There are many plants and ways of using them to boost your health and help with healing. Herbalists since the 17th century like Nicholas Culpeper have recorded some of the best garden plants for healing.

Treatment Methods

• Eating herbs and plants both raw and cooked is so natural we sometimes do not think about foods healing properties.
• ‘Decoctions’ are created by boiling a plant whilst ‘Infusions’ or ‘Teas’ have water poured on them and brewed. A ‘Syrup’ is one of the former that has had sugar added and reduced to a syrup.
• ‘Oils’ are produced when herbs are infused in vegetable oil and a small amount of vinegar.’ Tinctures’ are extracts preserved in alcohol.
• ‘Cold Compresses’ are used externally and ‘Poultices’ are commonly applied warm or hot.
• ‘Ointments’ are either mixed with petroleum jelly or the term can apply to the sap of plants used directly.

10 Top Treatments

• Aloe Vera often called the first aid plant. Use the sap for minor cuts, bruises and burns applied  directly on to the wound.
• Chew a Parsley leaf as a breath freshener.
• Calendula or Pot Marigold flowers can be infused and used for dry skin or internally as a digestive aid
• Lavender for scenting linen, making sleep pillows or just sprinkling in a bath.
• Sempervivum sap can take the sting out of insect bites and Dock leaves from nettle stings.
• Rosemary or Camomile teas are used as a hair rinse to make your hair shine
• Thyme or Verbascum leaves infused as a tea becomes a treatment for sore throats
• A handful of fresh herb leaves including Bay dropped into a bath can stimulate the senses. You can use the leaves to make bouquet garni for cooking.
• Onion as a soup especially with sage is great for treating coughs and colds.

The Healing Garden Eden Project by Sue Minter

Grow Your Own Pharmacy by Linda Gray

Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong