Traditional Healing Herbs are gentle, nature‑centered ways of easing the symptoms of flus, colds,and digestive upsets, of working with chronic maladies, and of giving first aid for minor accidents such as cuts, bruises, and stings. For thousands of years, people have relied on plants for healing. Gathering summer plants for winter remedies is part of the year’s rhythm. There is a magic in the healing herbs of gardens. This magic consists not only of the plants’ reputed medicinal properties, but in the strong sense of connection and interdependence that comes from growing and collecting what you need to stay healthy. There’s a pleasant satisfaction, too, in preparing herbal remedies for your family, your friends, and yourself. When a child catches cold, one can open a bottle and take out a pill or brew a fragrant pot of peppermint‑yarrow‑elderflower tea. Each way of treating the cold has its advantages, but the sweet ceremony of brewing and offering tea may be as much of a remedy as the herbs themselves. Among the joys of summer can be growing and gathering beneficent garden herbs, drying them in big fragrant bunches for winter teas, and preparing a collection of herbal tinctures, syrups, oils, ointments, and cosmetics. In winter, we can use summer’s bounty to keep ourselves healthy.
Whorls of small white flowers appear summer to fall on 2 foot perennial plants. Grow in full sun and dry, sandy soil. Self-sows.
Traditional Healing Uses: To treat colds, dry coughs, bronchitis, whooping cough, sore throats, fever, hepatitis, jaundice, stomach problems, gall bladder ailments, and to promote sweating. Horehound and marshmallow root together have been used to soothe children’s coughs, asthma, and other lung ailments, and horehound candy drops to alleviate adults’ coughs.
Other Uses: Plants attract bees to the garden; leaves are sometimes candied.
Harvest: Collect leaves and flowering tops in summer and dry in the shade.
Preparation: Pour a cup of boiling water on 1 teaspoon of dried herb and infuse for 10-15 minutes. Take 1 tablespoon doses of tea at a time, and not more than 1 cup total a day.
Caution: Use sparingly; horehound is a laxative in large doses, and may cause irregular heartbeat in very large doses.
