Vitamin controversy- it comes back again.

I don't even know if I want to set foot into this arena. But given the fact that I write for a small audience, most of whom I know, all of whom know how to get a hold of vitamin/supplement experts (like Tyra at the Merc, myself, etc), I feel like I should say a little.
Over the past month, I've heard the wonk wonk of mainstream media (totally bunko CNN) start the semi-annual banter about vitamins, studies, findings and what is POSSIBLY REALLY BAD FOR YOU. 
I should preface this all with: I do not advocate mega-dosing on anything. You want to? Ok. It's your body. Find out what could happen first. Mega doses of fried fish or chocolate or booze or vitamin C will all do something- find out what could happen!
I also just don't like multi-vitamins. Do you know why? As conspiracy watchers (like Boingboing.net, respectable, smart/nerdy and interesting content btw.) often point out, the vitamin industry is unregulated. Now, what happens next in this convo is that the person says they want the FDA to regulate the vitamin industry. Uhhh, that's stupid. The FDA is barely current on medical devices, nutrition, pharmaceuticals and agriculture. I don't think they have the background, interest or expertise to evaluate vitamins. Leave it to the Europeans. They've done research on this stuff for decades and have great info. Back to multis though: they are based on RDA or recommended daily allowances put forth by the FDA, which is questionable science. The vitamin companies then shove a bunch of lab-made elements into a pill and package it for sale. 
Here is another idea: get a reasonable handle on what smart and healthy folks around you take daily. Get a nutritional evaluation done by a doctor or medical professional (my chiropractor is a nutritionist and can do blood work/ spit kit/ urine test to determine where deficiencies lie). Then read up on how to help those deficiencies. My best guess is that nearly everyone needs vitamin D supplementation and fish oil supplementation, maybe B12. Many other deficiencies can be addressed by radical, positive dietary change. I want to emphasize what is at stake in many of these articles-- everyone should not take vitamins. Everyone should pay attention to nutrition and learn more. The SAD (standard american diet) is very very very nutritionally deficient. If this is what you eat, you will need to supplement to get through your day. Wanh-wanh. 

A brief list of articles mentioning this topic:
CNN about (mostly) megadoses. Gets lots wrong. Is vitamin or supplementation actually Alternative medicine? Hmm, I thought it went with preventative care or health maintenance. 
CNN is at again in a gross misrepresentation of findings about our friend fish oil!
A decent blog rebuttal of this stupid article! She is a breath of fresh air. 

First- always examine your sources. Most mainstream media view vitamins as weird (maybe) necessary pseudo-science (like chiropracty, in fact) and totally news fodder. Traditional doctors are pretty lame at nutrition. NO, NOT ALL DOCTORS (side note: my friend/neighbor's oncologist recommended pro-biotics for him instead of pills to treat stomach issues after chemo and radiation. This is fantastic!). But I've had pediatricians tell me that homeopathy was dangerous, especially for kids. There is proven research from Europe to contest that. "But that tiny amount of caffeine in those Hyland teething tabs is horrible for kids! It'll make them crazy!" Sigh. These are also the doctors who don't know shit about vegan and vegetarian diets. They don't understand how protein works or where to get it, aside from meat. They don't understand the beauty of eggs (really, if you are low in B12, you must not eat many eggs.). Or that there are 2 grams of protein in a serving of kale. That's alot for a vegetable folks. Think on it- brown rice, beans and kale. Add some eggs and you have a lot of available, non-meat protein. 

Second- Remember that every body is different. Your experience of stress is so different than mine! I had a bad time earlier this month, got really stressed out and discovered that I needed some B vitamins. How do I know this? B vitamins are used for energy. They are used by the body to process white flour, sugar, caffeine, alcohol and IN STRESSFUL SITUATIONS. I have always, since I was little, required more B6 than the average bear. I'm high strung? I like to drink more caffeine and eat more bread than maybe is good for me? And since I changed my diet to eat less simple carbs, very little flour and less alcohol, I stopped taking B vitamins. I needed help this month and I took it. My symptoms that indicate I'm using more B than I'm ingesting: mouth sores, unhealthy cuticles, energy drops, dark circles under my eyes. [I lost a friend and dealt with it by eating convenience food and drinking more alcohol. Wanh-wanh.] 
To this end, with every body being so different, you really have to do some work on nutritional supplements. I hear so many people railing against vitamins because they feel defrauded. Ok, I hear you on that one. You don't know if you are getting what the bottle says you are getting, no oversite or guarantee there. You feel overwhelmed and goaded by opposing information from media sources. You aren't sure, given these opposing POVs, what you actually need. But reading stuff like this right here will help you start to get a handle on what is happening in every body, what you personally need and what your soft spots are! 

Third- Can you get what you need through an amazing diet? Yes I believe you can. Is food today less nutrient dense? I don't know. I think the sources on this topic are highly biased and I can't find information that I stand by. I'm a horticulturalist. I reinforce my soil with good compost and no pesticides. I eat what I raise on this soil. I buy vegetables from people who do the same thing. I eat meat that was raised on pretty fields and finished with nice grain from those fields. I do what I can. I eat organic fermented dairy. It seems to be fine, in the short term. Perfect? No. Unknowns? Lots. 
Do most people get what they need through their diets? Absolutely not! We eat things from boxes that have had "nutrients" injected into them. This makes me uncomfortable! Did you hear the news that Naked juice has to remove the "all natural" from its label? It was found to contain "... Archer Daniels Midland’s Fibersol-2 (“a soluble corn fiber that acts as a low-calorie bulking agent”), fructooligosaccharides (an alternative sweetener), and genetically modified soy." (worldobserveronline.com/2013/07/20)

That makes me feel lied to and reinforces my belief that the more things I eat with a label, the more dangerously I'm eating. I can just take kale from my garden, add some fruit and some yogurt and make a smoothie. And I won't feel lied to. 

Maybe a lot of this post is opinion.... certainly it is. I'm trying to provide information and not useless ranting, though. I hope you take away this: always examine the sources of competing vitamin rhetoric. Try to find out what you really need before you go off trying to take a ton of vitamins. Give yourself a good hard examination of symptoms, needs, etc. Find a medical person to help with outlining any deficiencies you may have. 

Cover up in the sun- skin cancer is real. Wear a hat! Mineral sunscreen is safest but do what you can. 

Nearly everyone needs more vitamin D than they are getting. Get a test at your doctor's office or a clinic to find out how much you are getting and/or need. 

Read up on fish oil. I believe in it! 

blackberry lily says Heyyyy!

Eat good food. Eat it every damn day. Enjoy yourself while you do! Better food = better nutrition = better functioning body machine. 

Cheerio..... xoxox

Japanese gardens: design to reality

Instead of posting a didactic blog on Japanese gardens (here's what not to do, here are the basics, blah blah blah), I'll relate my experience, give you the design and then final pictures from the homeowners. It's summer and fun time- let's not be too serious but give ourselves over to pretty plants, cool breezes and cocktails on the patio (lots of bug spray on our ankles).

My clients here are a wonderfully eclectic pair- kids, grandkids, etc. But they have lived in the past in Japan and harbor a deep love of Japanese gardens. (And who doesn't??) But these two also have the unique experience of actually living in Japan, not just visiting or reading the occasional book. They are also fair gardeners. When you look at the pictures, you'll see that Roger and Sharon are also good craftspeople! They built the pond more than a decade ago (at least 15 years they said), Roger built the Tojo gate, they laid the stepping stones themselves. As well, they installed all the plants and mulch and the extensive drip irrigation system!

First step in the process was speaking with my clients, extensively, about their needs and wants. Who would use this? How would this be enjoyed? What activities are going to be done in the back yard? In their case, as well, they had purchased trees, had the existing pond and a small retaining wall/ berm. The idea was to create a cozy, enclosed and private backyard that minimized some of the outside interference. They also wanted a separation from their small lawn into the garden area with a gate. 

From there, I researched Japanese design elements. I knew many Japanese garden favorites. But it's always important to shift plant choices to the climate and culture of the garden where they will live. Roger and Sharon have a backyard that faces east. 

Important elements for me: rock, wood, evergreens, groundcover plants, a curved path. We have no gravel or sand. But we have a body of water and the curved rock path. We also have a bamboo gate. 

Hand colored design:

gate drawing

  

 

Roger in his gate: hand tied bamboo.... very lovely! If you would like more information about the design or plant choices, let me know. I can detail them. You get an idea of the plant palette through the design and images, I hope.

--- Laurel

Big June, the solstice, the supermoon and summer

During the summer months, it's always refreshing and invigorating when so many circumstances coincide. I'm talking about the full moon, the supermoon (meaning super close to the earth and huge) along with the solstice BUT then you have all of the wonderful big summer medicine, the harvest month for herbs.
This month, this past week I've harvested calendula blossoms for infused oil. I've harvested rosemary for spice and oil. Comfrey for oil. Yarrow and echinacea flowers/ stalks for tincture. I will go back in the fall and do a root harvest for both of those and make a tincture that is a combination of the flower and the root. Pretty powerful stuff.....

Yarrow- are you interested in this plant? Here is an image of the native white yarrow that we find around here. It can be invasive- which... I don't really find that appropriate here. It can be a garden thug, if you don't want LOTS of it in your garden. It loves to spread! It will populate your lawn if you let it. But that also means it's strong and supple and resilient.
Active volatile oil: azulene and others.
Use as an antispasmodic, certainly astringent (due to its tannin content),  In addition, I use yarrow against colds, sore throats, infections or suspected upper respiratory/ ear/ throat infections. It is a great topical healer against skin things/ eruptions: bad bug bites, stings, burns (crush and hold against it), also read that it can be used topically to help take down warts. Though I have little experience with it in this form, due to its highly bitter quality, it is a bile stimulator and kidney tonic (blood purifier perhaps). I am drying it this year for an emergency tea (YUCK, bitter, psst, blech) and/or wound healer. Can you tell I have a lot of it?
[Interesting side note: just found this on a Google search of Yarrow. It can be used on animals, namely horse, bleeding/ oozing wounds:

Wound Aid for Animals is yarrow, Achillea millefolium, harvested in full bloom, dried and powdered. It is liberally applied to open bleeding, oozing or otherwise raw wounds. I have used it most on horses with moderately severe to gruesome wire cuts. I apply it by liberally sprinkling it on the open wound or throwing it on the wound if the horse is not cooperative or restrained. A large quantity will adhere to the wound. Yarrow is a hemostat — or blood stopper — it works best on lacerations. It does not impress me as a blood stopper on incisions or clipped nails. It does work effectively to stop oozing sutured incisions. It is anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and accelerates wound healing with reduced formation of scar tissue." http://www.buckmountainbotanicals.net/treatments/woundaid.html]

Clary Sage: Exotic looking, blooms every other year. Reseeds itself. It is a salvia. Its most common use is in essential oil. Obviously, I'm not making essential oil at home, am I? No. Part of the danger of essential oils is that they are the chemical extraction of hundreds and hundreds of plants to create 1 ounce of highly concentrated oil. The oil then has lots of potency and can be deadly if ingested. Don't leave it around for small people to mess with... I've gotten burns from very concentrated oil.
That being said, this plant with its huge leaves and very pale exotic spikes is going into oil. I'm making an infused oil of it- it has a lemony, mysterious scent. In old herbals, it warns over and over not to mix with alcohol due to its intense effects. Or maybe it is a warning TO MIX with alcohol, since it intensifies the effects! But I used the aromatherapy oil during my labor, on a handkerchief tucked into my bosom. It was centering.

I'm also making oil from calendula blooms- calendula oil is just.... well, it heals everything. Diaper rash to radiation burns- it isn't magic or super fast, but it is a calming, lovely golden ray of sunshine! I dry my blossoms just a few hours to get any water off of them then put them in my oil jar. I did all of this on the solstice- I started the jar last week and am adding to it until the season for calendula is done.

Also, this link here is a great article on plantain! My dad was a huge proponent of plantain (the narrow and the wide leaved). I prefer the wide as it is softer, brings down swelling and bites quicker, etc. I do chew it up and put it on insect bites if I'm walking/ hiking OR (here is a major flashbulb moment folks!)-- it grows right near poison ivy most of the time. If you spot poison ivy, or you don't, and walk through it, chew up plantain and rub it on your affected parts. Now obviously, the best thing is to wash off your exposed skin that contacted the PI. Because you're dumb if you don't. But Plantain will help after the poison ivy has erupted and made your skin and life hell.

Next up is a garden design blog... that's in a few days. I designed a Japanese garden and I had the pleasure of seeing it brought to life! And the Oakleaf Hydrangeas... knocking me outttttt!

Use what you have, love the one you're with, blah, blah, blah.

It's cold. And my plants aren't moving very fast. I'm antsy and want to enjoy and harvest and eat and tend! Wow, says Mother Nature, that's really want-y. You might want to slow down and leash up your expectations a bit. 

So here is what is available to me right now. Just Stinging Nettle tops.... barely enough for a cuppa. But so beautiful! And her stings are so subtle at this stage or maybe I'm just that primed.
Do I need to sing the praises of stinging nettles? Country folk can't believe I even touch them but they are good food, especially early in the spring. They are called for if you have systemic arthritic or inflammatory diseases (Hi, John H.). They really help the build-up in the joints that happens... now herbs aren't magic bullets, are they? They are not super charged, lab-generated gel caps. You have to invest, ingest, think health and be your own health. It isn't always anything. But it is all you. It's also all not you- it's not in your control, really. I believe in practice, like yoga, where you visualize your health and well-being. 
But also, when you're thinking of having a baby (Hi, Cass! Hi, Sam!), this high amount of iron, selenium, Vitamin K is perfect for the uterus. It isn't raspberry leaf (a prime uterine tonic that works LIKE A CHARM- drink your infusion please preg ladies!)- but remember all those stories of rupture and bleeding after birth and trauma to baby and vitamin K shot? I do. In Greer's birth, I drank large amounts of nettle infusion and it helped me not get anemic (a big issue with Myrna's birth) and I turned down the vitamin K shot because her levels were wonderful. As well, large amounts of vitamin c which help with the absorption of iron. 
Miss Cass asked last year how to identify nettles for sure: the serrated leaves, opposite position (one on each side, instead of alternate) of the leaves and the sting. They are easily wildcrafted in Shawnee Mission Park, along hte streamways trail. I spend years in KC, using this in the spring to get my nettles. Look for partially shaded, moist areas. You might find a perfect morel as well!  
If wildcrafting them isn't available to you, go to a bulk herb store. Call Whole Foods and see if they have cut nettle leaf. I know they have it at Phoenix Herb Co on Boradway, near the Plaza. Work on making a nice, rich infusion. Make a quart. Drink it in 3-4 days. Keep refrigerated! 
Here is what Dr.Christopher's website says: It is a slow-acting nutritive herb that gently cleanses the body of metabolic wastes.  It is one of the safest alteratives, especially in the treatment of chronic disorders that require long-term treatment.  It has a gentle, stimulating effect on the lymphatic system, enhancing the excretion of wastes through the kidneys.  


I'm going on the radio this weekend (About the House with Jeremy Taylor) to talk about the opening of the Lawrence Farmer's Market- oh yay! I'm also talking about planting blooming trees- picking the right one, the ones blooming now, care and feeding. Join me on KLWN at 10:00 to talk with Jeremy Taylor, of course, but also John Pendleton! 

So expect an apprentice update- her name is Sarah, she told me I could share it. :) I think I'll show her a friendly, sticky, clingy friend this week. You never know where your ally will show up....

go get it- landscaping! apprentice! nettles! daffodils!

I got to be in the local paper this week. It's the Go-Getter section- Try Landscaping. It's a very basic, to be sure, but HEY! I run my mouth all the time. This just warns the beginning homeowner to research their tree planting carefully, re-mulch to give a fresh perspective or look....
Seriously wish they would have used a real picture, not a shutterstock photo. The paper is really cutting its budget.... this is getting ridiculous. Opinions are like a$$holes- everyone has got one!

If you have questions about your landscape, I specialize in herbal, medicinal plants (obviously) and native/ xeric gardens that embrace your existing garden culture, as well as garden consulting.


Onto other topics: yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting with a friend who is going to be "apprenticing" with me. I'm not averse to leadership but I put quotes around apprentice because I feel like she and I are contemporaries and, while I'm teaching her, I still consider us on equal footing. Apprentice? Well, ok.
We spent some time working on what we wanted to teach/ learn about.... she walked around my messy and organic garden space, looking at all the new medicinal beauties popping up. The echinacea is popping its burgundy shoots out of the ground, the yarrow is pushing forth frothy tendrils, the bronze fennel has brown fuzzy cattails and the comfrey has ears of yellow green right now! The clary sage says loudly, "I DIDN'T GO DORMANT. OMG, I'M RIGHT HERE!". As well, the never-dying rosemary is a broad evergreen shrub! I have to say I'm excited. Oh, and the calendula? Greening up from the roots. :) Happy smile....(properly, I believe calendula is perennial but doesn't survive hot summers well.)

She and I planted Feverfew (looks like a cross between chamomile and daisy), Holy Basil (Tulsi) and some creeping thyme for strictly garden (not medicinal)  purposes. She is keeping hers indoors to sprout, while I'm letting my germinate outside in the cold! The basil won't move for awhile but the other two will be just fine.
As well, this gave me the opportunity to get out my beloved herbal books and assign some reading! I love my books dearly and firmly give away those I don't love. I have my dad's collection, which I find invaluable as well! Next week, I'm taking her, her two kids (4 and 6), my two girls and myself to wildcraft nettles. Folk herbalism at its finest, right there. Can't wait to have some fresh nettles- infusion for me! That bright sharp green with the gentle taste..... Here is a picture from last year:

Urtica dioica: great for kidney, liver, bile function. Arthritis, Vitamin K, potassium.

A cold spring but verdant!

Easter is this weekend: while I'm don't celebrate Easter as such, I do present it for the holiday it is. It is meant to celebrate rebirth of the son, the sun, the land, the green.... there is a facebook picture going around showing Ishtar and correcting their perception of an Easter that celebrates only the Christian holiday. I appreciate this but it's also, in its own way, incorrect. Easter is, in northern European countries, based on Oestara. Oestara is alternately the goddess figure of spring and the pagan/ Wiccan/ proto-Christian celebration of spring itself. Usually it is on the Vernal Equinox (last week of course) because the date was based on a celestial occurrence that could be noted from year to year. I celebrate the equinox with Easter baskets, decorated eggs, lots of yummy food and too much frenzied gardening! Don't you??
According to Karen Pendleton, down the road of all the asparagus fame, we are at least two weeks behind growing schedule! I bought and am installing floating row covers for my vegetable patch. I grow in raised beds and large trees encroaching on my space. So we push it. And I especially love early season cold/ cole crops. This means I grow lots of lettuce, spinach, arugula, and kale. I'm finally to the point where I think my soil is friable (loose, rich) enough to grow carrots. My kids are absolutely in love with snow peas and sugar snaps so I've added lots of those in their honor!

from michaelweishan.com

Floating row covers are invaluable around here. Many people use them to keep pests out, as they are permeable, allowing air and water to move through. But I'm using them to get the soil warmed up sooner. Since I'm putting them on seeds that have yet to germinate, I'm laying it directly on soil. I'll suspend them a bit when the seedlings emerge.

Herb Update:
This season, I'm growing calendula again. Many of my supposedly annual calendula is still alive and green. Well. Huh. I'm planting more since my calendula oil was such a success last year. Golden yellow/orange and vibrant. I didn't dry my blooms, even though reputable sources say "dry the blooms completely!" (Mountain Rose Herbs blog). Other reputable sources (Susun Weed) simply say, eh, dry 'em a bit. I did that. I let them sit for 6-8 hours. It's oil.... nothing to be taken internally.
I have a HUGE amount of medicinal yarrow this year. As in- want a transplant?? Give me a holler, hit me up. I'll say yes. It's a lot. I've got it in front in multiple places and a large amount in a vegetable bed that must be transplanted soon!
I'm sowing St. John's Wort seeds this next week with a new helper of mine. She is a mom of two and on her own journey- and she'd like to learn about herbs. So I'm getting her to come explore with me: we are going to plant StJW, wildcraft nettles in a few weeks, transplant echinacea and yarrow. She's going to start learning about infusions, decoctions, infused oils and tinctures (vinegar, alcohol, glycerine). Doesn't that sound fun? Really- this is giving lots of discipline to personally "get it together". Organize my herbal bookshelves, make up a syllabus and ways to present the information effectively. I'm a natural teacher but an employed landscape designer, so this is wonderful for me!
On another note: here is the powerpoint from the presentation I did at the Flower, Lawn and Garden show in KC last week. Use it as a guide to basic landscape design- within your theme or not! Please feel free to contact me if you have landscape/ design questions! Listen to me live this Saturday on Jeremy Taylor's "About the House" radio show, AM 1320.

Insulin, carbs, my drama!

The theme for this month, Miss March, is cleaning up my act. My dad would like it- I've started doing headstands, early in the morning! He did yoga basically every single day. He'd sit zazen (Zen Buddhist meditation) and do forward bends, plow, push ups and head stands. He also jogged, ten minutes or so, no big deal.
I'm also on a nutrition journey that is very interesting. My dude and I are off simple carbs- still eating fruits and a few complex carbs here and there (oats, quinoa), definitely starchy vegetables. But I feel very different already. Enjoying kale smoothies with a bit of fruit and yogurt too. Lots of fat, protein, vegetables..... Don't get me wrong, I'm not into deprivation or being hungry. I'm just working to rearrange the cravings and hungry. The science behind this goes a little something like this:
Eat carbohydrates, sugar (even fruit) and your body produces insulin. Insulin is a fat storage hormone. It tells your organs (liver especially) to hold onto the fat, don't use it! Bodily organs, like the thryroid, get very tired from all that insulin. Sometimes, when there isn't enough protein in your blood, your adrenals will start to produce cortisol. You know that shaky energy? That fight or flight energy? That's cortisol. You shouldn't be existing on cortisol. Adrenal exhaustion... the stories I could tell. At one point, my cortisol production was so totally off that I was spiking cortisol at midnight (right when baby would wake to feed). I was screwed up- I went back to my meditation practice and began taking a supplement call Phosphytidyl Serine for a short time. I'd take it at 8:00 pm and it would limit my cortisol production during sleep time. It was a perfect, "get me through a hard patch" helper.
Anyway,when get your body off the insulin train, eat vegetable and protein, your body produces glucagon instead of insulin. This is a fat burning hormone. It tells your liver: Hey, eat up all that fat in there and get the fat in the blood stream utilized! STAT! We want a glucagon ratio that is HIGHER than insulin. Clearly. Natural food and eating in a natural pattern will do that.

So, it looks like I'm eating Paleo. Shrug, grimace, yuck. I really have resisted fads or what I perceive to be fad diets because I am not a joiner. I don't like dietary changes that are based on perception  (vs. science) and that might actually be veiled "thinspiration". I've been continually grossed about by the Paleo crowd because I think they seem like zealots who want to be thin but cloak it with nutrition. I also really dislike diets that replace real food with bars and pretend food made with a wrapper. But, I'm trying this because there is physical science telling me how my body is becoming estrogen-dominant (thus putting on subtle amounts of fat on the thighs, hips area). Estrogen dominance is a pre-cursor to estrogen triggered cancers, Type 2 diabetes and other metabolic syndromes of the Typical American Diet (TAD).

That said- I'm not judging you for eating all that carb loaded goodness. (What's up last night's dinner: spanikopita and MAC N CHEESE. *sigh)  It's been hard and isn't over yet- getting over that emotional hurdle of expecting breakfast to include breads. But it can and is really, really good. And I've not lost any weight, with all my exercise, so I can assure you that I'm not doing this to be something other than what I am (well more muscle is in my plans, MORE MUSCLE!). So if your body still works great, SALUT! Mine just stopped feeling and looking so great. And I have to part with pizza, traditional pizza, for awhile. As I said someplace else, the idea is to reset the receptors in my body (in all of those organs- THYROID) and let them get back to good shape. Then, it's like being a kid again. I eat a lot of good for me stuff, indulge some, feel a bit yummy then yucky, then make better choices. And not suffer a bunch of consequences. THIS is why "kids can eat anything". Well, no they can't. But they are fresher and younger- don't do them a disservice and teach them only to eat the shitty stuff. That's your Type 2 diabetic youngster right there. What we all need to do is remove weight and fat from the judgmental analysis- make it about nutrition. Everything else will follow- some people are little, some big, fat is beautiful. Type 2 diabetes is painful and sick. Sick isn't anyone's goal. Right? So let's allow ourselves beer and bread and then have a hangover and eat our vegetables and move around and feel good. Right?

On another note- I'm presenting at the Kansas City Lawn and Garden show!  I'm giving people some tips on thematic gardens- like Japanese, xeric, meadow, woodland, etc. It's both didactic and supportive! A gentle reminder to remember to do what you do well and leave the rest to professionals. Hope to see some of you there!