A COLLECTION OF USEFUL AND BENEFICIAL PLANTS THAT CAN BE GROWN IN GAUTENG
THE BIG BOOK OF USEFUL WEEDS
WARNING: The information supplied here is for identification of common garden weeds. No-one should try replace or augment a doctor-prescribed medical course with a few helpings of herbs. There is no such thing as a dose of herbs. Only a qualified and experienced herbal doctor can prescribe you a dose of herbs, but those kind of doctors are very scarce in any country where Privatised health care is a thing. For the rest of us, with an interest in keeping healthy without being poisoned, herbalism is a lifestyle. Either you take medication for every ache and pain, or you denounce your role as experimental chemistry set, and try Natural Living, which is nothing more than to take responsibility for what you put into your mouth, nose and skin.
LET YOUR FOOD BE YOUR MEDICINE, AND YOUR MEDICINE BE YOUR FOOD
These are the plants we grow and use. The list is far from complete, but it contains only plants we grow, and use, and can vouch for. Some may strike you as familiar, many of them you may call weeds. Some are just useful for existing, like the sisal swordballs we plant along the fences to keep large animals off the yard. They feed the bees, supply nesting stumps for birds and you can make rope too. If that is not a useful herb, then at least call it medicine for peace of mind. I sleep better knowing no-one will get over my fence without crying out in pain.
We will keep adding to this collection of herbs. The photos are all from our own plants grown in our own garden. Some things we do not have photos of yet, like potatos. Yes, there is a good picture of a potato plant, but i did not take photos of the ones i planted, so i have to wait for harvest to upload an honest photo. For now, I drew you one just to have something there. Yes, yes, i could open a bag and photograph an onion, but that would not be a GREENPETS onion. Whatever we have in the Herbal, we can give you, even if we have to propagate for you especially. We have managed to aclimatise a number of exotics to the dry coldness of our area, an alternative to pampered potted pansies. GREENPETS, not greehouse. Greenhouses are the criminal penitentiaries of the plant world, free the weed!
Below is a long list of icons, with names and quick ideas of how to use it. The details are in the article you will find by opening the herb's particular read-more. We are also building an identification application to make it easier for you to identify plants you have. Sometimes the difference between a useful medicine and a useful poison is a few hairs under a seed pod. We will not even attempt doing fungi yet, the dangers of missing information are just too high.
For now, the pictures will help with identification, the paperwork is in the...uh...post? Now read on, fellow traveller on the road to pharmaceutical ignorance, soon you too will look blank when people start swopping pain tablets in the office. Now go drink some clean water, that headache will diminish soon. or have you been eating junk again?
The variegated variety is more prone to the formation of leaf cankers. Rumoured old cancer cure, grown for beer gruit.
This is an old Cape remedy for all sorts. Of great value in birds' drinking water.
This plant is in the Eat-the-Weeds category. Available for free on a roadside near you.
Dandelion is more valuable than any dietary supplement anywhere.
I will find out what the real name is, but the fruit have a sweet purple pulp I want to brew with
This is a barometer of the state of peace in your home. The care this plant takes only happens when the people around it have time to care. When this starts dying, question your relations with those around you.
Some have poison roots, some are poison except the roots. Some look better in salad than others. Favourite fodder for the whole family.
Sourfig dries, cleanses and disinfects festering conditions, from a sore throat to herpes sores. This is a most powerful herb.
Oil, nuts can be fried, eat by nibbling. Birds, horses, bunnies prefer the plant, eats it right off the seed.
You plant two leaves, you watch the alien creep all over the yard, and when it starts dying back, the ground is full of starch bombs, just below the surface. The greens are good spinach. And fodder.
Chew, never swallow. The picture is one right next to its poisonous lookalike, devil's for thorn. POISON.
