“There is evidence that caring for plants, whether actively gardening or just touching them, can reduce stress.”
PLANTS TO HELP WINTER COUGHS AND COLDS
can trim off the dry flower stems. One of the most popular traditional uses of dried lavender is to promote better sleep. This is backed up by scientific trials, showing that lavender helped participants to fall asleep faster, wake less often and feel more rested in the morning. You can put the dried flower heads in sachets, to pop under your pillow, or put in the linen cupboard to fragrance all your bedding! Lavender is also great in dried flower arrangements, helps to deter moths in clothes closets, and you can even use it in the kitchen to make lavender sugar, bringing a sweet floral flavour to cakes and drinks. Chamomile is an easy plant to grow in pots or in the ground, and is perfect for making your own herbal tea. Traditionally, chamomile tea is made from the daisy-like flowers of German chamomile Matricaria recutita , which are picked when fresh and then dried. The flowers have a soothing, sweetish flavour when infused in hot water, and are considered to be beneficial for sleep and as an aid to digestion. German chamomile is an annual plant, with a complete life cycle in a year, so you will need to plant it fresh every spring. Roman chamomile, Chamaemelum nobile by contrast, is a perennial, continuing to grow year after year, once planted. The flowers have a slightly bitter taste, but the leaves smell wonderful when touched, releasing a fresh, apple scent. Both plants prefer a sunny, well-drained spot outdoors.
When it comes to winter sniffles, thyme is a super-plant with super-powers! The Ancient Egyptians used thyme in the embalming process, harnessing the anti- fungal properties of the plant. The Romans used it in their baths to protect against poison and give courage, as well as eating it and burning it in temples and homes. The two main compounds in thyme are thymol, which has strong antiseptic properties, and carvacrol, which is an antimicrobial. Fresh and dried thyme can be used in teas, which help with sore throats, coughs and can help boost immunity to avoid coming down with those pesky coughs in the first place! Ordinary culinary thyme, Thymus vulgaris, is a small, evergreen shrub, and grows happily in a pot in a sunny spot. It is one of the easiest plants for beginners as it needs little care, just occasional watering, and you can pick the leaves all year long. The flowers can also be used in teas or made into butters, or left for the bees to enjoy. Lemon thyme, or Thymus citriodorus , is a low-growing plant, often used in rock gardens or planted in pots with other small plants. The leaves have a strong lemon fragrance, and there are lots of cultivars with attractively coloured leaves, including golds, silvers, and cream varieties, so they can look good, taste good and do us good, all at once, so it really is a super plant!
touching them, can reduce stress. As well as helping to reduce stress, plants can help make us healthy in other ways. Lavender is one of the best plants for reducing stress, the flowers contain compounds such as linalool, which are natural anxiolytics. Lavender is easily grown outside in a sunny spot, doing well in pots on balconies, or even indoors near a sunny window. There are lots of different varieties, and English lavender, Lavandula angustifolia , is probably the most useful and adaptable, producing lots of flowers and has a sweet, floral fragrance. Once your lavender has flowered, you
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