The Taoist's Herb Garden

[joeblast]

Since its just about time to begin planting seeds I figured it would be nice to have a discussion about herb gardens, what are you growing, why. I want some more ideas for my garden this year

[zerostao]

periwinkle, horsetail, solomon's seal, stinging nettle, shiitake, white peony,chrysanthemum, grow all the culinary herbs that you can,

 

edit>> gogi, doh!

aloe vera and in the fall plant gingko tree

Edited March 4, 2013 by zerostao

[RobB]

periwinkle, horsetail, solomon's seal, stinging nettle, shiitake, grow all the culinary herbs that you can,

 

edit>> gogi, doh!

aloe vera and in the fall plant gingko tree

 

Horsetail? Do you grow it in a container? It's pretty invasive on open ground. What would you use it for?

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[zerostao]

i gathered up a bunch of horstail out in the woods last year and planted just outside my back hedge. organic silica.

i have seen some campers out in the forest use as a wild tooth brush.

edit>i gathered up some sasafras then too

Edited March 4, 2013 by zerostao

[Astral Monk]

yeah, better keep the horsetail well contained. If you let it go to ground, you will never, ever, ever get rid of it. Probably better idea to go find it in the wild. According to my herb book, horsetail can absorb gold dissolved in water! Stems are used, with treatments for things like arthritis.

 

I love a god variety of fragrant herbs. Lavender is lovely and comes in many pleasing varities. Good for teas and sleeping aids (but not for pregnant women).

 

 

I'll have a bunch of mints, a cooling herb, and a good addition to fresh salads.

 

 

Likewise sage is another nice and generally hardy plant that adds great flavour to dishes. If you can grow cyan pepper, so much the better. Rosemary--good for digestive aid, tarragon--has uses for toothaches, chew fresh leaves.

 

St. John's wort is another herbal goldmine, but practically one might have it on hand to use for treating wounds with fresh leaves and flowers under a bandage for instance.

 

 

Don't forget to grow a nice assortment of greens--lettuces, chinese greens, kale. And if there's space, as many berry plants as you can--raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, huckleberry--anything that can provide a nibble. Some folks are really getting into growing seabuckthorn.

 

 

If you can grow your own ginger, horseradish, and other roots, so much the better!

 

8)

Edited March 4, 2013 by Astral Monk

[cheya]

Basil! Tons of Basil! Mammoth leaf, Italian, and Holy Basil too!

 

 

 

And Cilantro! It tastes great, and it's a major detoxifier of heavy metals.

Seed it every 3-4 weeks to keep a constant supply. It likes to grow close together, so you can seed it in a couple square feet, scattered loosely, not necessary to keep it in rows.

 

 

 

One of my favorite tricks is to "mulch" with little lettuce plants (seeds will be too slow) in between the slower plants like tomatoes and broccoli, that take more time and only need the space when they get bigger. The lettuce in between keeps the weeds down and holds the moisture. You could do it with spinach, or anything else that grows fast and is out relatively quick.

[sirius]

lemon balm (for tea, tea mixtures and other things), lemon bush (for tea), different kinds of sage (for cooking and healing and fumigation), angelica (for fumigation), valerian (as a compost starter), verbena (for tea and fumigation), chamomile (for healing teas) and yarrow (for fumigation, for healing teas and as addition to the compost), calendula (for teas, salves and as an addition to the compost to improve the compost quality), comfrey (for salves and as an addition to the compost), mugwort (for fumigation) - and of course many aromatic herbs for cooking like parsley, chive, wild garlic, hedge mustard,thyme, rosemary, savory, garden sorrel, borage, tarragon, dill, burnet, oregano, cress, nastutium. and there are many other herbs in my garden, which i don`t have to cultivate, because they grow by themselves like nettle, dandelion, daisies and many others.

[thelerner]

Its nice to have the garden in the front lawn, and can be as easy as laying out good 40# bags of dirt in a row over the grass, putting a slit in the bottom and growing from the top the first year. Second year just remove the bags. Put a border around it and you just have to worry about some grass as weeds. Simple, cheap and quick, thank you Mother Earth Magazine. We now have 3 people on my block using there front lawns.

 

Past couple of years I've thought in terms of gazpacho gardens, ie sweet cherry tomatoes, hot peppers, zucchini and cucumber. When you start getting sick of them you can put'em in the blender and make a tasty pitcher that's a refreshing change from all those salads.

 

Herbs and marigolds around the border.

Edited March 5, 2013 by thelerner

[Astral Monk]

Yes to Basil, Cilantro, and Balm plants!! I will be getting some Bee Balm/Lemon balm for this season for sure. Balm is anti-viral and can be used to treat wounds.

 

I also have some yarrow around, but haven't used it medicinally.

 

To keep the weeds/grass out of your lawn garden, just add a layer of thick cardboard or several layers of ordinary newsprint under your soil or bags of soil. These will prevent grass from growing through and kill it off. The paper products will eventually breakdown and return to the soil. This works really well. Its the first component of 'sheet mulching', where you build a garden bed that composts itself in place, by adding a layer of green, a layer of brown, some manure, and alternating to make a lasagna-like mound.

 

 

 

8)

[joeblast]

Good stuff folks, thanks!

 

(although, my front lawn faces north, so it would be silly to plant there, especially when I have a decently sized back yard! )

[cheya]

Lovage (Just a little in salads is amazing) and Fennel (salads and seed grazing in the garden) are two more of my favorites. And then there's Boneset, which volunteered in my garden some years back and which I zealously protect from the mowers even though it's trying to grow into a path, and all I do with it is admire the big, strong plant. Boneset isn't used for broken bones, but for colds and a terrible flu, which they used to call "break-bone fever". Somewhere I read that boneset has more vitamin C than any other herb, and that every settler's home had a supply hanging from the rafters all winter. If anyone got even a hint of a cold, they were forced to drink boneset tea! I say "forced" because the tea is EXTREMELY bitter. It tastes truly nasty, even with honey and mixed with other herbs. Just the threat of boneset tea was enough to keep children from getting a cold! That seems to work for me too. I have a great supply in the pantry, and I hardly ever get a cold! Boneset is also supposed to facilitate sweating (I haven't tried that, it's too bitter even for me!) This is a truly unusual looking herb because its leaves are continuous across the stem so they look like the stem has just grown through them. It comes back faithfully, year after year, bugs and critters don't seem to care for it either!

[Astral Monk]

And don't forget, you can add a little feng shui to your garden plot.

 

 

Wealth, fame, and marriage in the Aspirations of the Bagua face north.

 

 

Overlay this on your garden plan. Overlay the bagua with Ken (mountain), K'an (water), and Chien (heaven) facing either north or your street frontage.

 

You can connect your garden to the larger feng shui of the property, or create a pattern just for the garden.

 

Each area of the Aspirations can be 'activated' by adding elements associated with it or with your personal triagram. For example, the 'wealth' corner can be improved with yellow and orange flowered plants and some flowing water, both of which represent money.

 

Marigolds

 

 

 

If your personal trigram is Tui (the joyful, lake), for example, you might add something that produces white flowers or is white to activate it for yourself:

 

Clematis armandii (white flowers)

 

 

Dusty miller (white stems and leaves)

 

 

 

This is, of course, just a guide. You might be limited by the nature of your plot and need to do things differently. Or you might have chunks of the aspirations missing or blocked. You can add things like mirrors or reflective surfaces or lights to the garden to mitigate some feng shui challenges.

 

I had this in mind last season but I think I will make more of an effort to coordinate each section this year and build up some balance in areas that were lacking.

 

8)

[Astral Monk]

Lovage (Just a little in salads is amazing) and Fennel (salads and seed grazing in the garden) are two more of my favorites. And then there's Boneset, which volunteered in my garden some years back ...

 

YES to fennel!! A very cool looking plant and a good chew whilst in the garden.

 

 

 

Boneset is interesting. My little herb book says not to take it fresh though, as it contains deadly toxins. Drying it removes the threat.

 

 

8)

Edited March 6, 2013 by Astral Monk

[zanshin]

Made my own rosé hip tea month or so ago. Will plant radishes, spinach and lettuce soon. Adding a patch of wheat grass this year which is supposed to be great for detox and even remove flouride from water. Need to decide what to put in bed next to sidewalk; people picked the cherry tomatoes I put there last year- which is what they were there for. Hoping raspberries and strawberries I put in last year come back and are productive.

[Walker]

I visited the foot of the Changbaishan Mountains (长白山) in China's Northeast last fall and hiked all around the woods where I was staying. I was stunned at how similar the flora, fauna, landscape, and temperature all were to the NE United States--there were places that looked, to my untrained eye, just like some of the woods I've hiked in CT and Mass. Changbaishan is where most of the best Chinese ginseng (人参) grows, from what I understand. With that in mind, if your environs are anything like New England, then you might consider planting some ginseng in your backyard (or, if you think you might move, investing in a big enough pot so it can move with you) and taking good care of it. The youngest ginseng ought to be harvested is after 10 years, and that's early; 20 years would be better; and it can get much older. You would thus have a plant nourished and nurtured, growing old with you. When old age arrives, or perhaps if you or a loved one have to recover from an illness, you would have much higher quality ginseng on hand than all but the richest and most well-connected can find today--and it would have been imbued with your own qi and love for a long, long time. Not a bad investment--provided you know how to harvest, prepare, and dose it!

[宁]

I'd grow plants that I'd use daily when cooking, or for training purposes. In fact I intend to. There are alot of wild herbs that can make for extremely beneficial 'spiritual baths' also.

[zerostao]

yes, alot of wild herbs are extremely beneficial. and being out in nature collecting those, is a type of spiritual bath all its own.

in my neck of the woods, one could wander endlessly foraging, gathering, grazing even.

some herbs , like ginseng , imo should only be found in the wild and never gardened.

 

there is also the type of spiritual bath that is found in one's own garden. highly recommended.

[joeblast]

I should just plant some in the woods to the north of my parent's house. If we'd only done it when we thought of it, we'd be halfway to being able to harvest some by now! I saw devil's club seeds at once place also but I wouldnt bother buying those, I'd just have my brother go collect some at the appropriate time.

[Walker]

You might be right and clearly wild ginseng is the ideal--nobody would argue with that--but the worldwide yearly output of real wild ginseng is apparently only a few kilograms. Prices for the real stuff are astronomical. I have been told by reliable sources that upwards of 95% of ginseng found in bulk herb markets China--the places where some or most of the pharmacies get their herbs--is simply fake. Cultivated ginseng, conversely, is not without the ability to help patients. It remains an effective herb to this day, even if (a) it is not as potent as it once was and ( there is debate as to what plant, precicesly, the ancients were using in their formulas.

[C T]

Some popular herbs, salads and citrus plants in my home back in SE Asia --

 

Lemongrass, thai basil, coriander, kaffir lime, lemon, lime, kalamansi, ginger, turmeric, good few varieties of lettuces, parsley, screwpine (pandanus) and a most interesting herb called pegaga, or pennywort, plus a few others which i cant remember or perhaps less significant.

 

Pennywort is fairly easy to grow. Its a brilliant addition to any herb garden, with amazing health-giving properties.

 

See health benefits here (reminder - side effects present, not recommended for diabetics and pregnant women) :

http://rls8994.hubpages.com/hub/Pennywort-Tea-And-Its-Many-Benefits

 

Best of luck with our gardens this year, chappys and all!!!

 

 

 

p.s. anyone passing thru Malaysia should visit this chap http://herbwalk-langkawi.com.my/theplants.html

who lives on Langkawi Island, one of the many 'jewels' of Malaysia... beautiful place to explore!

Edited March 11, 2013 by C T

[Scottk]

This is all very interesting to read about; I had no idea that there was such a vast amount to be learned about herbs! For someone who may not have time to garden and harvest their own herbs, what is the best alternative to doing it all yourself? Do any of you know of reliable suppliers in the United States? Or local retailers that can supply certain beneficial herbs over the counter? And what might some of those simple, yet effective herbs be?

I apologize for filling this reply with so many questions, but I am incredibly curious about this topic.

Thank you all,

Scott

[zerostao]

added a few more horsetail behind my hedge. a well meaning neighborhood kid weedeated those i had from last year lol

and as i was out collecting water in the cumberland national forest, i also took a baby mullein and added in my backyard,in a designated bricked in flower garden lol

 

http://www.herbcraft.org/mullein.html

 

http://www.livestrong.com/article/159004-mullein-for-the-lungs/

 

a couple of weeks ago i almost stopped and took a small redbud tree , they were so gorgeous at the time, but i didnt,

when i got home , after a couple/few weeks away, the old hollowed out crab apple tree in the yard was blooming magnificiently, i didnt need the red bud after all. still dont know what to do with my fig, it is vigoriously going strong,

for now i will leave it in its pot, until i decide if it can make it in the appalachian climate

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

Since its just about time to begin planting seeds I figured it would be nice to have a discussion about herb gardens, what are you growing, why. I want some more ideas for my garden this year

 

 

Some kind of native grass, thorn bushes, and tiny smooth pebbles.

 

 

Oh yeah and a broken "pitch fork" (i still call it a pronged rake though - cuz a pitch fork is for shoveling, not raking)

 

 

Actually, i dont know what happened to the shaft or the head of the tool, but it needs to be replaced before i can start tending to the catastrophe of area behind the metal shop. but by god, once it's done, will it be ideal!

 

 

I dont think i'll be sticking around to find out... im not sure if i'll even have a choice in the matter.

[joeblast]

my thorn bushes out front put out some pretty nice looking red flowers

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

i think our bramble is blackberry bush... but it's too far from Autumn to tell for sure

actually, i think the green "berry" buds are indication enough.