Urban Herbs: Growing Medicinal Plants in the City

Episode 144: Do you live in a city and want to grow your own herbal medicine? In this episode, urban farmer and community herbalist Bonnie Rose Weaver shares the joys of growing medicinal plants in an urban environment.

In 2014, Bonnie launched the Seed to Bottle Apothecary 1849 Medicine Garden, a project that taught urbanites about the benefits of locally grown plant medicine. 1849 included an Herbal CSA- or community supported agriculture program where members receive herbal tinctures created from herbs grown in their area. Bonnie grew her herbs on a 1/16 of an acre in San Francisco, CA.

Bonnie believes that medicine is all around us, even in the heart of the city and that taking herbs grown locally can be potent medicine. In this interview she talks about how she propagates herbs (sowing seeds in flats – not cells), why it’s important to reproduce a wild quality in your plants, and how plants grown in your neighborhood or bioregion face many of the same stressors that you do, making them effective medicine. Bonnie also talks in detail about some of her favorite herbs including Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca), Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), Grindelia (Grindelia robusta), Milky Oats (Avena sativa), and Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris).

Bonnie is the author of the book, Deeply Rooted: Medicinal Plant Cultivation in Techtropolis. Find her online at: 1849MedicineGarden.com.

To hear Bonnie talk about the herb Hawthorn on The Plant Report podcast, click here. 

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