Beginning Your Medicine Wheel Garden
- realmofremedies
- May 7, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: May 8, 2022
Flourish your yard this year with beneficial herbs for you and your family! Some of my favorite go to herbs are:
Rosa Rugosa
Lemon Balm
Oats
Yarrow
Red Clover
Spearmint
This is the beginning to your medicine wheel. Start with just a few this year. The idea of a medicine wheel garden is to have herbs in a special place on your land that feels right to you. Your medicine wheel can be divided up into the four directions and then into categories that relate to you. There are different ways to make a medicine wheel, so it is important to remember that you listen to your intuition and do what feels right to you and your family. The most important part is to have fun getting your hands into the dirt with your children!
If you don't know what a medicine wheel is, below is a link that explains what it is and where it originates from.
Rosa Rugosa
This lovely herb is sweet, slightly bitter and warming to the soul. The flower petals have carminative, stimulant and emmenagogue properties. It dries coldness, clears mucus discharge, relieves constrictive feelings of the chest and abdomen, treats poor appetite, harmonizes blood, and is used for irregular menstruation/pain caused by blood stagnation.
Make a Rose Water Potion
Rose water has light astringent properties used to tone the skin or hair. Fun for a spa day at home.
To make the Rose Water Potion:
3 parts witch hazel extract
1 part distilled water
fresh rosa petals
Mix the witch hazel extract with the distilled water. place the fresh roses in a quart jar. completely cover the roses with the witch hazel and distilled water mixture, adding enough extra mixture that it rises 2-3 inches above the flowers. cover tightly and place in warm spot for 2-3 weeks.
Strain out the roses and rebottle the water for use. Rose water does not need to be refrigeration, though storing in a cool place will prolong its shelf life. This is for external use only! Use as a face toner for dry skin on a fun spa day with your child.
Lemon Balm
Sour, spicy and cooling. Use the plants leaves for diaphoretic, calmative, antispasmodic, sedative, carminative, emmenagogue, and stomachic properties. This herb is great for treating fevers, nervousness insomnia, melancholy & depression. It is one of the best herbs for treating most simple, acute children’s diseases, not only because of its excellent properties but also because of its pleasant flavor.
Make a Lemon Balm Glycerite
Wonderfully calming and relaxing. This is probably the most delicious tinctures out there!
To Make the Glycerite:
Fill a widemouthed glass jar with lemon balm leaves
Prepare a solution of 3 parts glycerin and 1 part water
Fill the jar with the solution
Cover, then let the jar sit in a warm spot for 3-4 weeks.
Strain and bottle the liquid
Store at room temperature where the glycerite will keep for at least 7 months.
To Use:
For adults, take ½ teaspoon-1 teaspoon as needed (daily).
For children, adjust the dose according to the age of your child. When giving children glycerites be sure to be using a dropper.
Age | Dosage |
3-6 months | 2 drops |
6-9 months | 4 drops |
9-12 months | 5 drop |
12-18 months | 7 drops |
18-24 months | 8 drops |
2-3 years | 10 drops |
3-4 years | 12 drops |
4-6 years | 15 drops |
6-9 years | 24 drops |
9-12 years | 30 drops |
Oats
Most herbalist prefer the milky green tops for medicinal purposes, but the oat straw (the stalk) contains silica as well as other minerals needed for strong bones, hair, teeth, and nails. The milky green tops are especially renowned for their demulcent (soothing) and nourishing effect on the nervous system. The fully ripe oats, often served as heart-healthy oatmeal, or ground into oat flour, are also soothing and nourishing.
Milky oats can be used (particularly in combination with lemon balm) to counteract hyperactivity in children and adults. The oatmeal, made from the ripe grains, is also healing and is one of those reliable kitchen remedies. The oats can be used topically for soothing irritation and itchiness. The healing is endless! Don’t be afraid to grow this plant, it is super easy!
Make an Oatmeal Bath for Dry, Chapped Skin
Oatmeal baths are a time-honored solution for dry, chapped skin. They’re soothing and relaxing for babies.
To Prepare the Bath:
Make a large pot of runny oatmeal or oatmeal tea using 4-6 times more water than oats.
Cook for 15 minutes, strain, reserving both the liquid and oats.
Fill a bathtub with warm water, then add the cooking liquid directly to the bath.
Scoop the cooked oats into a muslin bag, nylon stocking or large cotton cloth and tie tightly.
For added benefits add in some fresh flowers from your garden, and a lavender essential oil to enhance the relacing effects.
Yarrow
Yarrow grows freely and joyfully in the wild and should be welcomed into your garden. It’s a perennial, it germinates easily from seed and, once established will self-sow readily. Yarrow has antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and astringent properties, and is highly regarded for healing wounds, bruises, and sprains. It is styptic, meaning that is stops bleeding. This herb can be used as a first aid to stanch excessive bleeding, whether from a cut, a deep wound, or a simple nosebleed.
Make a Styptic Powder
You’ll want to have a small amount of powdered yarrow available for nosebleeds and those boo-boos that never seem to stop bleeding.
To Make the Powder:
Gather fresh yarrow leaves and flowers from your garden.
Dry them (place in sun to wilt, then hang in a dark place in your home).
Finely powder the dried herb, and store in a jar or tin.
To use:
Sprinkle a small amount of the styptic powder directly on an open wound to slow the bleeding.
To stop a nosebleed, sprinkle a small amount of powder on the inside of the nostril that’s bleeding. The bleeding will sloe or stop within a few minutes.
You can also take the powder internally to help stop the flow of blood. Store ¼ to ½ teaspoon of the powdered yarrow into a small amount of water and drink.
Red Clover
This hardy perennial is easy to sow and quick to grow. Plant in your lawn where you are ok to let is grow wild with the grass. Red clover is high in beta-carotene, calcium, vitamin c, a whole spectrum of B vitamins, and essential trace minerals such as magnesium, manganese, zinc, copper, and selenium. The little wildflower can be considered one of nature's finest vitamin and mineral supplement. Best part about this herb? Its great for treating childhood respiratory problems and effectively restores vitality and health following a respiratory infection.
Make a Tea
Blend this sweet, delicious herb up with some warm water (and other respiratory herbs such as mullein) for persistent respiratory problems.
(Caution: Hemophiliacs or people with “thin” blood should not use red clover regularly, as this herb can exacerbate the condition)
Spearmint
Cooling, refreshing, and uplifting. Spearmint is typically hiding in the garden behind more colorful plants, and sometimes overlooked. Nonetheless it is a valuable and a tasty addition to your herbal medicine wheel garden. Spearmint is an excellent herb to use for children who are running a fever. Blend it with catnip or lemon balm to calm hyperactivity and anxiety in children. Spearmint is a digestive aid and is great to drink before or after dinner. This herb has amphoteric properties; it seems to move in the direction the body needs. It is great for strengthening the nervous system.
Make an Iced Spearmint Tea
This tea is packed with nutrition and is delicious that will make you feel great.
To Make the Tea:
Make a double-strong infusion of spearmint leaf (16 tablespoons of fresh spearmint to 1 quart of hot water. Let sit for 45 minutes).
Add ice cubes or chill in refrigerator.
Sweeten with honey, add a fresh sprig of spearmint.
Add a sliced lemon with a handful of fresh berries.
Put a splash of sparkling water if you’d like!
All these herbs that I have listed are easy to grow. Every year you can add more and more herbs that are beneficial to you and your family. Don't be afraid to start this right away! Children love collecting the rocks to build the circle, digging up the grass and then planting the herbs! Every day my children will go outside to walk around our medicine wheel garden, checking in and making sure all their plants are happy.
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