actually in central
Texas, like a little shade because our full sun in the
summer months can be so strong, it's almost too strong for a lot of herbs. So I will plant a lot of
herbs on the Eastern side of my house and they'll
get the morning sun but then they're a little protected from the Southern and Western
sun throughout the day and they do very well. Also learning about your hardiness zone and really researching and reading through the extension service website
that you have for your area will help you to understand
if some of your herbs, although they may die back in the winter, self seed like Calendula, which we're going to talk about next. And so it'll self seed and then it should come back the spring. And so that brings us to Calendula, Calendula is a lovely
herb. It's very pretty. It has a beautiful, as you can see, yellow-orange colored flower
and it's very easy to grow. You can grow pretty
much wherever you live. You can sow your seeds
right into your garden. Now, speaking of a garden,
I don't want you to feel bad if you don't actually have a garden. You can grow so many of these in pots. So even if you're a city dweller and maybe all you have is a little patio or maybe a little balcony,
or even just a kitchen window or just a window, window sill in general there are a lot of these
herbs that you can grow. Now, one thing I want to
mention is herbs in general often have a lot of healing
properties associated with them and they have many healing properties, many will be found to be anti-inflammatory anti-viral, antimicrobial, antiseptic and many herbs will kind
of cross over each other in terms of their various
medicinal properties 'cause many of them
are in the same family. So even though Calendula
does have antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties,
what it's best known for is it its ability to be made into a salve. And so you would take your
flowers and steep them in oil and then use that oil to
make a beautiful salve that then you could put on
your wounds to help them heal because Calendula is associated
with cell regeneration. But don't worry if at this
point you're very new to herbs and you're not, you've never tried, you know making herbal oils
and then making tinctures or salves or teas or so on and so forth, I'm going to be following
this up in a series of videos and one of which I'll share
with you master recipes for making these
different types of things. So if this is something
that really interests you and you're new to my channel be sure to subscribe and
hit the notification bell because that will notify
you when the videos in the series come out. So Calendula is wonderful to
have in your kitchen garden or any garden for that matter. I think of my herb garden
is my kitchen garden because it's right outside my kitchen. But as I said, you can just
sow the seeds in the spring, right into your garden. You don't have to worry about
having any starts inside. Put them right into your garden. You can also, depending on
what hardiness zone you're in like us here in central Texas
we can also sow our seeds in the fall as well. And then remember when
these start to die back hopefully they will self seed in whatever area that
you've planted them in. As I mentioned, Rosemary
Gladstar before in her book Medicinal Herbs, she talks
about how she lives in Vermont, so that's a very cold
zone and hers do self seed and come back in the spring. So definitely consider putting
Calendula into your garden as a herb that you can use to make salves that will be very healing in
the event that you get scrapes or cuts or bruises of any
kind, it's wonderful to make up and to keep in your kitchen,
especially if you get a little cut or scratch or
something when you're cooking. Next, I want to talk about Chamomile. And as I mentioned in the very beginning in terms of being very
careful when you use herbs for medicinal purposes,
even though we often think of camomile tea as something
that's very calming and very good for sleep,
you want to keep in mind that if you have any
allergies that are related to things like hay fever that Chamomile and some
of these other herbs can and are all in the same family, Can cause people who
are subject to hay fever to have an allergic reaction. So definitely do your research,
read up on these herbs and then decide what's appropriate for you to grow in your garden. You certainly don't want
to grow a lot of things that are going to give you a hay fever. Now, also in the family of
herbs that can cause sensitivity to people who have
allergies that are related to things like hay fever. In addition to the
Chamomile, is the Calendula that we just talked about. And this, this herb Elecampane, that's the root that I have there and then Echinacea, which is also known as the purple coneflower, this
is the one that's associated with really helping to boost immunity. But you want to be conscious of these and do your research if you
are subject to hay fever because they can cause
allergies in people. But if you're okay with growing Chamomile it's very easy to grow
not unlike Calendula, you can put the seeds right into the dirt in the spring
and you get beautiful flowers beautiful plants that are
just delightful to look at and Chamomile can be brewed into a tea. And you may often think of it as a tea to help you fall
asleep, and that is true. It does have properties
that make you sleepy but what is so great about Chamomile is that it is actually a
very strong anti-inflammatory and there have been medical
studies that have been done. And this is where I was
talking about before when you look at integrative medicine and you look at studies scientific studies that have been done on these herbs and there was a study done on Chamomile and they took older
people who had arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, and instead of them taking their anti-inflammatory
medication at bed time, they had them take Chamomile tea, and many of them fell asleep pain-free within 10 minutes and
had a very restful sleep. So when it comes to Chamomile,
I think if you're plagued with any aches and pains or
you have trouble sleeping this is definitely a wonderful
herb to grow in your garden and make some tea out of. Now, I also want to mention
about opening the description under the video, where you
can look at the time stamps where I talk about all of these herbs, also there you'll find a link to the blog post over on my website, same name here is my
YouTube channel Mary's Nest where I will have a
very extensive blog post talking about all of
these herbs in general as well as giving you
links to various studies medical and scientific studies
that show the effectiveness of these herbs for different conditions. Next I want to talk about Echinacea, but I also want to mention, that if you need seeds
to grow these things or if you're not in a position
where you can grow them or they simply don't grow in your area I highly recommend checking out a company called Mountain Rose Herbs. Over the years, I have bought
lot of seeds from them, as well as dried herbs that
I couldn't necessarily grow in my kitchen garden. But in the blog posts that
corresponds with this video I will have links for
each one of these herbs going over to Mountain Rose Herbs where they may have seeds
available or the dried herbs. And they also have a lot of
information on their website about herbs in general, as
well as a lot of great recipes for not only using various
serves in culinary dishes but as well as home remedies. So it's definitely worth checking out. Now, when it comes to Echinacea, you can grow these from seed, however you'll want to sow your
Echinacea seeds in the fall, because they prefer a cold
period in order to germinate. And there are different
varieties of Echinacea but what you're going to be looking for is the one that is called Purpurea, forgive me (chuckles) if I'm
not pronouncing it correctly but it's P U R P U R E A, Purpurea and it, you'll sow them in the fall, you will sow your seeds in the fall and you'll get these beautiful
flowers in the spring that here in Texas and
I believe in other parts of the country as well are
called purple coneflowers. Now a lot of people believe that it's only the root
that has medicinal purposes of the Echinacea plant, but the truth is that both
the leaves and the flowers also so have medicinal purposes. Now they're not as strong as the root but they still have medicinal purposes. So you can certainly have them as an ornamental, but
you can also use them to make your various home remedies. Now, the wonderful thing about Echinacea is that it has been studied extensively and it has been shown to significantly increase the body's
resistance to infection by boosting our immune system. That's why you'll often see
Echinacea as an ingredient in tinctures or syrups or
teas to fight colds and flu. Now, when it comes to Echinacea, you want to harvest the roots when they're about two or three years old, you don't want them to
get any older than that because they can become very Woody and lose some of their medicinal strength. You also want to harvest
the roots in the fall after your plant has grown
throughout the spring and the flowers and the leaves
are starting to die back and all the nutrients are
returning to the roots. So when it comes to Echinacea you want to make sure that you grow enough and that you keep reseeding
your, your crops, so to speak because once you harvest the roots then basically you've
harvested the whole plant and you're not going to
have that plant anymore. But a great way to really make use of your Echinacea is to start a tincture, you can just put some alcohol in a jar and you can first add some of
the leaves and let that steep. And then you can add some
of the flowers as they bloom and you want the flowers
to be in a nice state, you don't want them to be
getting to where they're wilting but you can just, You certainly
can have plenty, you know, for ornamental purposes, but you can take some of the flowers and
put those into your jar with your alcohol and
continue to let those steep. And then when the fall comes
and you harvest your roots then you can add your
roots to your alcohol and allow those to steep
along with the leaves and the flowers to really
make a lovely tincture. And I'll go into a lot more detail about making these tinctures and salves and so on and so forth, as I had mentioned earlier over the course of the series of videos on herbs. The next herb I want to
talk about is Elecampane. And what I have here is
the root of Elecampane, which is what's commonly used
when making home remedies. Now Elecampane may be
something new to you. You may not have heard about it. It is a less common herb
and Rosemary in her book for beginners doesn't mention it but I really wanted to included in my list of 10 essential herbs, 10
essential medicinal herbs. Now another book that can
come in very handy, as I said Elecampane is not listed in
Rosemary's book for beginners, but this is a terrific book, it's called The New Healing Herbs and The Essential Guide
To more Than 125 of Nature's Most Potent Herbal Remedies. But definitely this is pretty common and definitely look for
this in your library. And as it says, it's very extensive, I believe Rosemary and her
beginner herbs book covers I think it was a 24
herbs, but this covers 125 and pretty much any herb you can think of you're going to find in that book and it'll give you a little overview. But the reason that I
wanted to include Elecampane first of all, yes, you
can sow this from seed but it really does depend what
hardiness zone you live in. If you live in a cold climate where you get a fairly good winter then you'll want to
start your seeds indoors and then transplant your
little plant in the spring, into your garden. And then after that, you really
don't need seeds anymore, Elecampane can grow
very well from cuttings and so you'll want to take
cuttings and just root them in a little nutritious soil with, you know a little compost and so on
and so forth to get it to root and then you can have
more plants that way. And the reason that I
wanted to include Elecampane in my list of 10 essential medicinal herbs is because more and more
research is being done on this herb. Ella campaign has shown promise on potentially treating
intestinal parasites. It's also possibly been
shown to lower blood pressure as well as work as a sedative similar to Chamomile and something that you may have
noticed if you're interested in Greek mythology and you've
read about Helen of Troy, she was often noted as
carrying Elecampane with her because when she would travel, you know this is a mythical character,
but when she would travel she would take the Elecampane with her so that if her stomach was
upset by the different foods or whatnot, she would take a tincture or a tea made with Elecampane
so that to calm her stomach. So that's kind of funny
to know, but apparently this is why scientists
are studying Elecampane because there are writings,
you know, an ancient writings of people using Elecampane to
battle intestinal parasites. And with them becoming more
common around the world, scientists, in addition
to Western medication are often looking, you know
especially in European countries and especially in Germany where
they have a whole commission I think is a called the EU commission that studies herbal remedies for health. And so there's been they've been doing a lot
of research on Elecampane. So it's something to
keep our eyes open for. And it can also make a very
nice ornamental in the garden, it grows, it's pretty significant it grows to about five feet tall and flowers. And so that's something that you can enjoy in your garden and also
start growing it in the event as more research comes to the forefront it's something that you
might be happy to have in your medicinal herb cabinet. Next, I want to talk about Lavender. Now, what I've got here
is English Lavender a variety of English Lavender but there are many varieties of Lavender and each variety of Lavender brings something slightly
different in intensity in terms of medicinal values
to the table, so to speak. And if you're familiar
with Lavender, you know that it has a wonderful
fragrance. Oh, that's delightful! And what Lavender is known
for is its wonderful calming and soothing properties. It can be terrific to make a little sachet and put it into your
bath water, and it really helps you relax and it
takes all your stress away, and it's very calming. Also something interesting
about Lavender is that when it's combined with
another herb known as Feverfew and I'll discuss that,
that herb another video but it can be very helpful
in relieving migraines. So sometimes if you see these
different eye, I don't know if you call them sachets, but they go over your whole
forehead and your eyes, and they may be a mix of
a Lavender and Feverfew and you put that maybe you warm that sometimes they have you
warm it in the microwave or sometimes put it in the refrigerator if you want something cold and you put that over
your eyes and your head it's supposed to be very
helpful in alleviating migraines and just in general
calming a tension headache that might be associated with stress. You can even make a tea
with Lavender and Feverfew that's wonderful for relieving headaches. And when we talk more in a
future video about Feverfew I'll share with you how
some people will simply chew the leaves of the herb
for relief of a migraine. And the interesting thing about Lavender and its calming properties is that from a scientific standpoint it has been found to contain
anti-spasmodic properties. It calm spasms, and specifically
it calms digestive spasms. So often people who are subject to things like irritable
bowel syndrome or indigestion, digestive matters, find that
herb teas made with Lavender can be very soothing and calm the spasms that are associated
with digestive disorder. Now, Lavender likes to
grow in hardiness zones specifically here in the United
States five through eight, that resemble something a little similar to a Mediterranean climate
because often when you think of Lavender, you'll
think of the South of France. But there are so many
varieties now of Lavender and many have been cultivated
to grow in warmer climates as well as cooler climates. But your best success with the Lavender is going to be growing at regardless of the variety that you pick
is going to be growing it from a plant from an existing plant. Growing Lavender from seed
can be difficult sometimes and it can be unpredictable. So whenever I grow lavender
and I used to have a lot (chuckles) after all this
cold weather we had here in central Texas, which
was very unprecedented my Lavender really doesn't
look very good right now. But generally, I've
always grown my Lavender from small plants that I've purchased. But once you find a place in your garden where your Lavender can be very happy and it does tend to like full sun, you can really get it growing
and it'll be very hardy and you'll have the
beautiful purple flowers for the most part, there
are some different varieties but for the most part the flowers are different shades of purple, depending on what variety you pick
and all are very fragrant. So I definitely recommend looking into getting some lavender plants and whether you're putting them
in pots if you're city dweller or you're growing them in your
kitchen garden, or any garden for that matter, you will be
so pleased having a nice row and nice hedgerow of Lavender,
not only for the fragrance but for its wonderful medicinal properties of being very calming and
soothing to the digestive track. And speaking of soothing
to the digestive track, Lavender is an ingredient when making the herb mixture herbs de
Provence, and I have a video where I show you how to
make herbs de Provence and I'll be sure to link
to that in the iCards and in the description below. But what's nice when you
grow your own Lavender, you can make your own herbs
de Provence for a fraction of what a good high-quality
herb mixture would cost. And you can add in the flowers as well. Now, because if you've seen
the Herbs de Provence mixtures that also contain the Lavender flowers, they usually are very pricey, but you can literally make it for pennies when you grow your own Lavender. Next, I want to talk about Lemon Balm. This is one of my favorite
herbs along with Lemon Verbena. I actually like anything with lemon. You'll notice I have Lemon Thyme over here but I love a lemony herbs and Lemon Balm is a wonderful herb to be growing in your garden. Now, Lemon Balm is hardy
in zones four through nine and it's a perennial
meaning that it'll die back in the colder weather, but
it'll come back in the spring. Now, if you live in hardiness
zones that are cooler than zone four, don't worry. You can still grow Lemon Balm,
but you're going to grow it as an annual, meaning that
it's just going to die and then that's the end of it. But it will probably self seed. So once you get a little
group established, it should be coming
back every year for you. Now, one thing I want to
mention about Lemon Balm is that I grow mine here in
central Texas in partial shade. Lemon Balm does like sun, but
even in your cooler climates, you're going to probably want
to grow it in partial sun. Whereas I'm when I say partial shade I'm going more shade than
sun in central Texas. It's just a little too hot here, or the sun is a little too strong in the summer months for
my lemon balm to do well. And even if you're in the
cooler climates you can, it does like sun, but it's
happy for a little bit of shade so partial sun can work very
well for growing Lemon Balm. Lemon Balm is wonderful for
calming the nervous system and the digestive system. Ancient people used to refer to Lemon Balm as the elixir of life, which is a lovely way to think about it. And it's because it was a wonderful aid for calming nervousness,
calming the jitters. Or when you, you hear the expression Oh, my nerves are on edge
or is something like that. Having a cup of tea made from lemon balm can be very soothing
to your nervous system and help you calm down. Lemon Balm is also a
wonderful anti-spasmodic so it can make a delightful
tea to enjoy after dinner because it's very calming
to the digestive system and causes the calming of any spasms like indigestion that might be caused by the meal that you just ate. And Lemon Balm mixed with Chamomile and even maybe adding in some Lavender can make a wonderful evening tea to help calm any digestive upset, as well as to cause you
to be somewhat sedated and find yourself getting
a nice restful sleep. So it helps calm down indigestion, which a lot of people can be prone to once they lay down in the evening, So the Lemon Balm will
help calm the indigestion and combined with the Chamomile and the Lavender is overall very calming very anti-spasmodic, very relaxing, so that makes a wonderful bedtime tea Lemon Balm, Lavender, and Chamomile. Next, I want to talk about
the Marsh Mallow plant and yes this is what Marshmallows were originally made from. Now, the Marsh Mallow plant
prefers a more mild climate generally zones five through eight is where it's going to do best
and you can grow it from seed but beginners may want to
actually start with small plants. And if you're out of that
moderate climate zone and you want to just
grow this as an annual then you would definitely want
to start with small plants. One thing I want to mention
Rosemary Gladstar in her book Medicinal Herbs for Beginners
talks about how in Vermont, she's in zone three and
she has been successful in growing Marsh Mallow
and getting it to come back in the spring because she gets
so much snow that she thinks that the snow gives almost an
essence to a certain extent a little bit of insulation to the roots of the Marsh Mallow plant so it is coming back in the spring. So it's something you'll want
to kind of experiment with but generally it's sort of as an herb that grows best
in zones five through eight. And another thing I want to mention about growing Marsh Mallows is that like the name implies Marsh then mallow but the Marsh implies that it does like if your sort of damper wet soils. And so if you live in a hot climate where the sun can be very strong, it will do best in partial
shade where the soil can stay a little more
marshy, a little more damp. Now, once you get this herb established it's going to grow very well. You want to make sure that you give it a little
room in your garden. It does grow, you know,
about four feet tall but it's got pretty leaves that kind of like look grayish green
and it's got pink flowers, so it's very pretty to look at but you want to make sure that
you give it a little room. Now, it's the root that's most common. However, the leaves also can be beneficial in terms of making a tea
or a poultice, you know something that you would
put on an inflammation of the skin, but it's really
the root that is prized. Now, Marsh Mallow root
along with the leaves will often be seen in preparations that are made to be very soothing
to the respiratory system. And the reason is specifically
the roots are very high in a compound known as mucilage. And so that is something
like the name sounds like a mucus and that's
why Marshmallows were made out of them because it does
have this sort of mucus like a consistency to it
when it's exposed to water. But when you have a very dry,
irritated respiratory system and a dry cough, preparations made with Marsh Mallow can
be incredibly soothing and they can also be these
different types of preparations can be very soothing
to the digestive track especially when you
have a lot of irritation caused by different digestive
disorders, such as acid reflux. But an important factor to keep in mind that whenever use a Marsh Mallow root in a medicinal preparation,
is that you make it with a lot of water or you
use a lot of water with it in conjunction with whatever
preparation you're using because of its high, mucilage factor. You want to make sure that
that's very well diluted and getting throughout your system. You don't want to create
something that would be very that would cause blockage. So really educate yourself
when you're working with Marsh Mallow root. And we'll talk more about
Marsh Mallow in future videos where we talk about making
homemade cough medicines and how to best use this herb
in those type of preparations. Now, I want to talk about Peppermint, and I think of probably all of
the herbs that are out there, although yes I am a fond of
Lemon Balm and Lemon Verbena anything with lemon, I've
got to say that Peppermint is one of my all time favorite herbs, because even more so than Lavender, the fragrance of Peppermint,
if you like mints and which I do, I love Peppermint. Oh, that's fabulous. Now you can certainly
grow Peppermint from seed but if you know someone
who's growing Peppermint and anybody who grows
mint will have a lot of it which we'll talk about in a minute, but they can simply just pull out a little bit of a piece
of it, a little cutting. My mother used to do this all the time. If she wanted to plant some mint in a place where she wasn't
growing it at the time or give some to friends, she'd
just pull a little piece out and then like tie the root
and give it to them like that and then they would plant it and eventually her friends all had very extensive Peppermint gardens. And that's a tip about Peppermint that I want to share with you. Once it gets established it can really take over your garden. So you want to think about
finding a place where it can grow and expand freely, but you
don't have to worry about it taking over all your other plants. I plant my mint just
along the side of my house in a little garden area that
it can just be on its own for the most part and spread
out as much as it wants. Another option for Peppermint or any mint for that matter
is just putting it in pots that can work very well too, and just keeping them above ground. Sometimes when I was new to gardening I read something about
putting your mint in a pot and then planting the pot in your garden, you know, basically burying the pot because the pot would keep it contained and not take over your garden. But the thing that I didn't
realize was the bottom of a pot, I was using terracotta pots
and it had a little hole in the bottom and the roots
just went out like that and I had quite a season
getting all that mint out of my garden and under control. Now, generally mint likes
to grow in hardiness zones between five and nine
but definitely try it no matter where you live because you know, it is very aggressive
and it is pretty hardy. And so I think that there's
a pretty good chance that even if you live in a colder climate, you should be able to grow some mint at least during the warm months. Now, Peppermint is probably best known for being an aid for digestion. It's wonderful for calming
down nausea as well as gas. And if you've been very ill
and you've been vomiting, a cup of Peppermint tea afterwards, once your system has
calmed down a little bit and you can hold food down, the Peppermint tea can be very soothing to your digestive system. And the taste of the
Peppermint can be very pleasant to relieve some of the bitterness associated with in your mouth
associated with vomiting. Also, if you've had a meal
that's very heavy in onions and garlic and other very
flavorful foods and spices and you chew on some Peppermint leaves that'll help remove the
taste, the aftertaste in your mouth and also down
through your digestive system, so that when you go to talk with people you don't have these
odors emanating from you. A cup of Peppermint tea after a meal like that can also serve the same purpose. Now, something that people
may not immediately think of when they think of Peppermint but it can be very helpful
in relieving headaches, just smelling the herbs
can be extremely helpful. When my son was a little boy I used to make a little
packages of, you know in a little Muslin bag of different herbs, depending on you know,
what particular condition he may be having and you
know, if he had a little cold or something, I'd put some
stimulating herbs for him to smell and he still has some
of those little Muslin bags to this day. It's very cute. But putting some
Peppermint in a Muslin bag and maybe keeping it by your bedside if you tend to wake up with a headache or be prone to headaches in
the night, when you wake up smelling some of the
Peppermint, ah, it's lovely, it's so invigorating, can actually help to relieve your headache. It can also be very good at
opening up your nasal passages, which sometimes if they are congested may be causing your headache because you're getting a lack
of oxygen into your brain and then smelling this
Peppermint, not unlike eucalyptus which is very strong as well, and you take that in
through your nasal passages, it helps clear out your nasal passages allows you to take in more oxygen and then helps relieve your headache. And another interesting thing
that Peppermint can help with is if you develop a toothache
and you're waiting to get in to see the dentist, you can
take some Peppermint leaves and pack them around the
tooth that's bothering you. And the essential oils and Peppermint which are very volatile,
meaning they're very strong very active, will help relieve
some of that discomfort sort of like a homemade
version of like an am bustle. So be sure to give Peppermint
a try, whether you put it in a pot or you grow it
outside in your garden it's a wonderful herb, not only to enjoy for the fragrance and for
making teas, but as you see it has a lot of wonderful
medicinal properties. Next, I want to talk about Thyme. Now, yes, this is Lemon Thyme but there are all types
of varieties of Thyme. Not unlike a lot of these
herbs that have many varieties there's Lemon Thyme
which I especially like. There's English Thyme. There's French Thyme which is a very good
for culinary purposes. There's Mother of Thyme. There's all sorts of Thyme. There's a Variegated Thyme. I think there's even a Lime Thyme, I think I've had that in my
garden from time to time. And the nice thing about
Thyme is pretty much whatever hardiness zone you
live in, you can grow Thyme. Basically, you can sow
the seeds in the spring or if you want, you can start them indoors and then plant the little plants outside. You can also buy Thyme, they're very common, they're very easy to find
and they'll grow very well. Really the only thing
they're going to ask you for is a relatively sunny location. Now, Thyme is a perennial, which means it'll probably
die back in the winter. Here in central Texas it's
usually growing all year long, but if you do live in a cooler climate, it'll die back in the winter but then it should come
back in the spring. Now, as I mentioned, there are
so many varieties of Thyme. There are ones that grow upright. There are ones that grow like carpets. There's just a really big selection, but if you're looking for a
Thyme that you want to grow primarily for medicinal purposes, there really are two varieties
you want to look for. One is the Lemon Thyme which is my favorite because
it makes a wonderful tea. And the other is just the plain Thyme, and I believe the Latin is like thymus if they pronounce it like that, thymus or Thymus vulgaris just
your plain common Thyme. But whatever type of Thyme you do grow Thyme tends to get very Woody and so you always want to
give it a good trimming. So in the spring, whether
it's still growing, like in its green, like it is the
case here in central Texas or it's died back and you're waiting for that new spring growth to
come give it a good trimming, and that way all that new spring growth is going to be much more tender, you're not going to have
the real Woody stalks. But what's so great about Thyme is that it's one of
those really strong herbs that is not only antiseptic
it's also anti-fungal, anti-microbial, anti-viral and it's also extremely
rich in antioxidants, which scientists tell us helps
fight disease in our bodies. So Thyme is a very powerful herb and it's a wonderful disinfectant. It can be used in remedies
that involve an external wash, if you have some sort
of external infection. It can be made into teas and often used to fight off
infections like colds and flu. It's very often used in
homemade preparations involving a gargle or a
wash for a sore throat. So there are a lot of various
home remedies that use Thyme in relating to, in
dealing with infections. It's also used in many
home remedy preparations to fight fungus infections. So you will see a lot of home remedies dealing with the nail fungus, you know specifically toe fungus can be very common and you'll see a lot of
home remedies that use Thyme to make an anti-fungal remedy. So we all should
definitely be growing Thyme since it has such a wide
array of healing properties definitely something that we want to have in our medicinal herbal cabinet. Next, I want to talk about Yarrow. Now, Yarrow grows very easily. You'll probably see this growing, you know out in the woods or in fields. It grows wherever it's planted. It's very easy to grow
and it's very hardy. and definitely something you
want to have in your garden. Now, Yarrow can be started from seed it'll germinate very easily in your garden and it is a perennial and so that means it'll
come back every year and it will also self seed. So you'll find that you'll
get wherever you plant your Yarrow you're going
to get more Yarrow plants. When it comes to hardiness zones, you really don't need to worry about that when it comes to Yarrow. Yarrow can pretty much grow anywhere. Now, Yarrow has very strong antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. And it's specifically
seen in a lot of remedies where you make a poultice out of it and you apply it to a bruise
or an injury or a sprain. Now, one thing I want
to mention about Yarrow, in the beginning of this video I talked about how, if
you're pregnant or nursing or you're thinking of using
any of these herbs for children or you have allergies or
you're taking medication so on and so forth, something I want to mention about Yarrow Yarrow is generally discouraged for being used any time you're pregnant. Now, this is something you
definitely want to talk to your doctor about if
you're interested in Yarrow. But I think you'll find that
when you research Yarrow and you read about it
in different herb books it's always going to be
discouraged to be used if you are pregnant. So that's just a little
something I wanted to share. Yarrow has what's known
as styptic properties, and that means that it can stop bleeding. Now, I'm not talking
about some major bleeding with a serious wound where
you need to go to the hospital you know, for stitches or
whatever the case may be. But often if you're working in the garden and you grow Yarrow and you give yourself a little cut, gardeners often grab a
bunch of the Yarrow leaves and apply them to where they
gave themselves a little cut and it will help stop the bleeding. Also Yarrow will often
be seen in preparations, homemade preparations, home remedies, that are related to bringing down a fever because Yarrow can cause a lot of sweating and the sweating then
helps you to cool the body and bring the fever down. So often when a person has a cold or a flu that may be
accompanied with a fever often Yarrow tea is
something that an herbalist will prescribe to help get
that fever under control. Also, another thing that
you'll see Yarrow used for is in preparations that
are made like in a salve to put on varicose veins. Women might often have that
problem, some times men too, but you often see it a
lot in women, especially after pregnancy they'll have
varicose veins in their legs. And there's a salve that's
often made with Yarrow that helps reduce the
appearance of varicose veins. And if that wasn't all, Yarrow
is also an antispasmodic, so Yarrow tea can also help
calm digestive disorders. It really has so many
purposes, both externally and internally. Well, now that you've got
a start on learning about the first set of the 10
essential medicinal herbs to grow in your garden, be
sure to click on this video over here where I have an
extensive playlist showing you how to use some of these serves to make wonderful healing home remedies. And I'll see over there in my Texas Hill country kitchen. Love and God bless.
