Backyard Pharmacy

Plants as Medicine - Plant, Grow, Harvest, and Heal

Elizabeth Millard

• Publisher: Cool Springs Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780760369012
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Horticulture
• Index: Biological Sciences

This handy edition of Backyard Pharmacy helps you choose and cultivate the most useful and common medicinal plants that you can grow yourself either indoors or outside. Author Elizabeth Millard shares her deep knowledge of what to add to your garden to grow your own medicine cabinet andenhance your health.

1

The Basics of Gardening

We grow an array of robust vegetables on our farm that take up plenty of space, like the pumpkins that send out thick runner stems, or the alien-looking kohlrabi, with their heavy globes snugged into the ground.

By comparison, the section we have allocated for medicinal plants seems like a little fairy garden. The delicate fronds and cute-as-a-button flowers of chamomile wave just above the dark green, lush leaves of lemon balm, giving me plenty of ideas about how to combine the two.

The fact is that our farm could become a large-scale production enterprise (it won’t) and I’d still consider this small growing space as one of the most important on the land. Perhaps it’s because I harvest from this section every day, chopping a bit of oregano and basil for a dish, or grabbing a few raspberry leaves to make into a bedtime tea. Our medicinal garden has become like a friend who’s always happy to see me.

People tend to grow especially fond of nurturing medicinal plants, fussing over their watering needs and soil acidity. That’s not surprising, because consider the return: A backyard spot filled with wellness and culinary wonders, many of them coming back year after year, growing more sturdy and robust. Creating a garden space—even if “garden” means a windowbox of herbs in your kitchen—is distinctly soul quenching, and much less intimidating than you might think. Let’s get started with some herb basics.

PERENNIAL VS. ANNUAL

Plants are either perennial or annual, with the latter meaning that they have only one life cycle per growing season, and which you need to replant the following year. This includes herbs like basil, dill, and cilantro.

Many medicinal plants are perennial, which means they can stay green all winter, especially if you bring them inside, or they go dormant after a few frosts and then come back to life in the spring. That’s good news for your garden, since it means one planting of an herb can last for years. Just be sure to trim the herbs back in the fall, before the first frost, so all of the plant’s energy can go into the roots and prepare for dormancy.

There’s also a biennial, which is a plant that requires two years to complete a life cycle. This is rare in herbs, though, and I know of only two: parsley and caraway.

PLANNING

A traditional medicinal garden is often arranged according to some type of logical theme. For example, you might put culinary herbs in one section and medicinal flowers in another, or group the plants based on whether they’re annual or perennial so you can till up the annual bed at the end of the season.

However you group them, just be sure to keep harvesting in mind. When I first started growing medicinals, I created a partial labyrinth that was very pretty, but had some narrow pathways in certain spots. The idea was sound—a curving wall of herbs is amazing—but by making the walkways too small, I struggled whenever trying to harvest specific plants.

Another consideration might be proximity to your house or apartment building. Most likely, you’ll be harvesting from the garden plot at least a few times per week, if not every day, so putting it close to an entrance is usually best.

GROWING CONDITIONS

SUN/SHADE Many herbs and other medicinals prefer full sun, although they can tolerate shade, and there are some, like mint, that do better in shady conditions. In general, though, map out a space that gets at least six hours of sun per day.

In smaller gardens, placing pots on wheeled bases can be handy for moving them in and out of the sun.

SOIL NEEDS Many medicinal plants usually prefer a moderately rich soil for growing, and appreciate well-draining soil, so if you have soil that’s more like clay, or particularly dense, you may consider growing in raised beds or containers instead. If that’s not an option, you can work some compost into the soil to prepare it, and add some sand or vermiculite to help with drainage. You could also try growing medicinals, such as rosemary or chamomile, in areas of your garden that have less-than-ideal soil.

If you can loosen your soil, though, it’s likely you’ve found a good spot for your medicinal garden. Before planting, create a nutrient-rich environment by adding some fertilizer, such as fish emulsion (available at garden stores), and thoroughly mixing it into the tilled soil. Home compost is another great option, but be careful with composted manures, since these can sometimes be too high in nitrogen—herbs can grow in nitrogen-packed soil, for example, but they tend to have reduced flavor or are more susceptible to disease and pests.

Before planting anything in the garden, get some worm castings (worm poop), mushroom compost, or composted cow manure to rake into the soil. Spread a 1-inch layer on top of the soil and use a four-tine claw to work it in.

To get really geeked out, test your soil’s pH. This is a measure of the soil’s acidity or alkalinity, and some plants have very specific requirements in terms of pH ranges. For example, thyme prefers a more alkaline environment while blueberry does better in more acidic soil.

Quick primer: on the pH range, 7.0 is considered neutral, with any measurement below that considered more acidic and above that considered more alkaline. The overall pH range is 1 to 14, and can be tested with a device that’s found at any garden store (or sent to a testing lab for a more elaborate analysis).

To make the soil more alkaline, and thus increase the pH, sprinkle a little agricultural limestone (referred to as “lime”) into the space and work thoroughly into the soil, or put just a touch of lime around the roots of a plant that’s already established.

To increase acidity, there are many fertilizers that can be useful, such as sphagnum peat, which should be added to the topsoil around plants, or just before the planting process. You can also use what’s called “elemental sulfur,” but keep in mind that it’s slow acting, so it may take several months to take effect. However, granular sulfur can do the trick more quickly.

If you happen to be friends with your local coffee shop owner, skip the sulfur and employ used coffee grounds instead. You’ll need plenty, probably about 4 to 6 inches’ (10 to 15 cm) worth above the soil, but it’s a nice way to acidify the soil.

Maybe, at this point, your eyes are glazing over a little. I have to admit, my partner Karla is the growing nerd and loves anything involving gauges, devices, monitors, or other indicators of soil health. I’m truly more of a “plant it and see what happens” kind of girl. So, if you’re more like me, then don’t worry: most likely...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 | The Basics of Gardening
• 2 | Using your Harvest
• 3 | Kitchen Garden Herbs
• 4 | Herbal Garden Remedies
• 5 | Fruits and Shrubs
• 6 | Wild Friends
• Index
• Meet Elizabeth Millard
• Copyright