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Home::Environment
Unusual Uses of Backyard Plants and Trees
Author : Bill Hirst
Highland Hill Farm just doesn't sell and install "landscaping
beauty." We're providing you with food and raw materials! Why
not raise plants that have uses other because they look good? Of
course you already know that you can use the wood from your
trees instead of going to a lumber yard or home supplies center.
You've learned about the historical use of the Viburnum's
straight branches for making arrow shafts. Then, the hardwood
trees you have planted can provide fruits or nuts.
But did you know you can rub the powder found on the bark of a
Quaking Aspen tree on your skin and it works as mosquito
repellent. You see, mosquito repellent actually works not
because the mosquitoes are driven away by the offensive smell,
but because there are chemical compounds whose odor blocks the
mosquito's sensory receptors effectively hiding us. So, you can
be invisible to mosquitoes by buying mosquito repellent with
"DEET," an organic hydrocarbon molecule, or use the powder from
the bark of your Quaking Aspen tree, an organic molecule from a
whole 'nuther source.
Edible Wild plants. Yes you can safely eat the following:
The leaves of the Quaking Aspen also make a tasty tea which will
cure minor headaches. The Quaking aspen leaves contain salicylic
acid, the active ingredient of (acetylsalicylic) aspirin. Silver
Birch trees' bark makes a tea which has long been considered as
medicinal as chicken soup.
Arborvitae , the "lifegiving tree," obviously has made a
superbly beneficial tea for centuries. The leaves and bark both
are boiled in water to yield Vitamin C along with the tannins,
etc. and prevent or cure scurvy. Maybe you don't like orange
juice, or more likely, have been given a dietary restriction for
citrus fruit. Just have some tea from a Thuja Occidentalis, the
Eastern Cedar, or Eastern White Cedar, also called Northern
White Cedar, boy oh boy, the Arborvitae sure has alot of names!
Anyway, you can check on the value of Arborvitae Tea; Just get a
time machine, go back to 1536 near Quebec, and ask the explorer
Jacques Cartier and his men. Burdock is edible. (But it tastes
very bitter)
>From the popular dogwood tree, you can eat the berries. NOT the
plant, bark, or leaves, but the Dogwood's fruit, the berries,
are edible (sad note, you will likely find the berries taste
almost as bitter as burdock plant). The inside bark of a
cottonwood tree tastes pretty fair. The white inside part of a
cattail tastes very good. It's like a mild cucumber. Watercress
is sold as a delicacy in restaurants. It has a strong flavor,
tasting rather spicy like radishes) Poplar bark is tolerable.
Anise is truly delicious if you like black licorice. Dandelion
leaves make a great salad, the roots can be roasted and then
ground to make a kind of coffee or tea drink with boiled water,
or you can even make dandelion wine. Any kind of mint can be
grown alongside your shrubs and flowers. Be sure you harvest it
often or some species of mint will become "an invasive" and take
over your whole yard.
Wild rose hips can be rather expensive to buy, but are high in
Vitamin C, an ingredient in many teas. Just don't eat the
flowers or plant stems. Thistle is more like a weed, a real
weed, but if you'll scrape the thorns off (duh!) you can eat the
leaf or the inside of the blossom as salad greens. Berries.
whether strawberries, raspberries, chokecherries (can seem like
too much pit to be worth it), currants (Tart tasting),
serviceberries, gooseberries (green, "stripy" and very TART!),
purple elderberries (red ones are poisonous), cranberries, and
best of all, blueberries are just about the best example of what
we can eat that grows wild. Don't eat sumac berries, they are
poisonous!
Prickly Pear Cactus is indeed a succulent. Scrape off the skin,
boil the inside, and you'll see why it is botanically classified
as "succulent." Clover can be eaten as a salad green. You can
even eat the four-leafed ones for extra folic acid to go with
your good luck. Did you know it has been claimed an apple can be
more helpful for waking up in the morning than a cup of coffee,
or the more caffeine-rich orange-colored teas? A morning or two,
try an apple fresh-picked from your own apple tree and see if
you feel the lift.
Our use plant links http://seedlingsrus.com/Arborvitae.html
http://seedlingsrus.com/FreeFencing.html
http://seedlingsrus.com/Winter http://zone5trees.com/Hedges
http://zone5trees.com/PlantingInstructions.html
http://zone5trees.com/ProfitsGrowingTrees.html
http://seedlingsrus.com/GrowingRhodies.html
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