of homespun goodies from the plants growing all around you.
Good luck – and have fun!
2 THE BASICS: GROWING AND MAKING
If some glossy cosmetics ads with their slick marketing spiel are to be believed, the makers of natural remedies must trek up the Amazon to find the rarest botanical ingredients, then prepare them in state-of-the-art laboratories belonging to huge Swiss institutes. So it is entirely understandable why so many people are daunted just by the idea of making home remedies. Fortunately, the romantic stories of marketing men, though they might make for beautiful TV adverts and entertaining reading, are very far from the truth.
More than three-quarters of the world relies on plants as the primary form of healthcare, and plant-based remedies have evolved as cheap, simple and easy-to-prepare solutions for people with very little time, resources or money. It is for this reason that I passionately believe plant-based remedies to be as relevant for our society as they are for shamans in the Andes or farmers in Malaysia. The average kitchen in the United Kingdom is infinitely better equipped than my gran’s back in Borneo, where she would effortlessly whip up all manner of lotions and potions in mere minutes, from what were effectively the hedge trimmings out of the back garden. With mod cons like blenders, microwaves and dishwashers at our disposal, it is much quicker and easier for us to rustle up a recipe – no matter how domestically challenged we think we are. In this section I reveal a few tricks of the trade, which I hope will help demystify the growing side of things, and a couple of simple rules to ensure flawless concoctions every time.
It never fails to surprise me how many people seem utterly convinced they have some kind of superhero-like ability to kill plants. Please don’t worry: pruning techniques needn’t be perfect, and cultivation doesn’t need to be absolutely spot on to get a plant to thrive well. In fact, to my mind the single most important rule in gardening, and one which is hardly ever mentioned, is that it is in a plant’s own interest to grow. Plants have been around for millions of years without any help from humans and have independently evolved a huge range of ingenious strategies to cope with even the harshest conditions. As long as you place them in an environment that roughly matches the conditions they originally come from, they honestly are quite happy to take care of themselves – with little or no intervention from green (or not so green) fingers. In this section, I outline exactly how to identify your garden type – trust me, this is much more straightforward than it sounds! – and which plants are most likely to succeed in the conditions you have. If you get these two bits right, that’s half the battle won.
As for herb plants, it’s a wonderful coincidence that these happen to be the easiest of all plants to grow. Having originally evolved as weedy species that spring up on any piece of disturbed ground, they are perfectly happy to put up with all kinds of punishment, with many thriving on pure neglect.
If you’ve ever planted mint, lemon balm or feverfew, for example, you’ll know that as soon as they’re in the ground they spread rampantly, colonizing any bare earth and even cracks in the pavement. They won’t need anything more than the occasional hacking back, giving you limitless handfuls for flavouring foods, concocting remedies and crafting cosmetics.
To transform your backyard clippings into a whole range of natural remedies, I also hope to demystify words like ‘tincture’, ‘decoction’ and ‘salve’, showing you how these can all be knocked up with only a few minutes’ effort, with results rivalling anything to be found on the shelves of even the most upmarket health food shops and cosmetics counters.
GROWING
GROWING YOUR OWN PHARMACY
If you’ve never made a recipe in your life before, this book is a great place to start. And if you’ve never grown a plant before, even better. I want to cast away the dusty stereotypes that too often surround gardening, and in particular herbal remedies, and show you just how easy it is to get out there and start cultivating your very own living pharmacy – even if you are convinced you are a non-gardener. With just a couple of clippings from your backyard, you can create simple remedies for everyday ailments, spa-like beauty treatments and other practical products that bring a shine to furniture, scent to your home, or even get rid of your cat’s fleas.
Nowadays, getting hold of medicinal plants and seeds is becoming ever easier. Even the most run-of-the-mill garden centres now stock a surprisingly broad range of the plants you need for just a couple of pounds. More than just the traditional parsley, sage and thyme, too: even my local high-street florist sells such weird and wonderful things as blackcurrant-scented sage, pineapple mint and Japanese wasabi plants (the source of the spicy green paste that accompanies sushi). Of course, once you have many of these planted up in your garden or window box, they often spread themselves all over the place via underground runners or seeds, popping up in even the most unexpected of places. But the most exciting thing about medicinal plants is that so many of these are common culinary ingredients: you need only look at the back of your refrigerator or spice rack for the plants you need. Simply pop a leftover stick of lemongrass in a glass of water on a window sill, or sprinkle a couple of grains from that jar of fennel seeds in a pot of compost, and in just a couple of months you will have a supply of fresh, organic, air mile-free ingredients for all sorts of remedies.
The tricky thing about so much choice, however, is that it can seem enormously daunting for a beginner. Where on earth do you start? The best way to simplify the whole business is just to pick plants that are useful at treating the afflictions you are prone to (see here) and which have a scent or flavour you like. As there is almost always a selection of several different plants that share similar properties, you have the luxury of picking and choosing whichever one(s) you like the most for a particular ailment.
Now, if you have never tried angelica, tansy or lemon balm before, let alone know what they look like, I have a simple recommendation: look round your local public botanic or herb garden; you’ll find it’s a great source of ‘scratch and sniff’ inspiration. Walking beside the beds and borders, you can get to know the look, smell and habit of plants you may otherwise have only read about in books or seen on TV, with neat little labels to guide you along the way, to decide which you like best. My favourite such garden is the Chelsea Physic Garden, just down the road from me, amidst the hustle and bustle of central London. It’s hidden behind high walls, and you’ll think you’ve stumbled across a small piece of undiscovered land, though it’s actually been a virtual theme park for medicinal plant enthusiasts for more than three centuries; it was set up in 1673 to teach the doctors of the Royal Hospital, at a time when botany was a necessary part of medical training. Here, little labels dot the borders and, in true Harry Potter style, explain the plants’ uses – ‘once used by the Aztecs for dye’, for example, and ‘used to treat malaria’.
By keeping your eyes out at local gardens like these, you can pick up invaluable tips on what will grow well in your own backyard. If you spot a creeper thriving on a south-facing wall, for example, it is likely to do the same in a similar site at home for you. Conversely if you see a bush looking a bit forlorn in a boggy patch, you might want to think twice about planting it around your pond at home. This way, you are learning from the experiences of others; think of it as horticultural espionage.
I am passionate that plant-based medicine is so much more than its stereotype – a bit namby pamby, a bit hippy-ish. It deserves more respect than that: many contain powerful chemical ingredients and