This plant is one of the most useful medicines anyone can grow in their garden. In herbal medicine we literally use Melissa officinalis (Lemon Balm) from top to bottom! We grow and harvest Melissa to make tinctures, glycerites, hydrosols and to dry for tea mixes.
This time of the year as things swing back into action with the growing season we always turn our attention to herbal medicine making for clinical practice using the plants from our garden, and this year our woodland too, to produce oils, glycerites, vinegars, tinctures and more! We make our herbal oils fresh every year using numerous wild and cultivated plants.
Mmmmm! Think I have a new obsession! Years ago I would have experimented with making kale crisps but I must say they never tasted as good as Beech leaf or Nettle crisps. You can try making this simple snack from most edible wild leaves
These little beauties are Monkshood (Aconitum napellus). We’re planting these young Aconite’s into nursery beds where they will remain for the next year. Many people will be familiar with Aconite as a Homeopathic remedy but not many people, including our Homeopath friends, recognise the plant.
Going through the last few crates of plants that came from our old farm in Sligo I found 9 missing Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) plants! I remember digging them up from one of the polytunnels when we were moving… but had misplaced them and they had been left outside in a crate of soil for 2 whole winters!
