Every year, I learn more from my garden. New plants grow, old friends die. It brings me closer to the cycle of life and reminds me of the great mystery that encompasses our planet and all beings. Every year something new catches my attention or sparks my creativity. This year, along with seed saving, it was gathering herbs for a healing garden salve. I decided to make a salve strictly from the herbs in my garden. After all, I think plants that grow where we live have unique healing properties specifically for us. But more on that another time. After strolling through the garden for several days, I came up with this recipe. It is made from plants that are easy to grow and can be found in many herb gardens, maybe even yours.

Healing Garden Salve

2 ounces Self Heal oil
2 ounces Plantain oil
2 ounces Calendula oil
2 ounces Comfrey oil
2 ounces Echinacea oil
2 1/2 ounces Beeswax
60 drops Lavender essential oil
20 drops Roman Chamomile essential oil

From the beginning:

I dried the herbs well in a cool, dark place (my garage has never smelled so good!). Then I garbled them, meaning I took off all blemished plant parts, dead leaves, and woody stems. I then made them into herbal oils. I like to make each oil separately so I can use them by themselves, or have the opportunity to mix them with other herbal oils later. Alternately, you can throw them all together and make a combined oil.

Here is how you make an herbal oil:

Use 1 part dried herb by weight to 5 parts oil by volume. An example would be 2 ounces of echinacea flowers and 10 ounces of olive oil. I like to use extra virgin olive oil as it has its own healing properties for the skin and will infuse well with herbs.
Blend the herbs and oil in a blender or food processor until the oil just starts to get warm. This helps the herb infuse into the oil. Some people prefer to heat their oils at a very low temperature in a crockpot or the oven. I don't like setting my oils in the sun, as light and heat oxidize oils and they go rancid quicker.
You can help your oil infuse by shaking or stirring it once a day.
Let your oil infuse for at least 2-4 weeks.
Once it is ready, put a strainer in a bowl and line it with a muslin cloth. Pour your oil through the cloth and let it strain. To get any excess, squeeze the herb by hand or press it out with an herb press. Compost your spent herb.
To preserve your oil, you can add benzoin gum (1/2 oz by weight of the powdered gum for every 32 fluid ounces of oil). You can also add Vitamin E oil (1 teaspoon natural Vitamin E oil for every 32 fluid ounces of oil). Essential oils will also help preserve your herbal oils and provide their own healing properties. Add 10–12 drops per ounce of oil.
Store your oil in a glass jar in a cool, dark place such as the refrigerator or a cupboard.

Then, you can make it into an herbal salve:

Add equal parts of each oil together and set aside.
You will need 25% beeswax, by weight, to make your oils into a salve. For example, if you have 4 ounces of herbal oil, use 1 ounce of beeswax. You can use a bit less beeswax if you prefer a softer salve, or a bit more beeswax if you like your salve harder.
Melt your beeswax in a double boiler until it is liquid. There is no need to grate it first.
Add the herbal oil.
Stir well until beeswax and oil are incorporated and completely melted.
You can also add other oils or butters such as lanolin, cocoa butter, or coconut oil for a more creamy consistency. It is fun to experiment with your own recipes!
You can check for consistency with a spoon and plate. Just spoon a little salve onto your plate and let it cool. It is easy to adjust your consistency by adding more oil or beeswax at this point.
Remove your pan from heat and add essential oils if desired.
Pour into containers and let cool before capping and labeling.

Let's break it down and look at each plant:

Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris)

A common herb, both in the garden and in waste areas, self-heal will also grow easily in a lawn. It is known by many common names (often the sign of a well-loved herb) including heart of the earth, heal-all, all-heal, carpenter’s herb, and hook-heal. Culpepper, explains the name Self Heal whereby when you are hurt, you may heal yourself.' It is excellent for the skin. It is astringent, hemostatic, vulnerary, and has mild antiseptic properties. As a hemostat, it will stop bleeding. Self heal is specific for the mouth and will help to heal inflamed, bleeding gums, and skin or mouth ulcers. It can be used as a mouth wash or gargle. As an anti-inflammatory, it is useful for insect bites, varicose veins, and hemorrhoids. As an antipyretic, it will help to reduce a fever. It is also mildly diuretic, helping to increase urine flow. Similar to calendula, self heal is a lymphatic tonic that can help ease swollen lymph. It was traditionally used for various swellings on the body as well as mastitis. It makes an excellent wash for the eyes. My favorite way to use it is to add 30 drops of self heal tincture to a 1/2 cup saline solution (1/2 cup warm water and 1/8 teaspoon whole salt - not table salt) and rinse both eyes twice a day.

Plantain (Plantago major)

A common garden herb, plantain is cooling and soothing to burns, rash, sunburn, hives, eczema, psoriasis, and chickenpox. It can be used as an infusion in a healing bath, poultice, or compress applied directly to the skin. It makes a useful, vulnerary compress, oil, or salve, helping to heal wounds. Plantain will help draw out a splinter, or bee stinger. It is useful for bug bites and nettle stings. Just chew the fresh leaf (dry will work in a pinch) and apply it directly to the area. As a hemostat, it will stop bleeding. As an astringent, it is useful for pulling boggy, inflamed tissues back together, allowing for quicker healing.

Calendula (Calendula officinalis)

Calendula is one of my favorite herbs. It is such a gentle, useful plant, and very easy to grow! I love to take the fresh flower petals and sprinkle them in salads, rice, or soup. It is one of my favorite herbs for the skin due to its antibacterial, anti-fungal, and skin healing properties. Calendula makes an excellent herbal oil, salve, wash, or sitz bath to help heal wounds, scratches, bug bites, skin ulcers, rashes, hemorrhoids, and diaper rash. It encourages tissue restoration and reduces scarring. Calendula is also a useful herb to support proper lymph function. It is useful for earaches and it makes a soothing eyewash. It is safe to use for extended periods of time.

Comfrey (Symphytum spp.)

Comfrey has the highest mucilage content of any herb. Mucilage is demulcent and emollient, making comfrey a wonderfully soothing, moistening, and lubricating plant. As a gargle or mouthwash, it will relieve throat infections, hoarseness, or bleeding gums. As a hemostat, comfrey helps stop bleeding. Use a comfrey poultice for sprains and to help repair cartilage, tendon, or ligament damage. Allantoin, a constituent found mainly in comfrey root, is an excellent cell proliferant. It aids healing and new cell growth in wounds, bruises, sores, cuts, burns, skin ulcers, eczema, psoriasis, and varicose veins. Comfrey encourages proper healing to reduce scar tissue. Use it as a poultice or sitz bath to heal perineal tears or hemorrhoids. Comfrey can be used in the bath to soften the skin and makes an excellent herbal oil or healing salve. Be careful when using comfrey with deep wounds as it can encourage tissue growth over the top of the wound before it is properly healed, leading to abscesses. Do not use comfrey internally as the root and to a lesser degree, the leaf contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids which may damage the liver with excessive use.

Echinacea (Echinacea spp.)

Echinacea is antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, anesthetic, and anti-microbial, giving it strong wound healing and infection-fighting properties. It reduces swelling and pain along with increasing immune response making it good for boils, cuts, teething, wounds, abscesses, ulcerations, poison ivy, and animal, reptile, and insect bites. Echinacea is probably best known for its immune-stimulating properties. It is said to be anti-biotic, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral. It increases the white blood cells' ability to fight, destroy, and eat foreign organisms (called phagocytosis). Echinacea is resistant to many viruses and can be used topically as well as internally for herpes or canker sores.

What do you have growing in your garden that you could make into a salve?

Healing Garden Salve