Medicinal Herbs in the Alley

This morning I woke up early after a profoundly healing sleep. I looked out the front window and saw the sun flooding the garden, waking up the green in EVERYTHING. I felt the plants calling me to go outside and walk the alley, looking for their medicine.

I love alleys. Glen (my spouse) and I have a history of walking the alleys in the west side of Olympia, looking at the back sides of other people's yards. Alleys are full of profound insights and deep gifts.

For example, the plants. Behind our house is a dead-end alley and it is rare that any vehicle drives it. Our neighbor regularly mows the road part (he loves an excuse to use his riding lawn mower). But he leaves the verges alone. And it is here the plants flourish.

So outside I went, my bare feet, cold in sandals swashing through the wet grass and my head getting hot from the early morning sun.

First I found the clover, closely packed and still heavy with dew. Clover shows a fertile soil; around it you can see dandelions, also a sign of fertile soil. Clover is what we herbalists call an alterative: it clears the blood of toxins, and helps clear skin and painful joints.

Then there was a seedling oak, its bright new green leaves shiny with the sun's promise. Oak has many uses; primarily we call it an astringent or diuretic, helping to clear excess moisture from the system. It is also antimicrobial; you can mash the fresh leaves and apply to a weeping infected sore and the oak medicine will help clear the infection and dry up the oozing.

There was mullein, one of the premier healing herbs. It heals inflamed skin: think of a warm fuzzy green blanket laying its comfort on itchy skin. It has the same effect on inflamed, scratchy lungs with cough: its herbal mucilage calms and soothes the inflammation in lungs. An infused oil from the leaves is often put in inflamed ears, helping the ear canals heal from swimming ( and too many q-tips).

Then there is bleeding heart. I do not use the chemicals in this plant, instead relying on flower essence made from the lavender flower hearts to capture the spirit of bleeding heart: this helps the wounded heart to heal from heartache, loss and grief.

There is broad-leaf plantain, lining the tracks where the occasional car does try to come down the alley. Plantain for some reason likes to be trodden on. Native to Europe, the Indians called it "white man's footprint" because wherever the European settlers showed up, so, too, did the footprint of this herb. This is a powerful vulnerary, made into an infused oil or salve, an herb used to heal skin.

Then there was the fennel, a real surprise to me. I smelled it before I saw it, the trace of anise/licorice floating up the alley. Beloved by bees and herbalists alike, it is used as a digestive tonic, and has specific uses for flatulence.

And finally, there is the mugwort, the magician of the plants. This variety is white mugwort. Planted at the west end of the alley at some point in the past, it has marched its way up the edges and particularly likes to grow along the fenceline of the neighbors who have beautiful rich garden beds. For Plant Spirit Medicine practitioners, Mugwort is a command remedy, a sacred plant which works as well as the acupuncturist's needle to clear energetic blocks. It is one of my premier plant allies.

J.R. Worsley was a Five Element acupuncturist, who with others brought this version of Chinese Medicine out of China and shared it in the west. He also had deep insight into the power of beauty of plants. He said that local plants, growing locally, were 1000 times more powerful than other plants. From him I learned: the medicinal plants that grow in our alley have powerful, deep medicine to share. We don't need to go to Hawaii or South America or Australia; we only need to look in our own back yards. Today, these local plants are the first ones I look to for healing.

Janet
Resources: Photos of plants from our alley
Caution: plants growing in an unused alley can be safely collected for medicine. However, if cars regularly use your alley, the plants are collecting the exhaust, etc. and concentrating it in their leaves and roots - NOT safe to use.