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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.






A little rose named Sunsprite

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Sunsprite Rose

Sunsprite. What an aptly named rose.

This gem of a rose is located in the back flower bed of my garden.

Considering that this rose is not all that tall – perhaps 3 feet at it’s tallest – I really should have planted it in a more prominent position so that I could enjoy it’s lovely flowers more often.

When this rose blooms I can see it’s flowers from my kitchen window so there’s no worry that it’s lost among other plants in my garden.

Like many of my other roses the blooms of summer are a slightly different color than it’s spring blooms. This rose has a medium yellow bloom in the spring but as you can see in the heat of summer it’s much paler with white edges on the outer petals.

Do you grow Sunsprite?

Balloons in the garden

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Wordless Wednesday

Balloon Flower Purple

The Balloon flower is a pretty flower once it becomes established in your garden.

I have three of this bluish purple kind, as well as two white balloon flower plants and one pink balloon flower plant. Yes, I love balloon flowers. Can you tell?

In the lower right corner I think that you can see a bud forming. The petals are folded in and as the bud grows it looks like a hollow ball or a balloon. When it finally opens the flower appears as above.

Unfortunately the flower, once it’s bloomed, doesn’t last long – perhaps a day at most. The flower dies quickly and droops like a wet rag.

I’d just finished picking off a bunch of dead flowers before I took this photo. That’s why there’s so many flowerless stalks. When a dead bloom is plucked off it’s stalk a milky white substance drips from the damaged stalk to heal the wound.

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