Cover_Jan 05 (Page 2) - The Parklander Magazine

Stress Relief
By Marcy DiMare
Gardening is theraputic and one
of the best stress-busters, especially now
with this beautiful weather. After a hard
day at the office, puttering for an hour
in your garden or even just sitting there
and looking around is an ideal way to
unwind. It is wholly absorbing and any
gardener who says she or he has never
gone out into the garden and lost all
track of time is either being economical with the truth
or is not a real gardener.
This is a stress-free activity that forces you to slow down
to the pace of the natural world, the pace at which we all
lived until very recently in our history. Being in a garden,
surrounded by beautiful plants, calms the mind and soothes
and lifts the spirits.
Gardening is also very good for you physically. It is
a valuable form of exercise, provided you do not proceed too
aggressively. It works all the main muscle groups and also
gives your heart and lungs a good workout. Did you know
that men and women burn more calories per minute digging
or hedge trimming than they do cycling and only slightly
fewer they do swimming And unlike other forms of exercise,
which are an end in themselves and can become boring very
quickly, gardening has a tangible end product — a beautiful
garden and delicious home-grown products — as well
as benefits to health.
One of the greatest gardening pleasures is growing herbs
and using them fresh from the garden. Since the very earliest
times, we have used herbs not only for food but also for
healing. Every civilization of the past — Egyptian, Greek,
Roman and Mayan — used plants, sometimes in very
sophisticated ways, to heal wounds, cure disease, deaden
pain, lift the spirits and balance the mind. In China and
India the traditions of herbal medicine remain unbroken and
plants and techniques used for 5,000 years are still in use
today. We now grow many herbs in gardens or containers,
not only for their usefulness but for their beauty.
Your garden
can also be your
pharmacy. For
thousands of years,
plants have been
used for medicinal
purposes, and
though herbal
medicine has been out of favor
in the West for the last 200
years, there is a growing revival
in it and other complementary
therapies – aromatherapy and
flower remedies, for example.
Herbal remedies are
potentially very powerful and
should be treated with great
respect. Natural doesn’t mean
harmless. The standard culinary
Nasturtium
herbs are safe to ingest in the
usual ways, but before you take
anything else from the garden
you should always ask a practitioner.
St. John’s Wort comes to
mind. Teas made with 1-2 cups
of flowers per one cup of boiling
water are recommended for
depression. If you have high
blood pressure, you must be
checked weekly if you take
the herb regularly.
Where you grow medicinal
plants, whether in mixed borders
or in separate herb beds or
Aloe Plant
gardens, depends on how much
you like herbs and how you
plan to use the area. If the herbs
are primarily for the kitchen,
and after all, eating them is an
excellent way of taking your
medicine, it makes sense to site
them as close to the kitchen
door as practical. On the other
hand, if you want the herb
garden to be a fragrant retreat,
somewhere to escape to, then
a sunny site at the bottom of
the garden would be ideal. Try
basil, dill, chives, rosemary,
parsley, tarragon, thyme, sage,
St. John’s Wort
marjoram and garlic. Wonderful
flower petals such nastursium,
pansies and roses are terrific in salads.
The medicinal properties of aloe vera have been known
and recorded since biblical times. The semi-tropical Aloe
plant is 95 percent water. It has been used for a variety of
ailments and as an ointment for burns, cuts and rashes,
as well as an ingredient in various beauty preparations
So rather than take indigestion tablets, pick a handful
of mint and make peppermint tea. Or if you’re finding
it hard to sleep, try chamomile tea or lavender oil on your
pillow last thing at night. Pleasant dreams ... ●P
Marcy DiMare, a Broward County Master Gardener, is president of the
Garden Club of Coral Springs. E-mail her at dimare@theparklander.com
Basil Plant
40
Dill Plant