Better yet, most of them don’t take up much space and they can help prevent or cure many common ailments. Some of them can even be grown inside your house. Of course, I’m talking about medicinal herbs and plants.

Aloe Vera
Zones 9 & 10

Aloe makes a great indoor plant too, so don’t worry if you’re not in zones 9 or 10. Not only can it help clean the air inside your house, it can also be used to decrease the healing time of cuts, scrapes, and sunburn. When ingested, it can be useful for digestive problems and constipation.

Echinacea
Zones 3-9

It’s a perennial, so it’ll remain in your garden for years and years. Echinacea can boost your immune system. It’s one of the more common supplements on the shelf. But it’s simple to grow and this way, you know the quality of the plant you’re ingesting.

Echinacea is also a potent anti-inflammatory and pain-killer. It can improve your mental health and even help relieve upper respiratory issues.

Sea Buckthorn
Zones 3-7

Now, these require more growing area, but you won’t be disappointed. Sea Buckthorn produces tart berries. These berries provide a ton of antioxidants, protein building blocks (amino acids), and a bunch of vitamins. It’s an up and coming plant that is now being used in many cosmetic products thanks to its ability to promote skin health. It even can provide you with all of the omegas!

Did you know Turmeric, which contains Curcumin, helps stimulate digestion and prevent acid build up?  Grab a 30 day supply today and save $20!

The bark and leaves can be used to help with diarrhea and as topical compressions for rheumatoid arthritis.

It hass anti-aging benefits, can improve the appearance of your hair, and can even help lower your cholesterol.

Lemon Balm

Zones 4a-9b

Lemon Balm is terrific if you’re anxious or just need some sleep (including if you’re a parent with a colicky infant). There’s also some evidence it can be effective against cold sores.

Peppermint

Zones 3-11

One caution about peppermint: it will spread everywhere if you let it, so it’s a perfect candidate for a pot. Another note: it does need partial shade in the higher zones.

That being said, peppermint is one of the oldest remedies for just about everything. It can assist with digestive disorders, memory issues, nausea associated with chemotherapy, herpes, bad breath, headaches… The list goes on and on. It is also a mild numbing agent, so if you’ve got sore muscles or nipples from breast feeding, peppermint can be your greatest ally.

Sage

Zones 5-8

Please note that if you grow it in zones higher than 8, it’ll still grow, but it probably won’t come back every year. So it’s best to grow it indoors in higher zones.

What’s better than fresh sage in your stuffing on Thanksgiving? Not much.

As far as the health benefits go, sage is another herb that helps with digestive issues. (See a trend here? Start getting more herbs into your life and you’ll experience better digestion.) But it does something most of the other herbs don’t – it reduces flatulence. Extracts of sage have also shown to be beneficial for people with Alzheimer’s Disease, high cholesterol, and it can even reduce hot flashes.

Final Tip

You can dry your herbs out if you find that you’ve got too much or just want to save some. Just be aware that fresh is almost always better.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to herbs and medicinal plants you can grow in your garden or in your house. What are some of your favorites?

Nope. If you want fruits and vegetables that are going to provide you with actual nutrition and flowers and plants that will make your neighbors want to bring their cameras with them, then you need to give your plants something more than just 3 nutrients.

There are, however, three terrific natural options you can use to grow strong, healthy (and healthful) plants.

Compost Tea

There are plenty of ways to make compost tea, but it all really boils down to two different types: you either aerate it or not. Both have been shown to be beneficial, so just pick whichever you’re set up for. You will still have to stir the unaerated concoction.

All you need to do is get your well-composted material (you shouldn’t be able to recognize what the composted material originally was) and fill about 1/3 of a bucket with. Fill the rest of the bucket with water. If you’ve fermented vegetables before, it’s basically the same thing.

Let it sit for 3-4 days. Just make sure you stir it every day or so.

When it’s reached its completed state, cover another bucket with cheesecloth to strain out the solids while you pour it in the empty bucket. You now have concentrated tea. Don’t put that in your garden just yet though.

You’ll need to dilute it until it looks like weak tea (about a 10:1 of water to concentrate). Then you can either spray it on your plants or water your plants with it.

Compost tea replaces chemical fertilizers as a quick way to get nutrients and beneficial microbes to your plants and soil. If you were to just put your compost in your garden, it’d take a few years for your plants to reap the benefits because it’s not completely broken down yet. Compost tea sidesteps that whole process.

Worm Castings

Worm castings are pre-digested bits of decayed plants and worm cocoons. So, it’s worm poop and eggs. More or less. The good news is that they’re incredibly beneficial for your plants and they’re easy to harvest yourself.

All you need is a container to put some worms in, your compostable material and some newspaper. Drill small drain holes in the bottom of your container (worms can drown). Create a bottom layer of and moist newspaper. Then create a lasagna of sorts. Moist newspaper will be the noodles and compostable material, manure, and kitchen scraps will fill the role of meat, cheese, and sauce. Don’t forget to put your worms in the middle!

When the contents of the container have noticeably dropped, harvest your worm castings and add them to your garden. Worm castings will increase water retention and will slowly provide nutrients to your plants without burning out the roots (excess nitrogen can burn the roots of your plants).

BioChar

For years, I would see farmers burning huge bonfires and I always wondered what they were doing. It turns out they were making their own biochar. Biochar is essentially charcoal made from plants. Don’t go grabbing the charcoal from your grill and tossing it in the garden. It’s not the same.

To be clear, biochar is more of a soil amendment than a fertilizer. But putting it in your garden is undoubtedly one of the best things you can do for it.

Biochar increases nutrient and water availability by trapping both in the tiny holes throughout it. So instead of having the nutrients from your fertilizer run into the ground water, it actually stays where you need it to.

You may also enjoy this:

GMOs – Big Gov’t’s Ultimate Weapon Against US Population

Crazy Gardening Technique Uses Fish Poo To Grow Organic Food 4 Times Faster…

Gardens to become ILLEGAL?

But there are some insects and microorganisms that are beneficial. And besides, these chemicals often affect the taste and quality of the food. So what are you supposed to do instead?

Rotate Your Crops

Most bugs prefer a certain type of plant. They’ve got an appetite and the only thing that can cure it is your cucumbers or your tomatoes. Rotating your crops year after year can help prevent a large scale assault the following year. You can also intermix your plants to confuse the small predators.

Attract Beneficial Bugs

There are bugs that will eat the bugs that eat your food. To attract them, you’ll want to keep flowering plants around. For ladybugs, any sort of daisy will work. For caterpillar-munching-bugs, plant carrots or celery. Just be sure to let at least a few of them flower otherwise you won’t attract any of the insects.

If you just want to buy some praying mantis and ladybugs, that’ll work too. You can buy a kit from Hobby Lobby that’ll include a little bug pen and information on how to order your bugs. This’ll do double duty if you’ve got children. Kids love watching them hatch and then releasing them into the garden. Otherwise, you can just order them online.

Diatomaceous Earth (DE)

Lately there have been reports about superbugs – bugs that are somehow able to survive the pesticides we’re throwing at them. Bugs will never find a way to deal with DE because it works mechanically. Bugs with an exoskeleton (fleas, scorpions, beetles, etc) get cut up by it and die. Just make sure you buy food grade DE.

Beer

Cut the top off a plastic bottle and bury it in the ground. Just make sure you leave about 1” above ground though. Fill the container with beer. You’ll drown whatever decides to fall in it, but you’ll mostly be killing slugs. Slugs love beer, but can’t swim.

Soap & Oil Spray

Put 4 drops of Ivory soap and one tablespoon of canola oil in a quart of water. You can also use castile soap for any of the following sprays. Ivory soap and castile soap are both biodegradable.

Mix everything together and transfer to a spray bottle. Soap-based sprays will adhere to the leaves and the oil will smother soft-bodied insects. Be sure to spray both the top and the bottom of the leaves.

Cayenne Pepper Spray

Mix 4 drops of Ivory soap and two tablespoons of cayenne pepper in a quart of water. Let it sit for 8 hours, shake, and put into a spray bottle. When applying, be sure to shake the bottle before you spray a new plant. This spray will primarily attack mites and help deter ants.

You can add garlic to this spray to make it even more effective. Simply steep 6 cloves in a quart of water and add a tablespoon of cayenne pepper. Let it cool, strain it, and then pour it into your spray bottle.

Before you use either of the sprays above, be sure to test it on a small portion of each plant first. Neither of them should harm any of your plants, but it’s always good to be on the safe side. Let me know if you’ve got your own concoctions in the comments below.

If you enjoyed this article you might also like:

GMOs – Big Gov’t’s Ultimate Weapon Against US Population

Crazy Gardening Technique Uses Fish Poo To Grow Organic Food 4 Times Faster…

Gardens to become ILLEGAL?

When I came across this while doing some research this morning I knew I just had to share it with my loyal audience here at Seven Nutrition.

For y'all with green thumbs you'll love this.

Enjoy!

And if you like this cheatsheet you might also like these awesome resources:

Easy DIY Aquaponics

Homesteading Hacks That Will Instantly Make Your Life Better

Not only does it ensure I'm getting fresh fruits and veggies, it's a great activity for the family to spend some quality time… My kids have really learned to love it!

Last night, while I was browsing Youtube I came across this really neat video of gardening tips and tricks and now I'd like to share it with you. Some are very basic, but even if just a couple help you out, it could save you loads of time.

Enjoy!

GMOs – Big Gov’t’s Ultimate Weapon Against US Population

Crazy Gardening Technique Uses Fish Poo To Grow Organic Food 4 Times Faster…

Gardens to become ILLEGAL?