A couple of weeks ago Owen Cutajar has left me the following question in comments: "Are there any herbs you should avoid making tea from?" Some of those I'm describing in this post. Thank you for your question, Owen! :) Photo of Comfrey herb - courtesy of ESOX LUCIUS First of all a couple of general rules to follow - just to be on the safe side: only use an herb if you know for sure what it is - some plants are poisonous when buying, choose a reliable merchant that sells organic, fair-trade herbs avoid using tea that causes unpleasant reactions - unless ...
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A few days ago I received this email from one of my subscribers: "I have been growing a few coriander seedlings and one pot thrived and the other curled up its leaves and died. I couldn't understand this so searched the web to see if I had done something wrong. What I found was that coriander doesn't like too much water and the one that died was fully out in the weather when we had had a good amount of rain. The other was sheltered. I guess I drowned the poor wee things! Oh well, I am starting off again. The extra pot was ...
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These are seedlings of holy basil herb (Ocimum sanctum). They are tiny but I only planted the seeds - in a planter indoors - on Sunday (four days ago). I was incredibly surprised that they sprouted this early - I guess I managed to provide perfect conditions for once... ;) However, sprouting of seeds depends on many factors and there's no way to control them all. My best advice would be to do your best and then let Mother Nature do her job. Some seeds like parsley can take weeks before they sprout (which takes patience and faith... ) and others just can't wait ...
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I wish there would be an easy answer to your question, Patricia NZ: "I thought that all herbs were medicinal, but if some are poisonous how do you define what a herb is? Have you a good definition please?" Photo Asian Medicinal Herbs - Text courtesy of atlantic-acupunctu re You are right, Patricia. Plants as well as spices, seeds, bark, roots, bulbs,fungi, sea weeds etc. - are called herbs because at one time or another in the history of humankind they were used for healing/medicinal purposes. This morning, while I was thinking about an answer to your question, I came across an article written ...
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A herb of Venus Originally uploaded by borealnz General guidelines for using herbal infusions * Use the herbal material only in case you are 100% certain that it really is the herb in question. * When ill or you have any health concerns, consult a certified health practitioner. * Noone should continuously drink the same infusion for a long period of time (unless prescribed by a registered health practitioner). Generally, the maximum use is for 10 days - and then skip 5 days. * Have one cup of herbal infusion per day, except during acute periods - for instance when you have a cold ...
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