Hangovers and the Medicinal Garden

At the beginning of this week master of the house Dick Strawbridge asked me to research medicinal plants for use at Newhouse Farm. The idea was to create a medicinal garden which would be used for curing any sickly members of the household with natural remedies, rather than resorting to pill-popping paracetamols. Like most people I had a vague idea that peppermint tea settles an upset stomach, or that lemon and honey soothes a sore throat. But as I sat down to start my research next to a towering stack of books all crammed full of dense facts on plants and their properties, I began to feel more than a little daunted. My knowledge of peppermint tea seemed a bit paltry compared to these tomes of herbalist expertise. Where on earth should I begin?

The first book I turned to used far too many big words such as cyanogenic heterosides and anthracenosides for my liking. I wasn't attempting to study for a thesis, I just wanted to find out which medicinal plants do what. The next couple of books I flicked through also seemed to be fairly intimidating, but after a while I came across a book that categorised medicinal plants by ailments. Acne, Altitude Sickness, Angina, Anxiety: ailment after ailment was listed alphabetically along with detailed information about plants that could provide the remedy. The more I read, the more intrigued I became. I was expecting medicinal plants to be fairly exotic or unheard of specimens. But instead I realised that many plants, flowers, and so called weeds that most people have in their gardens or kitchens could be used to treat common ailments. For instance, ginger is great for headaches as it is anti-inflammatory and a pain-reliever. And who'd have though that dandelion root relieves constipation, stomach aches, stimulates the liver and is full of anti-oxidants, so it's a perfect hangover cure!

A few hours later I had acquired several pages of notes and a new-found enthusiasm for medicinal plants. It seemed that pretty much any ailment you could think of had a host of herbal remedies. But there was only a limited amount of space at the farm in which to plant the medicinal garden, certainly not enough space to have every herb mentioned in the books. So I thought it might be a good idea to pick a few choice ailments that members of the Newhouse Farm household suffer from, and plant the necessary medicinal plants to treat them. I may have only lived at the farm for a month, but I already had a pretty good idea which common ailments would crop up time and again. These were: Colds and Flu; Headaches; Bites, Stings and Bruises; Sleep/Insomnia; Indigestion and Constipation; and last but not least... Hangovers!

Once this list of ailments was chuckled at and approved by the powers that be, James helped me to work out a design for the medicinal garden. We decided that it would be useful to have a separate bed for each ailment. So if you were suffering from a hangover, you could stumble out into the garden and easily grab a handful of the correct herbs from the hangover section. Also, many of the medicinal plants I'd selected were multi-purpose: for instance lavender is not only good for sleep but also for bites. Therefore it seemed a good idea to design the garden layout so that beds that contained multi-purpose plants would be next to each other, in order that the plants could overlap. This was easier said than done, and there was a fair amount of head scratching as James and I tried to work out which bed should go where.

Finally the medicinal garden layout was created, and over the next couple of days James and I set to work making this plan become a reality. For clarity we wanted to separate each bed with stone borders, which meant sourcing and hauling suitable stones from the four corners of the farm. Some of these stones had bits of detailing on them, and may possibly have been remnants of a medieval priory that reputedly once stood somewhere in the village and was pulled down and destroyed by Henry VIII. What's more rumour has it that the ghost of one of the priory monks still haunts the area, and has even tapped a former resident of the farm on the shoulder! However no ghostly apparitions bothered James and I, as we painstakingly placed the stones one after the other to create the borders.

The next job was to prepare the beds by turning over the soil and getting rid of any weeds or unwanted plants, which of course ended up in the compost. Then I set to work tidying the trellising at the rear of the medicinal garden, which was covered in ivy, honeysuckle and old man's beard. We decided to keep the latter two because they not only look very lovely, but are also great for bees. But sadly the ivy had to go, and as I attacked it with my secateurs I couldn't help grinning with the thought that Holly was attacking Ivy. (I know, I know, yet another bad joke!) Once the garden was prepared, James and I found several of the medicinal plants which were already growing at the farm, and moved them into the correct beds for the ailments they cure. These were plants such as mint, comfrey, lemon balm and sage.

After watering the plants, James and I stepped back to admire our handy work. I must say that I feel a great deal of satisfaction from looking at the medicinal garden, bare as it may be for the time being. Dick, James, and his sister Charlotte all seem to be quite happy with this new use for what was formerly a flowerbed. Now I need to source some seeds for the additional herbs I'd like to add to the beds, which I'll be germinating in the Geodesic Dome. And in the next few months I'll start to experiment with creating teas, lotions and mysterious potions to attempt to cure our aches and pains. Hmm, perhaps I should be looking to acquire a cauldron soon! "Double, double, toil and trouble..."

Natural Remedies:
If you're interested in growing your own natural remedies, perhaps you'd find it useful to look at the plants we'll be putting in the 'ailment' beds in the Newhouse Farm medicinal garden:

• Colds and Flu: Lemon Balm, Echinacea, Garlic, Thyme, Sage. We're also planning to use Shiitake Mushrooms which grow in the dark depths of the lane.

• Indigestion and Constipation: Figs, Peppermint, Camomile, Ginger, Fennel, Angelica and Marsh mallow. Maybe even the super laxative Senna as well, although I've read it must be used with great care!

• Bites, Bruises and Stings: Calendula, Lavender, Comfrey and Arnica. Apparently moist used tea bags are also good for easing the discomfort of stings.

• Sleep/Insomnia: Valerian, Lemon Balm, Passion flower, Camomile and Hops. Behind the Sleep bed is a hammock, which hopefully will end up being the most soporific section in the garden as anyone who lies there will be wafted to sleep with the sedative aromas.

• Headaches: Peppermint, Passion flower, Valerian, Ginger, and Rosemary. Willow is also good for headaches due to it's pain relieving ingredient (the same one as in aspirin). There's loads of willow at the farm, however I won't be planting any in this bed because its roots would dry out all the surrounding area.

• Hangovers: Chilli Pepper, Dandelion, Peppermint and Licorice.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, and if you have any suggestions I'd love to here them. For instance I just found out yesterday that Borage was widely used in medieval times as an aphrodisiac, although quite what you're supposed to do with it to make it so I have no idea. Perhaps next time I see someone lustily chewing on a bit of Borage I'll know why!

PS: James' sister Charlotte isn't usually mentioned in the posts because she's moved to London, but she came back for a visit. Charlotte is a singer/songwriter and has a truly beautiful voice, so if you'd like to listen to her go to her MySpace site following this link. I think her album is due out very soon too.