# Best choices for a medicinal garden in north Missouri?



## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

The herbal thread reminded me of my intent to put in a perennial herb garden at the BOL. I know how to grow what I cook with but am a total newbie to growing medicinals. For example, does any variety of rose make usable rose hips? Can I grow St John's wort here? What else is really useful that will grow around here? I'm hoping some of you know more. (Gee I hope Auntie sees this thread.) Thanks for your time!


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## Ralph Rotten (Jun 25, 2014)

I just read a book n this, then returned it, now I can't remember the title for sure...I think this is it:
The Complete Medicinal Herbal: A Practical Guide to the Healing Properties of Herbs, with More Than 250 Remedies for Common Ailments: Penelope Ody, Mark Blumenthal: 9781564581877: Amazon.com: Books

They had a breakdown of each plant's properties, and recipes in the back. But a lotta that stuff can be vaporized. Saves the hassle of making a stew when you can just vape a bowl of rosemary.

There was a book on Amazon that looked intriguing called Prehistoric Herbal medicine. I might ebook that


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

I would start with the herbs you use right now or want to use. 

I have a peppermint bed, it is far away from all other flower/veggie/herb beds because peppermint spreads like crazy! If I recall correctly you have a fair amount of land so you could pick a nice sunny spot and start it there. Once established peppermint beds really don't need any care unless you have a really long hot dry spell.

I am a big fan of marshmallow and again if I recall correctly you have a pond so there must be a marshy area by that where you could plant your marshmallow. Mine is by a faucet that is used a lot so it gets dripped on numerous times a day.

Echinacea (purple cone flower) is so easy to grow, just make sure you get the purpurea. It is drought tolerant after the first year so plant it in an area that is not taking up space where you can easily water. Mine is in the back left corner of our property. Note - if you have goats or sheep you will need to put a fence around it. They love eating it.

Roses you don't want hybrids! Their vitamin content is way to low. If you are lucky enough to have access to wild roses dig them up and plant them on your fence line. They will require water until established then they will take care of themselves. If you need to buy roses the rogusa (sp) variety is the best for harvesting rose hips. 

St Johns wort has the great appeal of being able to tolerate partial shade. It does require a well draining soil. It will also try to take over so plant it where it can spread and not crowd out other plants.

Lung wort needs to be planted under trees, they require shade and are very easy to grow, they are another spreading plant.

Chamomile is a nice herb to have - I buy it in bulk for some reason this plant hates me! It can not tolerate heat, being dry, or getting to much sun. While I love to spend time in the garden this plant (for me) is needy!

Stevia at my home is grown where it gets afternoon shade, it does not tolerate wet soil well at all. I love using stevia to sweeten my teas. Please do not confuse it with the stevia sold at stores. For some reason home grown is better much like a tomato.

Feverfew is grown with my roses. They take the same type of soil and grow well together.

Comfrey needs nitrogen! You must add manure/lawn clippings for to them for them to grow well. You could use a nitrogen additive if you don't have any animals.

I could go on but I hope I am making the point that you can't really have a medicinal herb bed to grow a good selection of medicinal herbs. They need different types of soil and conditions if you want them to thrive and have a good harvest.

There are some that you can grow in a group area. Most of those are culinary/medicinal herbs such as basil, rosemary, sage etc.


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

Thanks for taking the time, Auntie -- that's really helpful! I can see I've got good spots for lots of these species…I guess I'll find out if Marshmallow can survive in competition with cattails at the herp pond. The prairie remnant area should be great for coneflower… I don't remember if there were any coneflowers in it last year, but I had other tall grass prairie species flowering there when we took over the place. I think I'll have to wait until the roses flower to find out if they're local wild types or Multiflora. Don't want to encourage that multiflora or I won't *have* a prairie remnant. Maybe the wet-weather rivulet runs for some chamomile. Anyway, lots of nice options.


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## Arklatex (May 24, 2014)

Thanks for the thread spice and the reply auntie! I want to grow my own echinacea this year. My soil is pretty Sandy and herbs I have had luck with so far is: bee balm, lavender, basil and thyme.


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

This is from the University of Kansas, but I'm guessing that many of these will work where you live too...

Native Medicinal Plant Research Program


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

I plant bee balm aka bergamot in my veggie garden along with alyssum and yarrow because pollinators love them so they are drawn to my garden and will help pollinate my squash and other veggies. Don't forget to sprinkle marigolds in with any of your other herbs and veggies.

The marshmallow and cattails should be fine together. Start the marshmallow on the outside edge of where the cattails are.

Spice I should have mentioned that I made sure that all the herbs I mentioned grow in all of Missouri. I wasn't sure which zone you are in, Missouri has 3 different zones.

Arklatex, echinacea is very easy to grow and it adapts to all kinds of different soil. If you are really concerned about the soil you can add some peat moss to the hole you dig. Gardening and herbs are my two favorite things to discuss.


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## Arklatex (May 24, 2014)

Thanks auntie. I want to introduce the echinacea out here and let it grow on its own. That's what has happened with the bee balm and the lavender. Haven't done much with the lavender but the bee balm I have found to be really useful.

Also, I have discovered that small wild onions grow rampant on my property. They are everywhere. Plus we have dandelion all over.


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

Arklatex said:


> Thanks auntie. I want to introduce the echinacea out here and let it grow on its own. That's what has happened with the bee balm and the lavender. Haven't done much with the lavender but the bee balm I have found to be really useful.
> 
> Also, I have discovered that *small wild onions grow rampant* on my property. They are everywhere. Plus we have dandelion all over.


Arklatex! Is that the most deliciously awful intentional pun ever, or the most deliciously awful accidental pun?


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

Spice said:


> Arklatex! Is that the most deliciously awful intentional pun ever, or the most deliciously awful accidental pun?


LOL I thought the same thing when I read it.


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## Arklatex (May 24, 2014)

Spice said:


> Arklatex! Is that the most deliciously awful intentional pun ever, or the most deliciously awful accidental pun?





Auntie said:


> LOL I thought the same thing when I read it.


Hehe! I made a pun and didn't know it!


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