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Archives for August 2007

Does your garden contain medicinal plants and herbs?

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I’ve always found it fascinating how most herbs and a number of plants have been used throughout history to cure what ails us.

I actually have a number of books about herbs and their medicinal uses. I should dig them out and write about some of the more commonly found herbs from time to time. As I said, I’ve always had an interest in this, just as when I find that plants that we’ve always thought of as being ornamental turn out to actually be edible too.

Well, until I begin writing some articles about herbs you might be interested in visiting a site that I found that’s called Natural Herbalism. This site has articles that discuss various herbs, their uses, chemistry, the history of herbs, how to grow them, how to prepare them, herbal recipes and herbs that have specific uses for men, women, children and even pets.

It’s quite an informative site.

Take for example the article about Bayberry. Most of us think of Bayberry as an ornamental shrub, but it actually has medicinal properties. Did you know that you can make a tea by boiling the bark and root and that when the tea is drank it has stimulant properties that are effective against diarrhea. The root bark also contains a natural antibiotic and can be used to treat skin wounds or even used in a mouthwash to freshen breath and fight gum disorders such as gingivitis.

Many of us grow celery in the garden, and if we don’t grow it we often buy it in the grocery store. Did you know that celery is a diuretic and that oils from the seeds were thought in the past to relive the pain of arthritis and rheumatism. Celery has also been used to treat anxiety disorders and insomnia.

If you are curious about the medicinal uses of some of the other plants that you might grow in your garden visit Natural Herbalism and look them up. I found the articles quite interesting.






The birds are pigs!

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My husband filled our two bird feeders on Wednesday evening. Both were empty as of sunset Friday.

I wish I had a photo to show you.

Once the feeders were filled the birds filled our yard. They were in the Rose of Sharon tree and sitting atop the tall roses. They were on the interlocking stones that we made our raised flower beds with. They were everywhere!

One of the bird feeders is quite large. It’s about a foot and a half tall and five or six inches in diameter. It holds a lot of seeds. Two days … just two days and it’s empty!

The other bird feeder is also about a foot and a half tall but it’s only two inches in diameter. It suits smaller seeds, the more expensive seeds like neger seeds. It’s empty too.

These birds are going to eat us out of house and home!

Solar lights in the garden

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I was just wondering how many of my readers use accent lighting in the garden?

We didn’t want the hassle of putting in an electric lighting system and I figured that in the long run we’d save more money by using solar lights so that’s the kind of accent lighting we use in our garden.

We also purchased a number of garden torches. I think they are about five feet tall. We place them in a symmetrical fashion, like the solar lights, throughout the garden and light them when we are in the garden in the evening.

The torches help to keep bugs away from us in the garden. It seems that there’s always a few mosquitoes or sand flies and gnats around and I must have sweet blood because they love biting me!

So … if you use lighting in the garden what kind do you use and how do you use it?

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