The Herb Garden

The Herb Garden is where we nurture the ancient knowledge passed down to us through the ages. It is the garden of the curandero or curandera (healer) as well as the secret resource of the gourmet cook. Here there are to be found a hundred different tiny flowers and aromatic smells which have been used throughout the ages as medicine – sometimes tasting very bitter but always curative – as well as to preserve foods and to add flavour.

Some herbs are so powerful that they are proscribed for pregnant women and most herbs are companion plants extraordinaire keeping at bay harmful insects or attracting beneficial ones and able encourage growth in other plants.

Herbs symbolise our innate, inherited wisdom (not for nothing is one of the herbs given the name 'sage'!); our ability to survive in the most adverse conditions; our personal, quirky characteristics that add spice to our life, stamp our style on our creative works and give picancy to our relationships. Our creative side, like a herb, must be stubborn and resistant, able to survive freezing winters and broiling summers, wild winds and torrential downpours; must cling to life on the steepest of hillsides and in the most unforgiving terrain.

Our creativity, like a herb, has the ability to summon the spirits both good and bad depending on how we nurture it and to foment the growth of creativity in others. Like a herb, it draws its sustenance from the earth and the air, the sunlight and the rain; It may survive locked up in the dark but it will only treble in size and sprout rampant blooms when it is out in the open air spreading freely in its natural, wild state.

Coming soon: List of herbs and their properties...