Growing your own food and medicine is so empowering for you and your family! Most medicinal herbs origins are of wild plants that grew without any tending too, unlike many of our vegetable crops. Therefore, they have very individual growing needs. Some are quite easy to grow while others require a lot more attention and specific growing conditions as well as optimal harvest times.
In this course, you will learn how to design & build a medicinal herb garden using sustainable, regenerative gardening practices such as Permaculture & Biodynamics. There will be focus on cultivating healthy soils, that will in turn cultivate healthy plants and help maintain soil vitality. Knowing which tools of the trade you need is another important aspect of successfully growing and harvesting your own medicine so this will be addressed as well.
How do you know which medicinal herbs you want to grow? Do you want to grow a mix of culinary and medicinal herbs, do you want to grow a children’s herb garden, do you want to grow an apothecary garden? This course will help you decide which herbs you want to (and can) grow in your medicinal garden. There will be 13 growing & harvesting plant profiles for you to use to help make your selections however other plants will be discussed throughout the course.
Once you have chosen the plants you want to grow in your medicine garden you will then need to start these plants from seed or buy transplants. There are many different seed germination treatments to consider with medicine herb seeds which will be covered in the course as well as what to look for when buying transplants. We will touch on potting soils and companion planting.
Maintaining your garden throughout the season is a delightful experience as you watch the plant grow from a seed into a beautiful plant that attracts the buzzing bee with its lovely flowers. There are certain plants that will attract pollinators as well as control pests naturally which we will discuss as well as weed control.
All medicinal herbs have specific parts of the plant that we harvest for medicine and this needs to be done at specific times throughout the growing cycle. We will discuss this in depth for each plant part as well as how to properly store your herbs once they have been harvested.
And then another growing season is done and its time to put our garden to bed. There are a few things we can do to ensure a nice garden bed to start the next growing season.
This year, at Bear Roots, we have increased our growing space significantly. So I have decided to take my previous gardens and transform them into a teaching garden space. Each bed will be planted according to the different body systems. Throughout the course of the growing season, you will be able to follow along during the designing, planting, and growing phases of the project. I will document all aspects; the good, the bad and the ugly! This will provide a great ‘hands-on’ portion of the course since it can be challenging to learn some of these concepts through an online format.
This course is delivered online with PDF downloadable documents as well as video and audio lessons.
You will be able to access the material as well as the ability to email the instructor at any time. Once a month you will have the opportunity to join an online meeting hosted by The instructor where you are able to ask any questions you may have. She also discuss a topic of choice at the beginning of the meeting.
The course begins on March 18, 2019. If you sign up before then you will be able to take advantage of the early bird sale price!
To start growing your own medicine sign up for the course below:
General Course Information
Lesson 1 of 4 within section General Course Information.
Lesson 2 of 4 within section General Course Information.
Lesson 3 of 4 within section General Course Information.
Lesson 4 of 4 within section General Course Information.
Designing & Building Your Medicinal Herb Garden
Determine Your Garden Personality
Lesson 1 of 11 within section Designing & Building Your Medicinal Herb Garden.
Lesson 2 of 11 within section Designing & Building Your Medicinal Herb Garden.
Lesson 3 of 11 within section Designing & Building Your Medicinal Herb Garden.
Lesson 4 of 11 within section Designing & Building Your Medicinal Herb Garden.
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Lesson 8 of 11 within section Designing & Building Your Medicinal Herb Garden.
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Lesson 10 of 11 within section Designing & Building Your Medicinal Herb Garden.
Lesson 11 of 11 within section Designing & Building Your Medicinal Herb Garden.
Healthy Soils
Lesson 1 of 5 within section Healthy Soils.
Soil pH & Preparing Soils
Lesson 2 of 5 within section Healthy Soils.
Lesson 3 of 5 within section Healthy Soils.
Lesson 4 of 5 within section Healthy Soils.
Lesson 5 of 5 within section Healthy Soils.
Tools
Tools for working in the Soil
Lesson 1 of 2 within section Tools.
Lesson 2 of 2 within section Tools.
Choosing Medicinal Herbs to Grow
Simple Botany for Herbalists
Lesson 1 of 3 within section Choosing Medicinal Herbs to Grow.
Lesson 2 of 3 within section Choosing Medicinal Herbs to Grow.
Lesson 3 of 3 within section Choosing Medicinal Herbs to Grow.
Plant Profiles
Creating your own Plant Profile
Lesson 1 of 20 within section Plant Profiles.
Lesson 2 of 20 within section Plant Profiles.
Lesson 3 of 20 within section Plant Profiles.
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Lesson 19 of 20 within section Plant Profiles.
Lesson 20 of 20 within section Plant Profiles.
Propagation & Planting
Lesson 1 of 4 within section Propagation & Planting.
Lesson 2 of 4 within section Propagation & Planting.
Lesson 3 of 4 within section Propagation & Planting.
Lesson 4 of 4 within section Propagation & Planting.
Garden Maintenance
Lesson 1 of 5 within section Garden Maintenance.
Lesson 2 of 5 within section Garden Maintenance.
Lesson 3 of 5 within section Garden Maintenance.
Pest & Disease Prevention & Control
Lesson 4 of 5 within section Garden Maintenance.
Lesson 5 of 5 within section Garden Maintenance.
Harvesting from the Garden
Lesson 1 of 3 within section Harvesting from the Garden.
Harvest Methods for Various Plant Parts
Lesson 2 of 3 within section Harvesting from the Garden.
Lesson 3 of 3 within section Harvesting from the Garden.
Post-Harvest Processing
Lesson 1 of 3 within section Post-Harvest Processing.
Lesson 2 of 3 within section Post-Harvest Processing.
Lesson 3 of 3 within section Post-Harvest Processing.
Putting your Garden to Bed
Cover Crops, Compost & Mulch
Lesson 1 of 1 within section Putting your Garden to Bed .
Creating a Teaching Garden at Bear Roots Forest
Cleaning the First Bed in the Teaching Garden
Lesson 1 of 1 within section Creating a Teaching Garden at Bear Roots Forest.
Planting & Work Calendar
Lesson 1 of 3 within section Planting & Work Calendar.
March 20th- Elder Tree Cuttings
Lesson 2 of 3 within section Planting & Work Calendar.
March 24th- Motherwort & Bee Balm coming up!
Lesson 3 of 3 within section Planting & Work Calendar.