Discover medicinal plant nurseries and learn how to create one

Few manifestations of nature fascinate us as much as plants, among other reasons, due to the complicity relationship that we establish with them through care. We pay attention to them and they bring us multiple restorative and aesthetic benefits. This, which you may have experienced yourself, is even more evident with the medicinal and aromatic plants that grow in our landscapes or that we cultivate in gardens and nurseries, They give us remedies that promote our health and well-being, purifying indoor environments or enriching gastronomy.

Filling the environment with medicinal plants is an excellent idea from which immediate benefits for physical and mental health. You just need to have a suitable space, motivation to maintain it and good advice to get the most out of it.

These plants will require some care, but generally less than many of the ornamental plants grown in any garden, as they They are more resistant and require less water and fertilizer. In exchange, they will provide resources to stock the medicine cabinet with natural remedies, aromatic elements to enrich the kitchen, and fragrances to purify the home.

The role of nurseries and medicinal gardens

Rather than trying to locate them in nature, which would mean committing unforgivable mischief, It is preferable to go to gardening and nurseries to provide yourself. In this way, not only is the natural environment preserved, but you also have the possibility to choose from a wide variety.

Another option is to buy them in nurseries that are dedicated exclusively or partially to the cultivation of medicinal plants. Furthermore, it is also advisable visit a medicinal garden, where perhaps the plants are not sold, but the products that are made from them are.

The demand for medicinal plants has grown exponentially in recent years, but not only from conventional gardeners and florists, but also from botanical gardens of a very diverse nature that have finally understood the importance of having a section of well-stocked medicinal plants at your facilities.

As significant data to mention that there are not few botanical gardens of this type that arise from the initiative of a single person or a small group of fans to the plants, who come to these nurseries to stock up and receive valuable advice on care, as well as to learn about the new ranges of plants they can grow.

In many cases, public bodies (town councils, county councils, associations…) have also chosen medicinal and aromatic plants to cover spaces that needed to be landscaped. Thus they have created green screens that act as natural purifiers of the urban environment, providing a powerful fragrance and the chromatic beauty of its flowering when the season is right.

Many of these nurseries, open to the general public, also play an important role at a pedagogical level, because as if medicinal botanical garden Whether it was, or really is, people can get acquainted with these plants there, experience fragrances and textures and learn from the experts their different medicinal, culinary or cosmetic possibilities.

The most sought after medicinal plants

There are well-known ones, due to the weight of tradition; fashionable, because they are talked about in the media; new, that begin to be present in herbalists; there are those that stand out for their resistance or their beauty or that even grow in our immediate environment and we had never noticed them. Next, we offer you a brief selection of medicinal plants that should not be missing from any nursery and that we have grouped into four categories:

Umbellate. They stand out because their flowers are grouped in flat inflorescences or umbels and for their high culinary value. In this group, caraway (Carum carvi), dill (Anethum graveolens) and coriander (Coriandrum sativum) stand out. Other species are biznaga, parsley, cumin, fennel and anise.aromatic. They are very fragrant, rich in essential oil, resistant and highly sought after by pollinating insects. Thyme (Thymus vulgaris), Roman sage (Salvia sclarea) and marjoram (Origanum majorana) are part of this group. Other recommended ones are hyssop, sage, perilla, oregano, mint, pennyroyal, lavender, stevia, basil and savory.Wild and ruderal. These plants grow wild in fields, meadows and along the edges of fields and paths, but they can also be cultivated. In this case, you can opt for perpetual (Helichrysum stoechas), borage (Borago officinalis) and yarrow (Achillea millefolium). Other wild plants that may be interesting to have on hand are purslane, poppy, shepherd’s purse, mallow, rue, liverwort, nettle, plantain and mullein.Garden plants. They are often used as showy ornamental landscaping plants, but are often also medicinal treasures. Clear examples known to most people are the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), echinacea (Echinacea purpurea), marigold (Calendula officinalis) and lemon verbena (Lippia triphylla). Other plants as beautiful as they are healthy are aloe vera, kalanchoe, feverfew, lily, gingko, nasturtium or milamores.

How to create a medicinal nursery at home

As we have already said at the beginning, surrounding yourself with medicinal plants gives you many advantages, so it is best to set up a mini-nursery at home. On how to do it, there is an extensive bibliography on the matter and numerous web portals that talk about it. It is worth taking advice from specialists. For the moment, from here we offer you some ideas that you can take into account.

It is true that you can go into a lot of depth on the subject, but these are only the basic precepts that must be taken into account to start in the interesting world of domestic cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants. Is essential:

Have a minimally spacious and sunny space on the balcony, the terrace or the backyard, although nothing will be better than a garden.Choose plants based on space available and the resources to be obtained.Place the plants according to the size and the height that they will develop, to prevent them from covering each other, depriving themselves of light. For example, those that are planted anew each year, it is preferable to place them on the margins to be able to work them more comfortably.Mix medicinal, aromatic and garden plants, but respecting their different demands, when space is not available.Create different separate plots with pebbles, where to locate perennial plants when you do have a large space, which could well be a small garden.Use boxes, tires, clay pots or spirals to locate the plants, as well as try planting them at different heights, hanging pots, on steps or windowsills if the available space is much more limited.Observe that the pots maintain a certain level of humidity, although, in general, the watering of these plants should be moderate.Place a padding or mulching to try to keep the substrate moist as long as possible. Other ecological alternatives can also be studied and valued, such as litter, pine needles, straw…Find out about each and every one of the possible pests that can affect the different crop plants, as well as the most ecological options to combat them.Labeling each plant is very important, because only when they are well identified with the name of the species can there be confusions that lead to problems. It is already known that prevention is better than cure.

The universe of medicinal plants is vast and grows behind the discoveries that are being made in ethnobotany throughout the world, and that is that indigenous peoples, whether they are from the Amazon, the Andes, the Himalayas, the Kalahari or the jungles of West Africa, allow the incorporation of new species with clear curative effects.

But when exploiting these resources you have to be very respectful of the needs of these populations, because it’s okay to include these plants in global trade for the world to benefit, but it should only be done if it doesn’t disturb the environment where these populations reside, if they are offered fair compensation for their knowledge, and if seedlings are produced in local nurseries of the that can benefit. You reap what you sow.