By David Crow, L.Ac.
This article was excerpted from David Crow's book Plants That Heal: Essays on Botanical Medicine, Chapter Two - Farm to Pharmacy.
The foundation of the Farm to Pharmacy training program is a group of about forty species
of medicinal plants. The criteria that we used for choosing these herbs were:
1. Can be grown easily in most locations in the US.
2. Provide a wide range of medicinal functions and therapeutic benefits.
3. Safe for general usage without concern for acute or chronic toxicity.
The garden has five main categories of herbs.
Aromatic culinary herbs:
Oreganos, thymes, marjorams, sages, basils, rosemary, fennel, garlic
Herbaceous garden medicinals:
Catnip, lavenders, mints, chamomiles, lemon balm, motherwort, skullcap, St. Johns wort, calendula, California poppy, arnica
Weedy plants tending to grow wild:
Yarrow, plantain, nettles, dandelion, mullein, raspberry
Medicinal roots:
Ashwaghanda, asparagus, astragalus, elecampane, angelica, marshmallow, comfrey, echinacea, burdock, valerian
Other species:
Aloe vera, elderberry
Our intention in creating this list was to have a template that can be easily duplicated for
every home anywhere in the country, even if the garden is only grown in pots in the
kitchen or on the porch. Our hope is that a simple undertaking such as this can produce
significant nutritional and immunological benefits at a grassroots level, by introducing a
wider range of plant species into the daily diet as well as educating people in the lost
knowledge of how to care for themselves using safe and pleasant remedies that were once
part of every home.
