Well, I had a lot of fun in my yard this past month, but it is now officially travel time for this herbalist. In my other life, I am a trainer and continuing education provider for massage therapists… and, while I will be doing a lot of work, I intend to play just as hard.
Below are some garden pics. I had to say goodbye to my beautiful wild violet and dandelion blooms, and it is also getting a little too hot for my roses to keep hanging around… but! My Mullein is taller than I am now,
and so is my Goldenrod (actually, my Goldenrod stand has never been this tall)
My Comfrey is giving me gorgeous blooms and excellent medicine, I have made enough Violet leaf and Plantain tinctures to nourish an army, and my awesome friends at Isis Gardens (CSA) in Tupelo were kind enough to send me home with some gorgeous Yellowdock.
I have worked with some new plant allies this year and I am very excited to have learned from: Honeysuckle, Motherwort, Wild Rose, Yellowdock, Elder, Mimosa and Queen Anne’s Lace.
I am grateful for my gorgeous harvest. I experienced so much generosity from my plants and trees, which greatly balanced the natural disasters that have occurred recently.
I think the biggest lesson I learned this past month is: Mother Earth always teaches rebirth and renewal after death and destruction.
Oh, and I have also learned that frogs are very photogenic.
Frog under Rosemary bush
Be well and stay cool.
~Dana
Dana,
Great blog! Thank you for sharing all of this, you have some great herbs and plant allies in your yard. What do you use mimosa for? We use to have huge tree in our yard years ago, I now have small growing in the garden, but they grow along the highways around here… I also have Lavender, sage, tyme, oregano, some basil, lemon tyme. There is wild Mullien, which I knew as an herb but not what its use is… there are many other plant allies I see on my walks, so little by little I am learning…
Jeff
Thanks, Jeff! Mimosa blooms and bark are used for mood stabilizing, assisting with pain and sleep issues. Check out this site for more info: http://www.planetaryherbals.com/products/GP1867/ It has product info for mimosa. This is what caught my attention: “Albizia was traditionally used to “calm the spirit” and relieve emotional constraint when associated with bad temper, bad mood, sadness, occasional sleeplessness, irritability and poor memory. It was believed to be especially useful for anyone experiencing profound heart-breaking loss.”
I LOVE Mullein. It is great for the respiratory system, and I have also used it for low back pain with great results. And it works great with goldenrod for allergies.
I adore culinary herbs as well… they have incredible medicinal value; I just made tincture of rosemary, ginger oregano, sage, fennel and catnip. LOL
I can’t wait for the bee balm to start blooming!!
*hugs*
~Dana
Sweet Dana!!!! We are stoked about the medicine you are making, but will hopefully not need to much of it!
Our Garden, However, would love to recieve any comfrey that you would be willing to part with, i.e. root cuttings for our own plants or even any cut comfrey that you dont use to make a garden tincture that is really nice to the plants!!!
Saludos
Genevieve & Horton
Isis Gardens CSA
You know what? I have about 5 plants; it is the hybridized version, Comfrey, Symphytum uplandica x. They are the variety that do not make seed; they only propagate through root cuttings… I will chat with you about digging some up and cutting the roots into segments for new plants… It would take a LOT of it to make a great tea for your plants but, I think we could get a good bit of it growing for you by next summer!