Long before the dawn of chemistry herbs held the honor of providing people with a readily available pharmacological treasure, foraged and cataloged by natural healers.
Herbs may not be able to cure severe illness, not in their natural form, anyway, but they have the answer to the smaller things that ail you, the occasional headache or stomach upset, the minor scrape, the sleepless night, the anxious mood.
When you start researching medicinal plants, you find out most of them are analgesic and antiseptic.
Some, like lemon balm and thyme, are natural antivirals, others, like elder and feverfew, are antipyretics.
Yarrow has been used to dress wounds for centuries, because its active compounds stop bleeding.
Skullcap, valerian root and St. John's Wort used to be the go-to mood and anxiety remedies before the development of antidepressants.
Whatever your need, there's an herb for that. Digestion out of sorts? Try bitter herbs. Trouble sleeping? Drink linden flower tea.
Herbs are anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, diaphoretic, astringent, and stimulant.
They heal wounds, burns and other skin ailments.
They are sedative, cardiotonic and anti-hypertensive, reduce cholesterol and soothe bronchitis, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude.
Main Areas: Garden Writing; Sustainable Gardening; Homegrown Harvest
Published Books: “Terra Two”; “Generations”; "The Plant - A Steampunk Story"; "Letters to Lelia"; "Fair"; "Door Number Eight"; "A Year and A Day"; "Möbius' Code"; "Between Mirrors"; "The Blue Rose Manuscript"
Career Focus: Author; Consummate Gardener;
Affiliation: All Year Garden; The Weekly Gardener; Francis Rosenfeld's Blog
I started blogging in 2010, to share the joy of growing all things green and the beauty of the garden through the seasons. Two garden blogs were born: allyeargarden.com and theweeklygardener.com, a periodical that followed it one year later. I wanted to assemble an informal compendium of the things I learned from my grandfather, wonderful books, educational websites, and my own experience, in the hope that other people might use it in their own gardening practice.