Growing medicinal herbs

**wildWoman** · 04-13-2008, 03:32 PM

Noooo, this is not meant to be about the stuff us Canucks can consume and you poor things south of the border get into jail for.
Does anyone grow herbs like valerian, catnip, mullein etc for teas, tinctures and salves?

**Alpine_Sapper** · 04-13-2008, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by wildWoman

Noooo, this is not meant to be about the stuff us Canucks can consume and you poor things south of the border get into jail for.
Does anyone grow herbs like valerian, catnip, mullein etc for teas, tinctures and salves?

Aloe at the moment. I buy catnip for the cats to get hyped up on and valerian for me so I don't feed them to the dog when they get catnip.

**Rick** · 04-13-2008, 04:18 PM

Bee Balm for leaves and Coneflowers for the flowers. Both for tea. I had mint but it went so crazy I had to dig it all up. I may try some in a container this year.

**Ole WV Coot** · 04-13-2008, 07:54 PM

I have a great crop of dandelions this year, will have until the mint takes over. I decided to turn the yard back to nature with the price of gas and all. I am still looking for a use for crabgrass. Now to get TDW to go along with my get back to nature plan. Otherwise aloe is about the only thing we really use and keep alive.

**crashdive123** · 04-13-2008, 07:58 PM

Lot's of Bee Balm in our Hummingbird garden.

**Rick** · 04-14-2008, 08:30 AM

Coot - Keep a watch out for Purslane. It makes an ideal salad. It generally only grows where the soil has been worked so if you've reverted your yard you will have a ton of it. Good stuff!!

**wildWoman** · 04-14-2008, 11:49 AM

I've been wanting to grow stinging nettles here for a while (such yummy tea!) and finally found a place to get seeds from, www.sandmountainherbs.com They have a really awesome catalogue and I managed, with difficulty, to just order five other herb seeds apart from the nettles (when I would have liked so much more stuff!). So we'll give skullcap, valerian, mullein, catnip and....can't remember....other stuff a try. Tincturing thyme is also good for any bronchial complaints. I'm really interested to see how the valerian will work although my understanding is you tincture the root from a two year old plant so it'll be a while.

**Rick** · 04-14-2008, 01:11 PM

May I suggest you plant the stinging nettle in a pot? That's another one that once it gets a hold it doesn't want to stop. It's a perennial that dies back to ground level each winter. I don't know if your winters are enough to kill it out or not. If it does then you'll want it in a pot to move indoors and if it doesn't it will likely become a pest to you. It gets up to 2 meters high so you want a decent sized pot. Of course the size of the pot will limit it's height, too.

It likes moist soils and a bit higher levels of phosphate and nitrogen so you're duck poo might work as a fertilizer but I'd go easy with it so you don't burn the plant.

**wildWoman** · 04-14-2008, 05:51 PM

Yes the winters do indeed keep nettles in check here

They seem to survive outside with a lot of mulch on them but they don't spread, and the odd cold winter kills them off again, despite the mulch. I was thinking by the (yet to build) duckpond would be a good spot for them - nice and moist, and as you said, with fertilizer right there.

**bulrush** · 04-15-2008, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

I had mint but it went so crazy I had to dig it all up. I may try some in a container this year.

Heh heh. I also had mint, 4 kinds (spearmint, peppermint, citrus mint, catnip which is in the mint family). You really have to watch where the seeds drop, Rick, they will sprout anywhere. I spent all last year pulling it up and spraying it with Roundup. Now it's on the neighbor's side of the fence.