You can drive down the street and see lawns of all shape and size. Some of them make you want to take off your shoes and take a walk, others make you want to grab the weed killer and go to town. My yard is one of those...I heard a saying " If you can't beat it, eat it"! That can apply to your lawn as well. If you rolled by my yard at this time of year, you would probably see me gleaning my yard for wild medicinals. Spring is a haven of wonderful tonics, grown right in your own front yard. You can eat them, make medicine, tea, and poultices from these wonderful weeds. So if you have some of these, become one of us "odd" ones, and eat your yard! I will point out some of the common "weeds" of our Georgia lawns, though on my travels I have spotted some of those pests in other states too. Some of my favorites include
plantain:
used for skin problems, It is a rich source of minerals and it is anti-bacterial, anti-allergy, a blood tonic, antacid, expectorant, and helps in wound healing; wild
violet:
this is used as a mild anti-cancer for the lungs, a wonderful remedy for childhood bronchitis, as a poultice that can help reduce swell ling of the tonsils. It can also be used for cystitis, vaginal complaints, and fibroid;
Cleavers:
a lymphatic purifier and cleanser, painful urination, was until recently used for obesity, probably due to its diuretic effect. It has also been useful for bed wetting;
chickweed:
This herb is eaten well and juiced well, is high in vitamin C, it helps with the itch of poison ivy, and bug bites when made into a cream, it cools the body and soothes and relieves irritation of boils and ulcers and abscesses when made into a poultice; Last but not least is
dandelion:
this childhood favorite is a medicinal favorite as well, it is useful for acid reflux, stomach/digestion problems, a valuable source of vitamin A, B, and C, helps with hypoglycemia and liver disorders, inflammation of the gall bladder and congestive heart failure. This is only to name a few! This is only five of the ones I know and love. I will post a few more later. Starting small and getting familiar with them a few at a time can help you to not get overwhelmed. I have found that eating the flowers and leaves of these with your children can help eliminate the fear of the outdoors and make for great educational fun. God has put so many wonderful things here for us to discover for our benefit, it is amazing what was right beneath my nose my whole life and I never knew it! Just cracking the surface of your yard in early spring, you can get started harvesting and making your own herbal medicines for a fraction of the cost that it takes to kill them! These are the herbs I just picked from my yard.
Then in the next few days will show ways to convert these into dried herbs for use in teas and poultices, and how to make a tincture of some of them also. I hope this makes you think twice about supporting Monsanto(more on that later) better known as round-up, and also keeping these herbal weeds alive for future generations to benefit. These herbs are actually on the GA State Institution's list of noxious weeds... sad but true. They hope to kill them all off and are right now in the process of making it illegal to run an herbal or plant selling business if these are found on your property. Hopefully with a little education we can keep eating freely of our weeds, for free, instead of having to buy them from overseas because they have been made illegal to grow. Sounds silly, but 10 years ago we wouldn't have thought half the stuff that is illegal now would ever be, right? Lets do our jobs as Americans and do what our fore-father's did. Eat the stuff we have, learn what we don't know and spread this knowledge on to others. So have fun, eat well and thrive!
used for skin problems, It is a rich source of minerals and it is anti-bacterial, anti-allergy, a blood tonic, antacid, expectorant, and helps in wound healing; wild violet:
this is used as a mild anti-cancer for the lungs, a wonderful remedy for childhood bronchitis, as a poultice that can help reduce swell ling of the tonsils. It can also be used for cystitis, vaginal complaints, and fibroid; Cleavers:
a lymphatic purifier and cleanser, painful urination, was until recently used for obesity, probably due to its diuretic effect. It has also been useful for bed wetting; chickweed:
This herb is eaten well and juiced well, is high in vitamin C, it helps with the itch of poison ivy, and bug bites when made into a cream, it cools the body and soothes and relieves irritation of boils and ulcers and abscesses when made into a poultice; Last but not least is dandelion: 
this childhood favorite is a medicinal favorite as well, it is useful for acid reflux, stomach/digestion problems, a valuable source of vitamin A, B, and C, helps with hypoglycemia and liver disorders, inflammation of the gall bladder and congestive heart failure. This is only to name a few! This is only five of the ones I know and love. I will post a few more later. Starting small and getting familiar with them a few at a time can help you to not get overwhelmed. I have found that eating the flowers and leaves of these with your children can help eliminate the fear of the outdoors and make for great educational fun. God has put so many wonderful things here for us to discover for our benefit, it is amazing what was right beneath my nose my whole life and I never knew it! Just cracking the surface of your yard in early spring, you can get started harvesting and making your own herbal medicines for a fraction of the cost that it takes to kill them! These are the herbs I just picked from my yard.
Then in the next few days will show ways to convert these into dried herbs for use in teas and poultices, and how to make a tincture of some of them also. I hope this makes you think twice about supporting Monsanto(more on that later) better known as round-up, and also keeping these herbal weeds alive for future generations to benefit. These herbs are actually on the GA State Institution's list of noxious weeds... sad but true. They hope to kill them all off and are right now in the process of making it illegal to run an herbal or plant selling business if these are found on your property. Hopefully with a little education we can keep eating freely of our weeds, for free, instead of having to buy them from overseas because they have been made illegal to grow. Sounds silly, but 10 years ago we wouldn't have thought half the stuff that is illegal now would ever be, right? Lets do our jobs as Americans and do what our fore-father's did. Eat the stuff we have, learn what we don't know and spread this knowledge on to others. So have fun, eat well and thrive!
Looking forward to pictures....
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