Horticulturalists and herbalists share tips for nurturing plants with health benefits.
Gardening, as numerous studies have found, is good for us. The shovelling and weed-pulling, the exposure to fresh air and sunshine, the sensory engagement with nature — all of that is believed to lower rates of hypertension and heart disease and improve mental well-being. Digging in the soil with our hands may even have a positive impact on our microbiome.
But gardens can also promote health directly through their bounty, as a source of herbal remedies and medicines. It’s an opportunity many gardeners overlook.
“People are often surprised by how many plants have medicinal and therapeutic value,” said Devon Young, who blogs at NittyGrittyLife.com and whose most recent book is The Homegrown Herbal Apothecary.
While harnessing the curative power of plants has become more of a niche activity in the age of lab-derived pharmaceuticals and off-the-shelf supplements, a simple internet search reveals that many common backyard flowers and shrubs, such as roses, hibiscus blooms and Douglas fir needles, have health benefits.
Of course, some plants are toxic to humans and pets, including parts of species that are used for wellness, so care is required. But there are online resources to consult, such as the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the Plants for a Future databases.
If you aim to create a beautiful and ecologically mindful garden that supports physical well-being, Bridghe McCracken, the founder of Helia Land Design in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, recommends prioritising plants native to your region. Even if you never harvest the plants to make teas, tinctures or salves, natives are appealing because they tend to be low maintenance, requiring less watering and fertiliser, and they are good, collaborative citizens in the garden.
“When you’re working with native plants, you’re going to have a garden that is amazing for bees... for pollinating butterflies, for a whole spectrum of insects,” McCracken said.
She pointed out that many of the flowers and shrubs that are healthiest ecologically are also beneficial for human wellness. Her favourites include purple angelica, with its radiating, umbrella-like blooms; spiky Veronicastrum and Agastache; coneflowers such as Echinacea and Rudbeckia; and various types of Monarda, also known as bee balm.
“Monardas are really beautiful to design with,” she said, noting that bee balm can be used as an antiseptic, a mouthwash and a cold remedy. “Monarda punctata, in particular, is just gorgeous, with its coloured bracts, and it stays in bloom for six, eight weeks.”
Selecting the right mix of flowers, herbs and shrubs involves “listening to the land and what plants grow well there”, she said. In her own garden, she puts most of her “tea plants” used for herbal brews and remedies in secondary zones, away from the house, and keeps plants with unharvested blooms closer so she can enjoy their beauty.
Ethan Dropkin, a designer and horticulture specialist at Larry Weaner Landscape Associates, a firm based in Glenside, Pennsylvania, often takes a similar approach to residential projects. He and his fellow designers plan “aesthetically structured, human-centric areas” close to the house, he said, while “the farther out you get, we usually go more naturalistic”.
The firm is known for meadow landscapes, where summertime expanses of undulating grasses might be flecked with purple Echinacea, pink Joe-Pye weed, yellow Rudbeckia and goldenrod, orange butterfly weed and the white thistle-like flower heads of rattlesnake master — all natives that have uses in herbal medicine.
Among other attractive, ecological plants that have therapeutic value, Dropkin pointed to native mints, including the Monardas and mountain mint, which has small white flowers and blooms most of the summer, though he cautioned that it can spread quite vigorously.
He also highlighted yarrow. “They have antibacterial properties, so you can pick the leaves and put them on a cut, or you crush them up into a poultice, or you can throw them in hot water and you make tea,” he said. “The leaves are evergreen and ferny-looking, so they’re very beautiful even when not in flower. They’re also good for pollinators and act as a host plant for moths.”
When it comes to preparing herbal remedies, Young noted that a variety of preservation methods can be used, and that they are typically dictated by the plant type. “Anything with a fairly thin leaf or delicate flower can hang dry,” she said. For fleshier, more succulent plants, she uses a dehydrator, while resinous plants go in the oven, on a low setting. “With some things I’ll create a tincture using them fresh,” she said.
Among her favourite natives are the coneflowers Echinacea and Rudbeckia. “As an herbalist, I like to use the whole plant — the roots, the stem, the leaves, and the flowers,” she said. “You can either tincture fresh or prepare a tea, along with other, better-tasting herbs such as mint, and it works as a powerful immune stimulant.”
Interest in wellness gardens can take many forms, according to Dara Saville, the author of The Ecology of Herbal Medicine and the founder of Albuquerque Herbalism, a community programme that trains people to work with plants for healing purposes. Some of her students are interested in ecology, while others want to connect with Indigenous healing traditions, she said. Many are people who have chronic health problems and are not receiving effective treatment through mainstream health care paradigms, “so they’re taking matters into their own hands”.
Saville described her own gardening style as feral: “I let plants migrate around and show me where they want to be and who they want to be next to,” she said.
Topping her list of favourites is yerba mansa, a US desert wetlands native long used medicinally in the region. Its therapeutic benefits include “energising your urinary system, your digestive system, your respiratory system”, she said.
“It’s antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory. It just does all of these things simultaneously, invigorating your whole body to be healthier and more vital.”
Plus “it has gorgeous white flowers and is a really beautiful addition to the garden”.
Showcasing the visual allure of native wellness plants has been a personal mission for Mihalis Petrou, a landscape and floral designer in New York City. After a friend entrusted him with an abandoned lot in Astoria, Queens, close to a decade ago, he set about installing planters and beds teeming with flowering natives.
“At one point, I had over 400 species there,” Petrou said. He began using them in fashion photo shoots for Oscar de la Renta and magazines like Numéro and Out, as well as in installations for events. “Instead of going to the flower market, I would head to my garden in Queens and harvest fresh native plants that look spectacular,” he said.
Bee balm, Echinacea, goldenrod, Joe-Pye weed and red columbine are all part of his repertoire. Some he also uses for herbal teas — yarrow, Agastache and mountain mint among them. “They’re so tasty and aromatic,” he said. “I just boil them fresh without drying them. It’s a little more bitter when they’re fresh, but I actually like that.”
Petrou said he sees parallels between the worlds of gardening and fashion, specifically the correlation between looking good and feeling good, and how that creates positive energy and inspiration.
Young echoed that sentiment. “Art is therapy and landscaping is art,” she said. “Having a wellness garden that is beautiful, that’s medicine in itself.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Stephen Wallis
Photographs by: Tony Cenicola
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