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Ann Agent
I’ve been observing the plants on our 10 acre property growing wild. This past year, was the first year we’ve lived on it through spring, summer and fall. Please comment below the herbs/plants you have identified on your property or in your nearby area!!!
Here’s my observations!
– Bitterroot — its a beautiful flower, it grows in our rocky patches. Blooms in May. I identified it the very first year we had the property.
– Wild Strawberry — it grows in the shade under the very FEW trees we have on our property. The fruit is very tiny, if I get the chance to harvest any fruit, its just ONE each year.
– Yarrow — the first year we bought the property it was a literally FIELDS everywhere of the fragrant flowers and leaves. The subsequent years it hasn’t been as prolific. But, I just love the scent, wishing I had known how to harvest it from the very beginning.
– Arnica Montana — The first time I saw it bloom was our first year actually living on our property and I have a friend who makes Arnica oil, confirm it was Arnica and let her collect blooms for making her oil. I’m really happy about this one!!!
– Fireweed — I’ve only seen just ONE plant. Unfortunately, it was growing at the foundation of our pole barn and I had to pull it 🙁 I tried to ‘transplant’ it, but I made a poor choice and the plant was dead within 24 hours. I hope it shows up again in the future.There are more, but this is just the beginning!
New to the School, going through the lessons, this is my first original thread.
Liberty or Freedom? Know the difference!
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Diane O'Donnell
That is so exciting to find how many plants are on your land! We are saving up for some land, and that is probably the first thing I will do lol! For now we are renting a modest house in the suburbs, and we have had goose foot (lambs quarters), dandelions, wild lettuce, and purslane just show up naturally. Former tenants had already planted lemon balm, garlic chives, rhubarb, and white sage. I have added anise hyssop, comfrey, mint, chamomile, yarrow, plantain, mullein, lemon thyme, and lavender. I have made tinctures with some, and I eat the rest in salads and smoothies for breakfast. Ten acres! I am so happy for you!
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Your list reminded me a few I missed!
Dandelion – of course, this one is EVERYWHERE — it has overtaken our driveway and my husband wants to put toxic chemicals on it. And I insist he leave them to ME to take care of (giggle)
Mullein – yes we have an abundance of this as well. This year we dug up a spot looking for the end of some plumbing and that 8ft square cleared dirt area ended up with a huge crop of mullein growing all over it. Its not an area I want it to be growing, so I pulled it out this fall. Since they were first year plants they were easy to pull.
Cleavers – saw some growing under one of the very few trees we have. I’m looking forward to seeing more of it coming back in the spring.
Blue Elderberry – (grows in the Western US from the Rocky Mountain range to the Pacific Coast) This is about 1/4 mile from my place on the side of the access road. This is one really old ‘tree’ that died back pretty bad last winter and not much of it grew this past yr. I’ve been harvesting from it for 4 years now, but nothing harvested from it this past yr because it really had died back, I left it well enough alone.Ones I want to plant are Lemonbalm, Peppermint, Comfrey and the usual culinary herbs I’d like to plan this year: Basil & Rosemary. Unfortunately, we have been gone all winter and part of spring…. I may not get to plant any this year again. I’d like to plant a whole row of Elderberry along our fence line.
Liberty or Freedom? Know the difference!
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Jodie Masella
Hi there! I just started learning about medicinal herbs from my neighbor last year. Now I use “Picture this” app before I pull any weeds on my land that I don’t know. The app has been great in identifying herbs, trees and weeds.
So far I have different varieties of Sage, chives, Ukranian garlic, Basil, Lemon balm, Rosemary, Thyme, Peppermint, Spearmint, Catnip, plantain, wild strawberries, lots of Comfrey I planted 2 years ago (I just took my dried leaves today and put them in the blender to make them into a powder). In our pasture area we have lots of Yarrow, Mullien, Jewelweed (great for poison ivy and it usually grows right next to the poison ivy too!)
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Sydnia Ginger Anady
I’m traveling right now, and where I am staying has Smooth Desert Dandelion, Common Mallow, Silver Scale Salt Bush, Chaparral, Nevada Ephedra, Nepalese. Hoping to find some White Sage, Rosemary, and Elder leaves
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Mandi Ihde
What part of the US are you in? We live on the Gulf Coast, right outside of Pensacola. We have almost 5 acres, and when we bought the land, we were blessed to find thickets of elderberry. This past year I harvested probably 20-25 lbs of elderberries, and that didn’t even come close to what was on the bushes! I was so thankful! Besides elder, I’ve also identified wild lettuce, ivy-leaved morning glory, Japanese hawksbeard, dandelion, red clover, Chinese tallow tree, White vervain, motherwort, blue vervain, camphor laurel, Florida betony, sweet gum, cottonwood, bur buttercup, spotted lady’s thumb, Chinese privet, cleavers, bidens, dewberries, chickweed, purple dead nettle, pecans, dock, fleabane, passionflower, muscadine, hyssop, and probably more that I’m forgetting. (I may have gone a little crazy with plant identifying, lol) In May of this year, we started creating a small food forest, and so far we’ve planted olive trees, several plum varieties, peach trees, apple trees, mulberries, bananas, papayas, black cherry trees, mayhaws, vitex, Florida soapberry, witch hazels, pineapple guavas, tulsi basil, woad, calendula, aloe, peppermint, echinacea, comfrey, yarrow, a bunch of different gingers, turmeric, lemon balm, chamomile, hibiscus, boysenberry, mexican petunia, blueberries, rosemary, blackberries, mullein, ashwaghanda, american hazelnuts, roses, Jerusalem artichoke, taro, and other “normal” trees that people plant, like oaks, redbud, red maple, etc. Holy moly, I didn’t realize how much work we had put into our little piece of land until I started typing it all out!
I love that you’re able to grow arnica! Our climate seems too hot and wet to grow it with any success. Oh, and elder seems to propogate well from cuttings, so hopefully you can have your fencerow of elder soon!
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Gwen Bruington
We moved to 12 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia about 25 years ago. There are some plants that have been growing here naturally and some we’ve added over time. Some that we have grown in the past have disappeared for one reason or another. Here’s our list of what’s here currently: yarrow, holy basil (it pops up EVERYWHERE), elderberry (this has also become quite invasive), spearmint, peppermint, cleavers, purple dead nettle, stinging nettle, catnip, lambs quarter, violets, mullein, comfrey, raspberry, catmint, dock, dandelion, plantain, rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano/marjoram, lemon balm, lemon verbena, lavender, red clover, honeysuckle, forsythia, parsley.
Our property is mostly wooded, with maple, oak, several varieties of pines, cedar (also very invasive!), tulip poplar and many others. Some years ago I planted a linden tree, and it’s doing quite well, but apparently it takes 15 years before it’s supposed to start blooming. I’m not exactly sure when I actually planted it, but I’m looking forward to seeing flowers some springtime in the near future.
I’ve been reading quite a bit lately about usnea and I’m planning to explore some of the nether regions of our property with hopes that I might actually find some. A fellow Appalachian herbalist has it on her land, so it seems like a real possibility.
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Oooh, yes! Usnea! My parents have usnea growing on their land, which isn’t too far from me. I may attempt to transfer it to a few of our trees!
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SarahBec
I’ve found over 50 different edibles and/or medicinals (mostly wild) on our 20 acres in central Oklahoma. Lots of yarrow, passion fruit, wood sorrel, plantain, purslane, wild garlic, juniper, wild oats (which I’m really not sure what to do with!). The deer LOVE elderberry and comfrey, and pretty much anything else I plant, so I’m challenged on that front.
It seems I find something new almost every year. It is truly amazing! Now, being a new student here, I want to learn how to use all of it well! 🙂
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