Your Questions About Gardening

GardenersCardiff answers:

Some plants need a lot of nitrogen, and nettles contain nitrogen, so its a very eco friendly way to fertilize your plants.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Liar.
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Do your own homework!

GardenersCardiff answers:

Lessee, favorite teas are Lemon Zinger…I drink it iced all summer w/ fruit juice (I particularly like cranberry and/or berry juices w/ the Zinger) and sometimes seltzer. It’s yummy and really, really good for you. I drink Constant Comment Orange and Cloves all winter long, that and different Chais…I also really like Earl and Lady Grey tea. Anything w/ almond, lemon, orange, raspberry or chocolate and hazelnut is particularly up my alley. Tried a Pomegranate tea from Celestial Seasonings and hated it tho’, it sucked. Their Vanilla Rooibus is delicious, however. Chamomile, iced in the summer mixed w/ apple juice and lemonade is delightful. I also like it hot if I’m stressed or tense or can’t sleep. For some reason, I craved it post partum and drank it by the potsful. It was a multi-factorial high risk pregnancy, and I lost my home during it b/c I was on bedrest and couldn’t work and ended up living w/ my 8 yo son first in the home of some born again Christian folk, and then in a homeless shelter, bless them all for their help to us. I now live in my own home, so we have come a long, long way. Now that I think about it, is it any wonder I was drinking chamomile tea by the potful????

As far as tinctures are concerned: I almost always have burdock, nettle, echinaecea, horsetail, goldenseal, lavender tincture and oil, eucalyptus, tea tree oil, oregano tincture and oil and dandelion around. I usually have osha, yerba santa and red root around, too, as well as clover and alfalfa. I often have lobelia around for asthma use, and chamomile syrup for kids. I often have had fraxinus/ceanothus tincture around for women friends w/ endometriosis and vitex for myself and other women friends w/ hormonal issues. Ditto scullcap for cramp use and add cramp bark to that list. I pretty much ONLY go to a doctor for emergencies or when I have no other choice. My daughter had night terrors for years, and the chamomile really helped, as did hematite under her pillow and all around her room, and a dream catcher. I took a while to get her over these are her issues were with her birth father, a very negative Scorpio. Vermont is a particularly wonderful place for burdock, dandelion, clover and alfalfa. Green things grow luxuriantly and are very happy here. I also ALWAYS have Rescue Remedy Tincture and Cream in my home, car and bag and multiple other flower essences going at once.

Tips on making tinctures: 1) Use quart sized Ball canning jars. They’re wonderful for this. 2) I use Everclear or brandy usually to make tinctures. I have also often made herbal infused wines. My dad makes his own wines, but I use store bought and redecant. Don’t have the time or the inclination really to mess with wines and beer yet. I’m sure my son will experiment w/ making beer and ales. He loves them, and with a name like Liam, you can imagine he likes Guinness and ales…You need to be certain whether the medicinal properties of an herb are best gotten out of it by water, by alcohol or by glycerine. There are many other solvents, as well. It is important to inspect, to shake (or succuss) and to turn your tinctures each day. This is sort of like the mama hen tending to her chicks, and puts you energy and intention into the tinctures. I also say prayers for all those who will take my medicines. I have also been known to add crystals to the tincture mother bottle, especially quartz, amethyst and rose quartz. Store them in the dark, both as they are working, and after you have decanted or bottled them. You should bottle into dark brown or cobalt blue glass. These will keep the best. Be careful of keeping the rubber stopper on the medicine bottle as a cover, as alcohol and herbal tinctures LOVE to dissolve rubber. Use a different type of closure instead, even if you have to resort to a cork and wax to make it work. Green herbs will usually finish much sooner than will bark or root tinctures, for obvious reasons.

Except for chamomile, rose hip, dandelion, clover, sage, rosemary, savory, oregano, thymes, basil, dill, artemisia, lavendar, and parsley, which all grow in my garden, and burdock, raspberry and nettle which I wild craft, I usually buy all my teas, and sometimes buy tinctures, too, if I don’t have what I need or the will or inclination to make it. As everything in the Northeast is getting so ridiculously expensive, I have been increasing the size of my garden each year, and doing much, much more work in the woods, meadows and forests to get the medicines I need. I also have a friend/lover who make maitake tincture/cordial and shares it with me. I also buy herbs and spices in bulk at the co-op, so as to conserve on packaging.

As I do not know which herbs you want to tincture, you will have to do your own research, or contact me by e-mail w/ the specifics. I’ll be happy to help if I can.