More pics from the half-wild apothecary garden

This post is brought to you by this guy, who was kind enough to wait for me to run back into the house for my camera:

And then, of course, I started snapping pics of this and that ..

Spot the self-heal?
It's the patch of blue in the lawn, under the tree.

I tell you, if you want medicinal plants, all you really have to do is stop mowing so damn much!

There's enough medicine here for a family of 10.

Self-heal, also called all-heal (Prunella vulgaris if you want to look it up) is a useful little thing. As the name would suggest, it can be used in lots of different ways. You can chew it up and spit the pulp on bug bites or wounds. Traditionally, it's been used mostly for throat and mouth problems; the "signature" of this plant is that it looks like an open mouth. Amazingly, those "throat" problems extend to the thyroid gland, self-heal is "amphoretic", meaning it normalizes thyroid activity, stimulating or calming it, as needed. It has tannins, bitters, antibacterial and antiviral properties, making it useful for anything from colds to flu to tonsillitis to herpes. It can be taken as a tea (but it's bitter) or made into a tincture. The flower essence is used when we're discouraged and feel convinced we'll never be well again; it seems to help ease the mind and boost immunity at the same time. All this in one of the most common of lawn weeds! Wonderful little plant.

Spot the chickweed?
(yes, Linda, I know YOU can see it, ha!)

It's just north of my big toe, nestled in amongst the flowers, parsley and in the northeast of this shot, a couple of young lambsquarters. One beef I have with a lot of herb books and sites is that they don't show the plants "in situ", ie where they live, very often. They definitely don't show them with grimy toes in the picture but hey, on my blog you get real life, right? Right.

Here's your close-up.
Yes, I ate it.

Chickweed (Stellaria media) is not only the. best. nibble. in the garden; it's one of our best medicinals. I don't want to repeat myself, I wrote a little blurb on it recently here. Go have a look if you're interested.

Speaking of real life, here's a shot of my so-called vegetable bed (ha!). I weed, sometimes .. but the chickweed is growing in there, and if you look at this closely you'll see, growing along the border in the foreground, some very exuberant creeping charlie.

Yeah yeah, not so tidy, but it's productive!

I don't actually use it medicinally - although I would if needs be. It's reported to be a great tincture for tinnitus, and as it, like many other plants, is quite tannin rich it makes a good tonic tea. I let it grow all through the lawn because the bees love the tiny flowers, and I let it grow (some) in my vegetable beds because it keeps the moisture from evaporating, like a living green mulch. If it threatens to choke anything I pull it.

Here it is growing intermingled with the self heal, it's the sprig in the middle with the microscopically small flowers right down at the base.

There's some violet leaves in here too, and some creeping jenny.
I don't yet know any medicine use of creeping jenny, if you do, tell me!

All of the above are wild, I didn't plant them. In the "half-wild" category (meaning I did plant it somewhere, then it took on a life of its own and spread) have a look at how much my comfrey has grown! It's been what, 3 weeks since I last posted a picture of it?

It's up past my waist, people! And I'm not short!

I've snuck leaves of this in our soup, I've had a couple of very strong comfrey baths and made a few rounds of fertilizer for other plants out of it (even saved the life of my ailing plum tree) and this damn thing hasn't blinked. It's only one of many, but it is definitely the biggest. Not bad considering it just volunteered there.

This last one isn't wild or even half wild, but it counts for the apothecary. It's often grown just for show but it's a valuable medicinal plant too. Do you recognize it?

Lady's mantle - with thyme in the foreground, violets on the left, some
daisies above them, and on the right, some kind of sedum (?).

I'm just beginning to get to know Lady's mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris) medicinally, although I've often had it in my gardens over the years, so I won't offer you information that I only have second hand, you can do your own investigations if this plant draws you. But do - if you have a garden - consider growing it just for its beauty because .. well ..

It does magical things with raindrops
and dew.