Flowers - Power plants: Simple Home Remedies You Can Grow

What happens when an alternative health practitioner and a horticulturalist start talking? The conversation naturally turns to the relationship between plants and peoplehow working with plants is directly related to improved mood and overall health, and how so many ailments can be cured using plants. This conversation really did happen, and the result is the book youre holding now.

T he two of us appear regularly on Breakfast Television and CityLine, where we share our passions with a large TV audienceBryce as an alternative health practitioner and nutritionist, and Frankie Flowers as a popular and respected gardening expert. Eventually we decided to combine our talents and collaborate on a book that would help people improve their own health from the ground up.

In one of our early conversations, we considered the question Does an apple a day really keep the doctor away? Lets look at what science says an apple really is: Its made up of fibre, antioxidants, calcium, carotenoids, iron, lutein, magnesium, riboflavin, thiamine, tryptophan, and zinc, among many other things. All this stuff helps you lower cholesterol, reduce inflammation, lose weight and balance blood sugar, and feel better. The humble apple can even help manage our biggest modern health issues: heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

But there are even more powerful allies in the garden: plants that dont just provide good nutrition over the long term, but also have healing abilities for acute ailments. Thats what we wanted to focus on when we decided to team up for this book. We want to show you how to grow your own remediesorganic and local alternatives to overprescribed drugs and expensive health-store cures. It is a perfect partnership: Bryce explains how and why each plant is used in medicine, and Frankie shows readers how to grow it at home.

Bryce grew up in Canada, but in an English garden setting. His mother, born and raised on a farm in Colchester, England, had 10 green thumbs! Bryce and his two sisters were each responsible for their own plot in the back garden. Tending their plants was as common a chore as taking out the garbage.

Frankies first home was attached to a greenhouse. His grandfather, father, and uncles grew everything from pansies to produce on the rich soils of the Holland Marsh in southern Ontario. As immigrants from Italy, they built what is today Bradford Greenhouses, one of Canadas largest combined greenhouse and garden centre operations.

We dont see gardening as a chore or even a jobwe never have. We find tilling, weeding, and growing to be relaxing, rewarding, and enjoyable. But dont just take our word for it: The latest research shows gardening really does help you ground yourselfexcuse the punand manage the stress of day-to-day life.

This book combines our expertise and our passions to create an instructional guidestep by step, plant by plant, ailment by ailment, recipe by recipeto help you achieve better health. Power Plants includes profiles of 49 different plants with medicinal value, all of which can be grown at home by anyone with modest gardening skills.

Each profile begins with an introduction to the plant and an overview of its health benefits, including a description of its active ingredients and how they work. Bryce explains how the plant can be used as a powerful alternative remedy, and how its medicinal uses have evolved over time.

Frankie then shows you how to grow these plants in your own garden. He tells you how to find the right location, when to plant, how to nurture your crop, and how to harvest. If youve got a little dirt under your fingernails youll have no problem following these instructions. But if youre new to gardening, flip to A Gardening Primer on page 353 to learn some basic skills before you dig in.

We share several recipes and home remedies that harness the power of each plant. Before you use any of the preparations in these pages, understand that this book does not replace professional healthcare advice. Its intended as a reference volume only. We want to help you make informed decisions about what you might do to improve your health, but the remedies are not a substitute for any treatment that may have been prescribed by your family physician or any other licensed doctor. If you suspect you have a medical problem requiring professional care, we urge you to seek competent help.

We have listed a number of cautions you should observe when using each plant. However, these potential side effects and contraindications are not exhaustive. Before starting any new health program, or before you begin taking any medication or supplementwhether conventional, natural, or plant-based, and whether made on your own or bought from a storealways check with your primary healthcare provider first.

Good things come to people who wait. But if you cant wait to grow your ownor you dont have the ability to do sothen look to the Fast Forward section weve included in each plant profile. Here we suggest a retail product with equal purity and efficacy. These can be found in health food stores or specialized pharmacies, or ordered online.

Having your own garden means youll know exactly where your food and medicinal plants came from: they wont have travelled thousands of miles, and you can be certain that no chemicals, growth hormones, synthetic fertilizers, or preservatives have been used. And your garden wont just benefit your health; it will also give you the sense of ownership and pride that comes with being your own urban farmer. So lets get growing!

Bryce Wylde and Frank Ferragine