Growing Medicinal Herbs

[shocker]

This is a subject that has come to mind recently with the winding down of the NHS and the perfidy of pharma corps, and more so with a prepping mindset. My mother grew many herbs when I was a lad and dosed us, mostly successfully, for may years. Its a subject I would like to explore. My uncle produced a book on the subject but I have not been able to find a copy I could afford but its been mentioned that there are others out there. So long as we can stay away from magic cure alls and illegals I would be interested to hear what others know/do/plan along these lines.

[diamond lil]

I have Culpeper's Herbal, it's old but it's the best. I wanted to be a herbalist until I found out how much the training cost

[MBJ]

It's a skill set I'm looking to develop.

I recently purchased Hedgerow Medicine: Harvest and Make Your Own Herbal Remedies by Julie Bruton-Seal and I've found it to be a good read. It focuses on 50 commonly found herbs in the UK and list recipes and what they cure. There's some good painkillers, blood clotting agents, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and flue and cold remedies in there. Of course, if you can harvest the herbs yourself from the wild then it works out to be very cheap and cost effective.

I think I will probably start out by ordering the herbs online first until I become more experienced. I think most people do that unless they have someone experienced to show them the ropes.

I'd be interested to hear what people have already done, what recipes they use and any good reading materials they have or any YouTube channels they could recommend.

[shocker]

MBJ, thats the book by my uncle and his wife ! When I suffered repeated pneumonias after losing a lung they sent me some jollop that worked well. The Seal family, along with being military have had a strong horticultural involvement.

I had forgotten about Culpepper, that was the bible of my mothers herbalism, many years ago. Thats one book I should be able to source on the cheap since its had so many editions in the last 400 years !

I remember the horticulturalists in the family swore by Keeble-Martin for definitive plant recognition...lots of memories bubbling up from the depths now

[diamond lil]

Thyme makes excellent cough mix. Fantastic stuff, just make an infusion of it.
Salves - Lavender is good for headaches, Calendula is good for almost anything, Chamomile is too. Both very gentle and subtle. Chickweed for irritated skin. And plain honey for open wounds and infection.

[MBJ]

Shocker - small world eh? I picked up the book off Amazon. Think I paid something like £8.50 for the kindle edition.

Sorry to hear you had to go through with that btw.

[shocker]

Something I always carry is lavender oil, an essential oil that needs masses of lavender and distillation to produce so not really feasible on a small scale. However it can be used as an antiseptic/anti-inflammatory on all kinds of wounds up to large, deep abcessed ones with safety. I wont go into gory details but it has saved limbs in the past, so a valuable addition to any FAK and home pharmacy. Many of the essential oils like clove and teatree are very useful but really need to be bought in.

"The Fragrant Pharmacy" is a ideal source book for essential oils for many, many purposes.

MBJ, thanks for your concern- fortunately having been very fit prior to that the tidal volume of one lung matched many peoples two !

Small world indeed but family, cant live with 'em etc etc...the rotten sods wont do me a discount copy, grumble, moan, sulk

[Brambles]

I have started and left behind several apothecary gardens over the years. The one in planning I am hoping will be the last. I have used Norfolk Herbs for years and finally got to meet them a couple of years ago at the Sandringham flower show. Their herbs are second to none quality wise and there is a really good selection of medicinal and culinary herbs competetively priced, that you won't find in the average Garden Centre.

http://www.norfolkherbs.co.uk/index.html

NB I have no affiliation with them, just a very satisfied repeat customer.

[shocker]

I have used Secret Seeds in the past who are good for arcane and forgotten varieties but their website doesnt appear to be running now

[Plymtom]

Being of the Pagan ilk I have had many friends over the years into herbal remedies, sitting here without getting up I can see " Neal's yard remedies" and know there are a good few more kicking around the place which I/We have dipped into at times, I also have a doctor friend who is more than open minded on alternative medicine, I've also seen friends sadly with invisible illnesses such as Fibro or CFS/ME spend vast amounts of time and money looking for fixes with varying degrees of ( mostly temporary) success but for normal (ish) folk this stuff is really worth looking into (and being cautious with) and it sort of suits my mentality of embracing new stuff but not letting go of old knowledge or skills, sadly I don't have space for growing anything much, I tried with some success over the years, but there's just not enough room to keep my enthusiasm alight. Oh for a house with a garden!