Back to Strictly Medicinal

Richo's Blog

Menu
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Books
  • About

Tag: Groundcover

Where and How to Grow an Herbal Groundcover

| 8 Comments
| Categories: Growing Hints, Herbal Wisdom, Richo's Blog
Bugle_ajuga_repens

The urge to muck about and create plant habitat goes hand-in-hand with the urge to grow more and more species of plants that need individualized growing conditions.   As your species list increases, you will probably feel motivated to prepare specific plant habitats.  After all, making your plants happy is a way to spread a groundcover of happiness into yourself….

Read More

Andrographis with Richo Cech + Andrographis Tincture Recipe

Shifting Paradigms in Medicine #48 – Preparing Organic Spring Plantings

Shifting Paradigms in Medicine #28 – Cultivating Medicinal Seeds with Plant Expert Richo Cech

Plant Cunning Podcast – Richo Cech and the Secrets of Seeds

hinduvoices.com Interview

https://blog.strictlymedicinalseeds.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/richochecinterview10_15_19.mp3

KZYX.org Interview

https://blog.strictlymedicinalseeds.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/kzyx.org_.interview.m4a

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Top Posts

  • Tulsi (Holy Basil) Type Comparisons
  • Rhodiola Growing Hints
  • First Time Medicinal Herb Garden
  • Info and Tips on Growing Arnica
  • Growing Wasabi from Seeds
  • Growing Mandrake — Beyond the Basics

Follow Us

Follow Us

Archives

Community

  • patrick surgalski
  • Hello
  • farmeress
  • Draz
  • ampga
  • AromatheraChi
  • curvylou
  • 64doors
  • Donna
  • Brenda

Categories

  • Growing Hints
  • Herbal Wisdom
  • Richo's Blog
  • What's Happening

Recent Posts

  • First Time Medicinal Herb Garden
  • Beyond Seed Cleaning Screens
  • Extremely simple seed planting techniques
  • Wild Lettuce, Spontaneous Generation in the Garden of Diversity
  • Pressing Herbal Tinctures—Lessons Learned and Questions Answered

Follow Us On Instagram

Strictly Medicinal Seeds

strictlymedicinalseeds

Organic growers of medicinal herb seeds, medicinal herb plants, organic vegetable seeds and organic garden seeds.

Temperate Tulsi (Ocimum africanum) plants on sale Temperate Tulsi (Ocimum africanum) plants on sale at Strictly Medicinal Seeds. We've been pinching them back to bush them out and they look absolutely great!
(Link in profile)Family: Mint (Lamiaceae)
Annual, harvest at 40 days and ongoing to frost
(Temperate Tulsi) The plant is a bushy annual tea basil with small leaves, purple flowers and a tutti-frutti fragrance. Among all basils in my experience, this one is (surprisingly) the shortest season, most frost-hardy cultivar. I've also seen these self-seed the following year, which is unusual among basils. We tested this cultivar and confirmed the presence of essential oils linalool, nerol, geraniol, citral, icocaryophyllene, humulene, etc. Also ran it for genetic analysis to confirm identity as Ocimum africanum. This is the holy basil my wife and I grow for ourselves to make into tea. We find it very satisfying, with aroma most appealing. Traditional usage (Ayurveda): stress, anxiety, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, and dementia. Drinking tulsi tea in the morning is a fantastic way to get started.
Fringed Pink (Dianthus superbus) with its incompar Fringed Pink (Dianthus superbus) with its incomparably frilly blossoms and unique scent. When a common garden flower proves itself to be a valuable Chinese herb, well, it becomes doubly-attractive. These are worth growing by the door stoop or in a pot on the patio. Their fragrance, a cross between baby powder and strawberry milkshake, will drift.Seeds and plants available at strictlymedicinalseeds.com
(Link in profile)Fringed Pink (Dianthus superbus)Family: Pink (Caryophyllaceae)Hardy to Zones 4 to 8(Qu-mai, Jove's Flower) Herbaceous perennial native to China. Pretty basal rosette gives forth multitudes of lavender flowers with fringed margins. They emit an unforgettable fragrance night and day that is capable of wafting hundreds of yards on a warm, moist breeze. Traditional usage (TCM): bitter tonic, urinary complaints, suppressed menses. Plant prefers sun to part shade and fast draining soil. Germ in 2 weeks. Space plants 1 to 2 feet apart. Flowers to 20 inches.
Strictly Medicinal Seeds Moonflower (Datura inoxia Strictly Medicinal Seeds Moonflower (Datura inoxia) plants on sale for $2.50 off the regular price--price shown ($8.50) is the sale price.
(Link in profile)These are a great late-season addition to the garden, as they grow and flower quickly in warm conditions. There is an additional sitewide sale going on for the next week: 10% off of everything and anything. Employ the coupon code SPRING10 at checkout. Enjoy life like a bee after nectar!Moonflower Datura (Datura inoxia)Family: Nightshade (Solanacea)Hardy to Zones 7 to 12Herbaceous perennial native to Central and South America, with a current worldwide distribution. Flowers oversize even for such a large plant, and completely tuned to the moon. Flaring trumpets, moonshine white, narcotically scented, almost enough to make you swoon! Traditional usage, external only (TWM): asthma, motion sickness, pain. All parts of the plant are toxic, no part of this plant should ever be taken internally. Plant prefers a sunny, mesic to dry location, and will grow in poor soil, sand or cobble. Space plants 3 feet apart.
Giant Anise Fennel (Ferula communis) heralds the s Giant Anise Fennel (Ferula communis) heralds the start of summer. May 15th is our typical last frost date around here. I'm beginning to move plants to field. Slowly. Although frost can be fatal, cool soils are also no bueno for certain types of plants--tomatoes and peppers for instance. Giving the potted greenhoused plants extra top dress of compost prior to setting out assuages their yearning for a week or so--just don't want to see them collapse right prior to transplant. It is a dance, and nobody wants a wallflower. Here's a bit more info on Ferula communis. If you're into Ferulas, there are really a lot of species! Any time you want to check on something like this, don't go to Wikipedia, go to Kew plants online. Much more reliable info.(Link in profile)
Wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa) finding its way to m Wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa) finding its way to my doorstep, finding its way into my salads. How far have we drifted from direct consumption of the herbs of the field? I am attracted to them. They are free for the taking, represent little use of world resources, provide the same nutrients one can purchase in pills without. . . the plastic bottle. This species has many advantages over the common prickly lettuce that people pull from around their carrots. It is equally well-endowed with pain relieving oleo-gum-resin and gratefully free of prickles. Seeds available online at Strictly Medicinal Seeds. If you haven't made your way over to our youtube channel (search Strictly Medicinal Seeds youtube) then I would recommend it as a source for good level-headed and experience-based info on this and other herbs. Here's a bit more info and a picture of the plant that has volunteered at my doorway. Look tasty? It is!Seeds available at strictlymedicinalseeds.com.
(Link in profile)
Common weeds are at the core of Western Herbalism. Common weeds are at the core of Western Herbalism. You'd think they would be easy to source and prolific. However, manufacturing herbalists often have a hard time getting enough of the usual favs like dandelion and plantain. I get this request: "Do you have 3,000 pounds of fresh organic dandelion root available?" ha ha Cultivation seems an obvious option, and foresight is clearly required. A dandelion planted in the spring in organic culture will weigh in at a pound fresh weight, while a dandelion dug from the lawn might weigh an ounce or less. One would think cultivating common weeds would be really easy, but it has its challenges. Many are the times when I've planted for instance a flat of broadleaf plantain and had seedlings come up only from the seeds that landed in the crack between the pots. Seasonality factors are perhaps more relevant for planting weeds than for planting the more elite plants like Echinacea or Elecampane. Nature has timed the weeds to emerge at a certain season, occupy a specific niche, make seeds quickly (which in a manufacturing herbal sense can mean a spindly plant instead of a large robust plant that weighs in heavy). It's a weedy conundrum! A few bits of advice: Plant common weeds at the same time as the same plant makes seeds in nature. When you see dandelions in seed, that is the time to plant dandelions. Make use of volunteer seedlings. I keep an eye out for patches of reprod of my favorite weeds. Sometimes they are really struggling as the world's water becomes scarce when spring fades into summer. I dig the volunteers and pot them up. The next morning, they smile! Somebody could make a good living growing and selling common edible and safe medicinal weeds. We carry seeds of true dandelion (Taraxacum off.) and Plantain (Plantago major) at Strictly Medicinal Seeds. Get a start, and don't be afraid of dropping a little seed along the way--those may just turn out to be the most productive!
Valerian plants (Valeriana officinalis) now on sal Valerian plants (Valeriana officinalis) now on sale at Strictly Medicinal Seeds.
(Link in profile)A quintessential medicinal herb that attracts myriad pollinators to its sweetly scented florific parts. The apothecary garden is incomplete without it. A gentle, inobtrusive and congenial member of any plant population, it is incredibly good for the environment.Read more about Valerian in "Making Plant Medicine" and "Growing Plant Medicine."Here are a few photos and a snippet of info:
Family: Valerian (Valerianaceae)
Hardy to Zones 4 to 8.
Herbaceous perennial native to Europe and temperate Asia. Traditional usage (TWM): sedative. Valerian prefers full sun to part shade and moist but well-drained soils. It will grow all right in dense, clay soils that are composted with organic compost, but really thrives in very fast draining soils such as sandy loam or potting soil made with plenty of pumice. We often cut back the aerials before shipment, as they will transplant better for you that way--just plant in a bigger pot with the crown at the surface of the soil, or plant in a mellow bed in the garden. Plant 1 to 2 feet apart.
Plants eat light. They move in accordance with sol Plants eat light. They move in accordance with solar collection. First photo shows Mullein (Verbascum olympicum) with leaves up to protect from night frost. Second photo same plant with leaves down during the day to collect sunlight. Another example of. . . plant sentience. Mullein seeds of several species available online at Strictly Medicinal Seeds.(Link in profile)
Load More... Follow on Instagram
About

Richo is an internationally recognized expert on the cultivation, processing and usage of medicinal plants. He is the author of the popular herbal, Making Plant Medicine. His life-long interest in seed saving lead to extensive travel and plant exploration, largely in the USA and Africa but also in South America, China and Europe. This collection of seeds, including numerous unique introductions and rare plants as well as many common medicinal plants and permacultural trees, is currently conserved and multiplied in his greenhouses and gardens.

Strictly Medicinal, LLC is the name of this organic seed company and nursery based in Williams, Oregon. The mission is to sow seeds worldwide for the benefit of people, plants and the planet.

Latest Posts
  • First Time Medicinal Herb Garden

    Simple success with just one herb is a great inroad.  Start by planting some…

  • Beyond Seed Cleaning Screens

    The screen used is industrial grade stainless steel, and we have chosen the most…

  • Extremely simple seed planting techniques

    Learn from the plants.  Do it. . . for the plants.   — Richo Cech…

© Copyright Strictly Medicinal LLC 2019. All rights reserved.