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’s a pleasant satisfaction, too, in preparing herbal remedies for your family, your friends, and yourself. 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.
Waving stems of purple-pink flowers bloom over a dense perennial mat of dark green aromatic foliage. Grows 18-24 inches tall. Best in full sun but tolerates part shade and poor soil. Re-seeds.
Traditional Healing Uses: Oregano tea has been used to relieve coughs, colds, fevers, flu, indigestion, flatulence, and headaches; to promote menstrual flow; and as a gargle for inflamed throats or mouths. Leaves have been applied to cuts and wounds, and warm leaf poultices to painful swelling. Oregano oil rubs have been used for rheumatism, muscular pain, and headaches, and oregano leaf baths and poultices to relieve aches and stiff joints.
Other Uses: As a culinary herb, it is milder than Greek Oregano, but can be used to season greens or vegetables. Flowers can be dried for use in bouquets or wreaths. In the garden, oregano is sometimes planted as a companion to beans.
Harvest: Gather leaves and flowering parts as soon as oregano flowers, avoiding woody stems. Some gardeners cut stems to the base in early blooms and cut a second time in late summer.
Preparation: Pour 1 cup of boiling water on 1 teaspoon of dried herb and let steep 10-15 minutes, 3 times a day.
Take a look at all our Traditional Healing Herbs in this amazing flip-book! Or click here for a poster.
