Now that ‘No Mow May’ is almost over, many of you will be out mowing lawns and weed whacking once again. But not every weed should be so quickly discarded. There are many so called, weeds, in our area that can be quite beneficial. The first plant (weed) that I want to talk about is one that I have plenty of experience with over the years and that is Jewelweed. 

Jewelweed grows everywhere around our area and it is a great treatment for bug bites, bee stings and poison ivy. We sell a Jewelweed soap for poison ivy relief, but you can pick your own once it starts growing in a few weeks. It seems to start growing right about the same time as the poison ivy starts to leaf out fully, what a coincidence. It is also the easiest plant remedy to use as all you need to do is break a stem and rub the sap on the affected area. But Jewelweed isn’t just for poison ivy, it is great for bites and stings too. Jewelweed works immediately to alleviate the pain and itch from bites or stings just as well as commercially available Afterbite. It really is a wonderful plant and it attracts butterflies, too.

If you get some scrapes and abrasions after gardening or yard work and you don’t happen to have Neosporin at home, here are some common remedies that you can make with some of our native plants. Common milkweed, isn’t just for Monarch butterflies anymore, with its white milky sap that will help heal scrapes and sores and can even help in removing warts and corns. You can make a “tea” from the leaves that you can use as a wash for cuts and scrapes. To make the tea, take a handful of leaves and steep them in a pint of hot water for 10 minutes. This tea is not for drinking, it is for cleaning wounds of dirt and debris, and will help in the healing process with mild antibacterial properties. If you don’t have milkweed around, how about some burdock. 

Burdock, that weed with the round seed pods that get matted in your dogs fur in the summer as it sticks with velcro like hooks. But burdock has medicinal properties as well. Mount Sinai hospital has a burdock information page highlighting some of the benefits of taking burdock. Burdock contains inulin, a natural dietary fiber, and is also used to improve digestion. As a root vegetable, it possesses considerably stronger antioxidant activity than common vegetables and fruits. 

In fact, recent studies confirm that burdock has prebiotic properties that could improve health. Despite the fact that burdock has been used for centuries to treat a variety of conditions, few scientific studies have examined its effects. Preliminary studies suggest topical application of burdock leaves may help treat burns. Burdock is native to Europe and Northern Asia, and is now widespread throughout the United States, where it grows as a weed, but in Japan and parts of Europe, it is cultivated and harvested as a vegetable. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, one man’s weed is another man’s wildflower, but now one man’s weed is another man’s medication. We need to see the flora in our area in another light as many benefits from these plants are just starting to be rediscovered. 

I say rediscovered, because most of these plants have been used in Native American and Chinese cultures for hundreds of years, but big-pharma isn’t going to push homeopathic remedies that can be made from the weeds right in your own backyard.