Are you start out to think about what you ’d like to engraft this year ? I ’m behind in this regard , but it ’s just as well because I ’m still changing what I ’d like to do with many of my bed . Beyond our unconstipated food garden , we are thinking about how we would like to design our various precept gardens that we have for student and visitant here at the farm .
A big initiative this year will be growing herbs that are used in the Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic tradition . I am a adult worshiper that our medicine should be local , but that does n’t always intend that it has to be native . As TCM and Ayurveda gain more of a beachhead here in the United States , would n’t it be proficient if we could get to know these plants in our own garden instead of import them from across the ocean ?
A favorite TCM works of mine is one many of you may be intimate with for another reason : mellifluous annie ( Artemisia annua ) is a plant people either love or love to hate . A few years ago , I did n’t really have a go at it much about it , so I buy three plants from a local greenhouse and placed them in my kitchen herbaceous plant garden . Some of you may judge what come about next .
Sweet annie is in the wormwood home . It grows really well Ohio ’s Lucius Clay filth , preferring full sunlight , well - drained grime and at least 95 days in the growing time of year . Some suggest that it wo n’t grow as big if you transplant it , but either way , sweet annie quickly becomes a sweet smell monstrosity . Over the course of a grow season , this ferny encroacher will grow to the sizing and shape of a Christmas tree . If you do n’t thin it out , you wind up with a hedge .
The good news : If you have a lot of sweet annie , there are many good uses .
Crafting With Sweet Annie
Sweet annie has made its name among family line who like to utilize dried bloom in their homes . The aroma you get when brushing against this plant life is heavenly . Place a dried wreath or sprig anywhere in your mansion where there will be a second of humidity , and it will fill the strain with its perfume .
Sweet Annie Medicine Medicine
In TCM , sweet annie is known as Qing hao . It ’s used to cool the blood and to treat malaria and fever . In fact , westerly herbalist have also used it for malaria for quite some time . The flora is antibacterial and very useful for stomach upset due to its high volatile - oil content . Many modern malaria outbreaks are immune to quinine , and sweet annie has been a lifesaver in these case .
lately , westerly practitioners have also begin to habituate the plant in treating Lyme disease with quite a bit of success . In all situations , the herbaceous plant can be used as a tea , pill or alcohol-dependent extract .
If you decide to raise Sweet Annie , I ’d recommend you put it somewhere that you will routinely sweep up against it or sense it on the wind . It is n’t especially attractive , but lining a path makes for a sweet-flavored walk . It is reap when the flowers are just open up . You may either cut it down to the base to prevent it self - seeding or leave a few branches behind to populate your garden for years to come .
