Here in Perth most people already know our soils are not easy to grow things in, because it’s not really soil, it’s alkaline sand, at least near the coast. Western Australia also has some of the oldest soil on the planet, and while the native plants are completely adapted, growing food or plants from other places can be challenging. 

However I grow many Mediterranean herbs such as parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, lemon balm, basil, chives, mints, lavender and coriander, in my backyard, in the ground and in pots, and I pick and cook with them daily. 

All these plants and many more suitable for local climates are available at the big green shed, but also many  other wonderful nurseries, and I often find them at swap meet too. I often buy several varieties, so I have both curly and flat leaf parsley, several types of mint and sage. 

Here are some tips: 

In my backyard is a Holy Basil plant, otherwise known as Tulsi plant (Ocimum sanctum) that has grown rather large as seen in the photo. It is one of my top favourite medicinal plants, and highly revered in India and Ayurvedic medicine as the “Queen of Herbs”, the “Mother Medicine of Nature” and “The Incomparable One”. She is even considered to be an incarnation of the goddess Tulsi, who is a symbol of protection and devotion. It is used in many spiritual rituals, as well as lifestyle and health practices. 

In India Tulsi is often grown in the garden,……

At this time of year my dear husband Dave mutters, and swears a bit, as he often walks through the garden with shorts or bare feet at night, or first thing when he checking the rat traps or collecting eggs…and brushes against the copious nettles popping up all over the place, between bricks in the paving, along paths, and inside the chook pen. We have discussed this before, and I insist he just needs to wear long pants and shoes and respect the nettles. But I do understand, because they are prolific for a short time, and I am rather protective of them.

The nettles have been popping up for a month or so, and I am ready to harvest the first baby nettles for soups and stews. At this stage, they are soft and juicy and perfect for cooking. As soon as they are heated, they lose their sting. Once they are a bit older and taller, I will harvest most of the rest and dry it for tea, and then at the end of the season, I will harvest the last plants for seeds.

Nettles are so nutritious and have many traditional benefits—below are just a few that I hope inspire you to make friends with this medicinal food.

t is easy to make a herbal honey.

Take a clean jar. Fill it up with a fresh herb of your choice…….

You may have heard of the saying “rosemary is for remembrance”. That is because rosemary has long been known for helping with memory. And studies do confirm this traditional use. But first, I want to share about how it can help energetically. Rosemary is warming and grounding………

Nootropics is a term used by the pharmaceutical industry for substances that enhance memory and/or cognitive performance. I.e ADHD drugs are in this category. In this article I am going to introduce some herbal and nutritional nootropics. You may not have heard that term before- nootropics- but it really just refers to helping your brain perform better. They may also be called smart drugs, because they are meant to improve mental performance in healthy people.

Many people use these medicines to enhance their performance, but they may also be beneficial at specific times such as when studying, going through menopause, suffering from brain fog, or wanting to keep your brain in its best shape as you age. They may also be used as a potential preventative when there is a family history of dementia and memory loss.

Nootropic herbs and natural substances have crossovers with both adaptogenic and nervine herbs, but specifically refer to substances that enhance the brain and mind capacity. However, of course, they need to work in the context of the whole person and their lifestyle. They will not work as well when the diet is poor, when stress is high.

In this article I would like to differentiate between nervines- herbs that have a beneficial effect on the central nervous system- and adaptogens- herbs that help a person adapt to stress. Adaptogens are taken long-term and generally, don’t have an immediate effect. I am going to discuss nervines in this article. They are herbs that we can use either every day or as needed. They can have a fairly immediate effect. You can find nervines in many popular herbal tea mixes or supplement products on the shelves of pharmacies and health food stores or online.

We all need to be able to access deep rest……

Stress is such an often used but vaguely defined term. When we refer to stress we are usually referring to a state of feeling overwhelmed, tense, anxious, frustrated, irritable or nervous. Not just occasionally, but often chronically. We get stuck "on." Our default becomes tension rather than relaxation.

I have been focusing on unwinding stress in my own life. It is such a major underlying contributor to so many health issues……..

We have been marketed to, that natural medicines come as tablets in small bottles. Not much different to pharmaceutical medicines really, in terms of how we take them. Next to the ibuprofen or aspirin in our home medicine cabinet is vitamin C or a Blackmore's cold and flu support supplement.

Taking a handful of supplements every day is not a wholistic approach. Living plants carry life energy. The Indians might call it Prana, the Chinese Qi. I tend to call it Life Energy.

Do you know what echinacea tastes like- how it tingles your tongue? Do you know what the turmeric plant looks like? How beautiful the ancient ginkgo trees are in the autumn in Japan?

In 2021 a good quality study was done with 187 healthy children age 4-12 years, which showed that taking an echinacea purpurea supplement could reduce antibiotic usage for respiratory tract infections by up to 32%, compared to taking Vit C.

eeling frazzled, fractious, overwhelmed or overstimulated? With everything going on in the world lately, it is hard not to be affected, since we all live on this planet together.

Sometimes simple remedies can be the best for supporting us in coping. I am sitting here with a cup of hot chamomile tea because I was recently reminded of its benefits and blessings.

Medicinal mushrooms are used for supporting the immune system, for helping us deal with the effects of stress, for harmonising energy in the body, anti ageing, increasing stamina, and many other effects according to the specific fungi. Unlike in our modern western medical system, traditional medical systems also focus on health and prevention of illness, and this is where mushrooms really shine, to strengthen imbalances before they become serious. However, they are also being used in serious disease such as cancer.

I am going to cover 5 of the most popular and available mushrooms.

Reishi

St John’s Wort is a popular and well studied herb with great benefit, equivalent to anti-depressants without the side effects, for many people with mild to moderate depression and/or ‘melancholy’. I like the term melancholoy because many people don’t relate to the term “depression” but might relate to “melancholy” or “a bit down” or “a bit blue”, or they just don’t feel much joy and are just going through the motions in their life. Also, seasonal affective disorder can also be a mild or more severe sense of melancholy that can be benefitted with St John’s Wort…..

Since yesterday was a day for celebrating women, I thought I would share about Shatavari (Asparagus recemosus), a herb that is of great benefit for women, that is closely related to the asparagus plant we eat.

Shatavari is one of the most beloved herbs in the Ayuredic medical system,…

Adaptogens are herbs and other substances that increase our ability to adapt, and are used for a variety of reasons such as to support us as we age, to build resilience, to regulate our immune system, to help with all sorts of degenerative diseases, to regulate our metabolism, to help with fatigue, to increase survival, in sports medicine…and to help us handle stress better.

Adaptogens is really a Russian term,…..

One of my favourite herbal medicines is an ancient Ayurvedic tonic called Triphala. There is a saying in India....you have no mother? Never mind if you have Triphala. In other words, triphala takes care of our internal organs. In Ayurveda, it is considered virtually a panacea.

Herbal remedies can be as effective as pharmaceutical drugs, for mild to moderate depression. In an examination of the previous studies on saffron, it was found that saffron is “superior to placebo” and “not inferior to antidepressants” for mild to moderate depression……

Adaptogens are herbs that give us strength, stamina and stress relief. They have so many benefits for our modern lifestyles, and have been used traditionally for thousands of years. We are fortunate to have such access to so many of them nowadays. 

This article will explain some ways to deal with acute or chronic anxiety and stress in a safe and immediate way with herbal medicine. Often, when we are in an anxious or otherwise distressed state of mind, we can forget the resources we have available to us to calm our activated nervous system. I work with herbs, nutrition and other simple but effective tools, but this article will just focus on a few of the herbs.