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Devotion: Diary of an Appalachian Garden<\/strong><\/em>\nA self-taught gardener and native North Carolinian, Mignon Durham\u2019s accomplishments include serving as board chairman for Penland School of Craft and founding Toe River Valley Watch, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of rural landscapes and the protection of the Toe River Valley watershed. In 2012, the purchase of 2.77 neglected acres in Asheville led to a blog, \u201cMy Journey Home,\u201d about the design, construction and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification of the house and gardens she calls \u201cDevotion.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Durham began writing Devotion: Diary of an Appalachian Garden<\/em>, in which she shares her insights and meditations for other gardeners. \u201cWriting the book was my mental health project during many months of sequestration,\u201d Durham says, \u201cand my way of highlighting the importance of cultivating sanctuary in nature, environmental stewardship and the legacy of southern horticulture.\u201d<\/p>\n Durham believes that rewilding the landscape with native plants, often left out of design plans by professional garden designers, is crucial in addressing climate change by \u201cletting nature take care of itself, repairing damaged ecosystems and restoring degrading landscapes.\u201d Her garden has been certified as a habitat for native plants, wildlife and pollinators. Among her favorite plants native to the Southern Appalachians are chokeberry bushes (enjoyed by Cedar Waxwings and good for preventing erosion), trout lilies, bloodroot, showy orchis, rattlesnake plantain and yellow lady\u2019s slipper. The book contains an extensive index of plants as well as hundreds of beautiful photographs.<\/p>\n \u201cI suffer from biophilia, the love of nature and living things,\u201d Mignon says. She borrowed the term from neurologist Oliver Sacks, who wrote: \u201cI cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organizing effects on our brains, but I see the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.\u201d<\/p>\n She earned a B.S. in plant and soil science from the University of Vermont and began her own studies of herbalism while in college. She continued to learn by taking workshops and while working for The Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, in Weaverville. She also has a Masters in Appalachian Studies and Sustainability, concentrating in Appalachian Ethnobotany, from Appalachian State University.<\/p>\n Wild Witchcraft<\/em> will benefit botanists at any level, she says, but she wrote it with beginners in mind. Much of her knowledge has been gained through self-study and she has advice for others who wish to be their own teachers. \u201cFirst, you must be able to be truly humble and say, \u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019 and \u2018Let\u2019s look that up,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cThere are not any safe risks to take with herbs and plants. Be cautious and careful, be mindful and remember that herbs are not cure-alls or more perfect or better than human-made medicines. I think there is so much nuance in herbal medicine that I could have avoided a lot of dumb mistakes and embarrassing hubris if I had a good mentor or teacher to consistently work with.\u201d Learning is, for her, an ongoing process, and online herbal classes help. \u201cI would just suggest trying to get to know five common plants in your area very well,\u201d she says. \u201cTry and look up the history, their chemistry, the current uses, where they are from historically and all the current research. There is no plant too simple or humble.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyer runs her own small school, The Spicebush School of Old Craft, teaching classes on folk magic and folk herbalism. Each year, she offers a program called Hedgecraft. \u201cHedgecraft is the art of wortcunning: knowing plants not just by their botany but by the currents of historical magic that run through them,\u201d she says. In Appalachia, she adds, a \u201ccottage witch\u201d refers to \u201ca cunning person.\u201d Our ancestors learned to identify, harvest and craft folk remedies for common ailments and basic good health. \u201cIt is knowing how to find what you need to heal and nourish with that which flourishes just outside your doorstep,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n As a child she loved the \u201csolitude and magical freedom\u201d of the woods, but had no interest in plants. This, despite the fact that her grandfather and father both tried to cultivate an interest in gardening. \u201cI was very close to my Grandpa Joe (Joachim Naphtali Simon),\u201d she says, \u201can eccentric intellectual who was a vegetable gardener and a naturalist. On his own initiative, Grandpa Joe labeled all the trees\u2014with their common and scientific names\u2014that grew on the path that led home from our school so all the kids could learn them.\u201d<\/p>\n Those seeds planted early sprouted for her later, especially when she learned about the environmental crisis, organic gardening and plant medicine. \u201cMy conversion resulted in complete botanical bewitchment,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n She wrote The Healing Garden<\/em> for home gardeners, herbal cooks and anyone interested in the therapeutic benefits of healing herbs. Step-by-step photographic tutorials make it perfect for beginners, while more experienced gardeners and herbalists will find herbal profiles and recipes engaging. An online portal, The Healing Garden Gateway<\/em>, includes videos on herb gardening and plant propagation.<\/p>\n Among her favorite natives are the medicinal trees: black birch (Betual lenta),<\/em> basswood (Tilia spp.)<\/em>, black haw (Viburnum prunifolium)<\/em> and witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana).<\/em> \u201cThese woodies provide bountiful medicine and promote biodiversity by supporting local populations of insects, birds, mammals and amphibians,\u201d Blankespoor says. \u201cEverything I write and teach is centered on creating regenerative and sustainable herbal lifestyles\u2014from the garden to the apothecary and kitchen, and beyond. The more people who know how to grow food and herbs, make medicine and administer it capably and gather sustenance from wild places, the better off we\u2019ll all be.\u201d<\/p>\n WNC\u2019s temperate mountain climate offers plants to wildcrafters that include, in spring, stinging nettles, chickweed, dandelion, cleavers and violet; in summer, lamb\u2019s quarters, red clover, wild bergamot, plantain and sochan; in fall, mountain blueberries, persimmons, pawpaws and elderberries; and in winter, various medicinal roots and rosehips.<\/p>\n Blankespoor recommends a course of self-study in partnership with formal herbal instruction. \u201cWith the bloom of online learning, it\u2019s more possible than ever to study with your teacher of choice and learn at a pace that works for you and your life.\u201d<\/p>\n While in college, he met an herbalist named 7Song, and joined the first class of students when 7Song founded the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine. Shane moved to Asheville and opened an office to see patients for a couple of years, then went to the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine in Brisbee, AZ. After moving back to Asheville, he founded his own school: the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine in 1999.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my primary goals for this book, for my herb school and for my life is to help people connect more to the natural world, to open our eyes to the beauty as well as the food and medicine all around us,\u201d he says. For local-vores, he adds, there\u2019s farm-to-table and, even more specific, \u201cyard-to-table\u201d or \u201cyard-to-medicine-cabinet.\u201d Seeking out what\u2019s growing right in our front yards, he says, is \u201ca powerful reminder that we are not separate from nature as we like to think, but are still very much a part of it.\u201d Some of his favorite plants grow at the base of Carson Mountain in Barnardsville where he lives: Solomon\u2019s seal, black cohosh and pipsissewa.<\/p>\n His book focuses on the Southeast, including WNC and covering areas from the Pennsylvania\/Maryland border southwards to central Florida and westwards through Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and eastern Texas. \u201cAlthough the book is about wild plants,\u201d he says, \u201cthey\u2019re not all deep-woods plants; many are ones that gardeners are already weeding out, or that people might find in their yards or city parks. There are probably many plants in here that you already know, but didn\u2019t know were medicinal.\u201d<\/p>\n Annually, the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine offers an herbalist training course that meets April through October and a one-weekend-a-month program focused more on practical, hands-on herbal medicine that starts in April. In addition, a Wild Medicine internship that includes Saturday plant walks, is offered twice a year, the next beginning August 27. Upcoming events for Shane include teaching at the national herb conference Medicines from the Earth June 4\u20136 in Black Mountain and at The Firefly Annual Gathering at Deerfield in Mills River June 7\u201312. (story, p. 46)<\/p>\n Respect for the land, the climate, the natural history of WNC and the history of the Cherokee and early settlers who learned about the plants around them guides each of the authors in their approach to gardening and wildcrafting, and sharing that knowledge with others. \u201cThe greatest lie we have ever been told is that there is an us and a nature,\u201d says Beyer. \u201cWe are nature. We are animals. We are a part of everything and it is part of our natural way to know the animals, plants and other beings of our bio-regions.\u201d<\/p>\n To learn more, visit MignonDurham.com, BloodandSpicebush.com, ChestnutHerbs.com and BlueRidgeSchool.org. Books are available through authors\u2019 websites and at regional bookstores.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recent books by WNC authors explore a range of topics including native plants and rewilding, folk medicine and herbal remedies, recipes, foraging and witchcraft\u2014all to help us form relationships with plants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":50927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,110,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-literature","category-outdoors"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/P2P_-Plant-Guides-Wild-Witchcraft.-Rebecca-Beyer-author.jpg\")
Wild Witchcraft: Folk Herbalism, Garden Magic, and Foraging for Spells, Rituals, and Remedies<\/strong><\/em>
\nRebecca Beyer was 18 years old when she stumbled upon a passion for plants at a summer internship on a living history farm. \u201cI took the job to learn how to drive draft horses and to foster my love of history,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I ended up foraging and tending a garden with historic hand tools, and fell in love. I wanted to know how to work with plants, feed myself and to feel less like a stranger in the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/P2P_-Plant-Guides-The-Healing-Garden.jpg\")
The Healing Garden: Cultivating & Handcrafting Herbal Remedies<\/strong><\/em>
\n\u201cStamens, stigmas and anthers were my first dates in what would become a lifelong love affair with plants,\u201d says Juliet Blankespoor, whose debut book, The Healing Garden<\/em>, came out in April. She discovered herbal medicine in college botany classes and since that time has owned a slew of herbal businesses including a nursery, a medicinal products business, a clinical practice and, currently, The Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, an online herbal school she founded in 2007 that specializes in bio-regional, hands-on herbalism.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/P2P_Plant-Guides-none-needed.jpg\")
Southeast Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest and Use 106 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness<\/em><\/strong>
\nGrowing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, CoreyPine Shane lived at the edge of woods where he played and explored. His mother gardened, but it was the wild plants that drew him rather than the cultivated ones. \u201cEven today, I\u2019m more of a wildcrafter than a gardener,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n