Gardening-Tips-Zone.com

Grow Your Own Medicinal Herbs

One of the great advantages of having a herb garden at home is the ability to grow medicinal herbs. This is because using certain herbs for curative purposes is an easy, affordable and chemical-free way of treating many common ailments at home. I have been using my own herbs for many minor conditions  such as sore throat or congestion. It’s even more fun to know that used in the right way, herbs do not have any side-effects and are a completely natural way of treating yourself.

Some herbs which have medicinal properties are marshmallow root, hyacinth and yarrow. Marshmallow root is used to treat inflammations like sore throat. Hyacinth can be used as a diuretic and encourages tissues to release any excess water they may be retaining. Yarrow can be used as a remedy for cold and fever.

The herb Echinacea, also commonly known as the purple coneflower, is an effective herb for boosting the immune system. The active ingredients in this herb actually stimulate the production of disease-fighting white blood cells in the human body. The wonderful thing about this herb is that it’s also very easy to grow. It’s also a very pretty plant and resembles a daisy in structure. They have an extended period of blooming making them a nice resident in your garden. The Echinacea plant begins to bloom in the spring, and continues to spread joy throughout the summer, even lasting into to fall months. And it’s a hardy plant. It can survive droughts as well as handle the very hot summer. And they look gorgeous just about anywhere you want to plant them - either in the middle of a garden, or along its border, or with a rock garden, or even in containers.

 

If you choose Echinacea, just keep in mind it’s a tall plant growing to a maximum height of a little more than two to four feet. But if you’d prefer ashorter version, then the Pixie Meadowbrite Coneflower grows only to a height of a foot and half or so. A true dwarf, you’ll love its profusion of pink flowers. You may want to mix that strain with another dwarf, Kim Knee High Coneflower, which has purplish-pink flowers and dense foliage.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.