I am an organic gardener, so you will never see me write anything in this column about applying pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers. There is an alternate organic method for solving just about every garden problem. There is, also, the alternate mind set. For example, my lawn is not full of weeds; it is a wonderful source of medicinal plants and herbs. These include dandelions, chickweed, plantain, purslane and stinging nettle.
Dandelion leaves taste great in salads if picked when young before the plants flower. The leaves are high in vitamins A and C, niacin and potassium. Tea made from fresh or dried dandelion roots cleanses the blood, liver and gallbladder and stimulates the kidneys to remove toxins via the urine.
The root tea also lowers blood sugar, inhibits the growth of fungus that causes yeast infections and has an anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor effect. Rubbing the milky sap from the stem on skin fades liver spots.
Chickweed has small smooth, oval leaves with tiny white flowers. Use the leaves in salads, soups and stir fries or boiled as a vegetable to provide vitamin C and phosphorus. Throw some chickweed in your bath water to reduce the inflammation of rheumatic joints.
Plantain has broad, oval leaves close to the ground and a green nubby stalk shooting up out of the middle. Crush plantain leaves and apply them to relieve the pain of bites, stings, burns or poison ivy. Plantain has mild anti-inflammatory and antibiotic effects.
You are more likely to find purslane in your flower or vegetable garden than in your lawn. It has small, smooth, fleshy leaves on reddish stems that lie along the ground. The flowers are tiny and yellowish. Purslane is a nutrition powerhouse to add to your salad: it contains vitamins A and C, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, boron, zinc and omega-3 fatty acids.
If you’ve ever been stung by stinging nettle, you know what it looks like. For those lucky people who haven’t been stung, nettle is 12 to 50 inches tall with narrow, toothed leaves, small greenish flowers and invisible stiff stinging hairs that you will never forget once you’ve touched them. The many benefits of a tea made from dried stinging nettle leaves (once dried, no more sting) warrant donning thick leather gloves and collecting as much as you can find. Nettle leaves are a source of vitamin C, potassium and iron.
The tea is used to purify blood, control bleeding ulcers, relieve hay fever and allergy, as a diuretic and astringent, and for anemia, gout, glandular diseases, rheumatism, poor circulation, enlarged spleen, diarrhea and dysentery.
This year when your neighbors are dumping toxic chemicals all over their perfect green lawns, go out and harvest some good health from yours instead!
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