Articles by Agnes K. Green, CN

Secret garden medicine

Portland Gardening Monthly, December 2006

Someone recently posed the question “what is a garden?” The best answer I could come up with is that for me the garden, and consequently gardening, is about time. Here I can stop time by disconnecting from my head and my daily cares while focusing on this blossom or that weed. I can also appreciate time as it marches over the course of a day, a season or a year by observing the changes in the life cycles of plants and garden wild life. But even beyond that, through the river of infinite time that stands still in my garden, I connect with people who are long gone and whose love of their garden had survived them.

I am an herbalist, so as I tend plants or stroll in my garden I’m reminded of past herbalists from Hippocrates to Shakespeare. When I see a medicinal plant thrive in a particular spot, I think of the great British herbalist Culpepper, who cautioned to collect the herbs where they best flourished, be it in a ditch or by the roadside. Though selectively bred and tinkered with, even our modern day gardens are replete with plants we can use to keep ourselves well or help restore our well being.

Every season brings its gift, its medicine, perfectly fitted to help us with the season’s challenges. In the very early spring, the conifers come to life and put out emerald green, soft new needles. Native Americans brewed spruce needle tea because they knew it made them strong and resistant to illness. We now know that evergreen needles are full of antioxidants, including vitamin C. I can’t resist the glow of the firs’ new needles and just break off some tips and chew them while I work. They help me resist colds I might otherwise catch in the damp garden or from people whose resistance is down after the winter months. Although arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) is good year around, there is something irresistibly attractive in the chartreuse green light of needle sporting conifers.

The common garden violet always makes me glad, as it flowers in early March and I always received a bouquet of fragrant violets as part of my birthday celebration. Here they’re too humble, not much appreciated, but in Europe, candied violets on confections speak of love and joy. While I clear away winter’s debris, I love to pluck a flower and eat it—they have nectar in their tiny recurved funnel at the base of the petals.

Across the greedy summer grass which I’m in the process of replacing with stepable ground cover, the upturned sunny flat heads of yarrow (Achillea millefolium ‘Moonshine’) remind me of the Greek hero of the Trojan war, the demi-god Achilles, for whom the flower was named. He was said to staunch the bleeding of his wounded soldiers with the leaf of the yarrow flower, having learned his healing art from Chiron the Centaur, the medicine man of the gods. Yarrow stops bleeding inside and out: nosebleeds, ulcers, hemorrhages. It is also a general tonic, a blood builder. If I accidentally cut myself with a garden tool, I need to look no further than the patch of warm, dryish ground where my Achillea and lavender flourish together, setting up a wild purple and gold symphony.

And while I’m there plucking a leaf from the yarrow, I rub and smell the resinous leaves of the lavender (Lavandula officinalis ‘Willow Vale’). You can rub lavender flowers or leaves on your temples or nape of your neck for headaches. One of my clients who is prone to frequent migraine headaches, never suffers from them anymore. Following my suggestion she carries a little vial of lavender essential oil with her and she dispels her headache as soon as she feels one coming on. She is in control now. Lavender soothes and relaxes and helps you go to sleep if you put a sachet or a daub a handkerchief in the oil and leave it on your pillow at night.

Since my garden is about time, I allow my plants to complete their lifecycle, set seed and die back. I only cut them after the birds had their fill of the seeds, after I collected the remainder and after the dry seed heads and stems have lost their esthetic value. My cone flower (Echinacea purpurea) begins its season as a rosette of handsome leaves, then stretches up to put forth bold reddish-purple daisies. Echinacea finishes its life in my dry vase as tall black cones on strong stems, contrasting their strong linear statement with curly willow branches around them. In between birth and death it fed butterflies, helped my family fight off colds and flu’s, strengthened our immune system, and delighted garden visitors.

When the riot of summer flowers quiets down, the season of fruiting and seeding begins. Hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha), courtesy of birds, crops up easily in a garden and quickly matures into a fruiting shrub or small specimen tree. In September it will be covered with red berries if lucky enough to grow in a sunny location with enough water. The sprays of bright red berries on the hawthorn tree make my heart leap with joy. And for a good reason. Hawthorn berries are a heart and circulation tonic of the first order. A cup of tea a day can keep your arteries clear and your heart in good ticking order. A baby who was born with a hole in her heart was put on the heart transplant list, but the parents preferred to do something natural, if possible. The child was given hawthorn extract daily and her progress monitored. It took five years for the hole to entirely disappear and her heart grow good and strong as if the birth defect never existed.

The hollyhock relative mallow (Malva sylvestris 'Brave Heart') springs up just about anywhere if allowed to seed. It is a lovely plant because it is so close to being wild that it is totally undemanding. It flowers from spring through the end of fall, sporting whirls of light magenta cups radially striped with darker magenta. In sheltered places it will flower through the winter. It is now very much at home in my garden. I watch it and where it thrives, I allow it to go to seed. I like eating a few of the unripe seeds. When I was a kid we called it cheese plant because the seed pod is shaped like miniature rounds of cheese. This one should only be used fresh, and while the seeds are still green, but the whole herbaceous part is medicinal and the flowers are edible. It is a superb demulcent and emollient and can be used externally or internally for any kind of inflammation or irritation, laryngitis, emphysema, coughs, bronchitis or gastritis.

There is a shady and damp spot in my garden as you walk up to the front door. After much experimenting with flowering plants I have given up on them and decided to make the area a showcase for ferns. Instead of a color symphony I have a more subtle cantata of shades and textures. My all-time favorite is the maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum) its luminous soft green leaves contrasting with the hard, wiry black stems. It has been used for coughs and congestion though it has fallen out of favor for that purpose. It can also bring down fever as it has a cooling effect. However, maidenhair fern shines as a hair tonic and has been used for that purpose since antiquity (thence its name). There may still be some hair rinses on the market that list it as an ingredient.

The rose is said to be the queen of the garden. For a very special treat I will add rose petals to my tea, the red damascene roses are best for this. Rose petals have long been used medicinally, as heart and nerve tonic and blood purifier. I use them because the fragrance delights me and I love smelling like roses every time I exhale. Cut off the white part at the base of the petal, for it is bitter. At the end of August I stop deadheading my roses and allow them to set hips, their fleshy fruit. By December they have colored from green through orange to red. My climbing ‘Joseph’s coat’ consistently produces large, beautiful hips. They look architectural and poetic against the wall on bare branches. The hips cannot be eaten because of prickly hairs around the seeds but they provide rose hip tea which is very high in antioxidants, vitamin C and bioflavonoids, protecting us from winter colds and flu’s.

Our winters are generally so mild that we may well have some flowering plants. The beautiful twisting branches and pale blue flowers of evergreen Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) connect me with Shakespeare. While Hamlet’s bride Ophelia is making a wreath for herself out of wild flowers and weeds, she names each, then adds “rosemary for remembrance.” And truly, rosemary opens the capillaries in the brain, allowing more oxygen and therefore more energy to be produced for remembering. Many of my clients who complained of poor short term memory have benefited from cooking with rosemary. Caution: do not overdo rosemary, it can be toxic in large quantities. My rosemary grows by the path so that as I walk by and bruise it, it releases an ozonated fragrance that I inhale deeply and gratefully.

On the opposite end of time lies timelessness. Such is for me the effect of flower essences, first discovered by British homeopath Dr. Edward Bach. Anyone can make flower essences, taking the beautiful blossoms and floating them in a clear glass bowl, letting the rays of the sun infuse the water with the vibrational essence of that flower. The secret is in the knowing which flower to use for what purpose. My Deep Healing Flower Essence, applied to certain acupressure points, speeds healing across time. Entering the body’s energy stream, the essence reaches into the cellular memories of trauma, painful events and moments of self-deprecation stored deep within the body and releases them so healing can occur naturally. My clients experience shifts brought about by the flower essence that change their lives no matter how old the memories or even whether conscious or not. Deep Healing Flower Remedy healed a case of an unremembered childhood event which caused ripples of self-devaluation into adulthood. In another case it released a phobia acquired in early childhood. I’m continually amazed at the power of this ethereal substance: sunlight on a floating petal.

When harvesting medicinal plants, note well in what season that plant has the most life force in it. According to biodynamic principles, if you’re harvesting leaves and flowers, they’re best in the morning until the sun is at its zenith (noon) because the life force of the plant is surging upward. However, leaves containing essential oils, like mint, oregano, marjoram etc., should be collected on hot days when the sun draws the oil up into the leaves. On the other hand, it is best to harvest roots in the evening when the life force of the plant is pulled back into its root system. In terms of seasons, leaves and flowers are best in spring and summer, roots are best in the fall or winter. Flowers should always be picked when they first open. The following chart will tell you when it is best to harvest the medicinal plants described in this article. This chart is a general guideline, actual times may differ somewhat in your garden. This chart and article is for informational purposes only, for any medical condition consult your doctor.

Today we’re so far removed from our roots that even people who are willing to buy herbal remedies from a health food store look askance when I suggest that they pick them in their garden. And yet, people have used plants for centuries to heal themselves with. The best modern resource for learning about medicinal plants is The Herb Book by John Lust N.D., a Bantam Book that has been in print continuously since its first publishing in 1974. I have used this book for nearly 20 years and it never failed in the accuracy of its information. I can’t think of a better companion to walk the garden with and find out what secret medicines you have in your flower beds. With the help of herbalists like Dr. Lust, we can connect with our past as well as remember that a garden can feed us on all levels: body, mind and soul, through the seasons and through our lives.

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