Garden Therapy

Dirt sounds ordinary until you look at what it does to the human nervous system. We sit down with nurse and gardener Nurse Taneesha Roberts to unpack why gardening keeps showing up as a legit mental health tool, not as a trendy wellness slogan but as a repeatable practice you can actually do after a hard day.

We talk stress hormones and cortisol, the “get your hands in soil” idea, and the emerging science around Microbacterium vaccae, serotonin, and the gut brain connection. From there we zoom out to real-life needs: how gardening can support focus and structure for kids with ADHD, how plants offer predictability and safety for people carrying PTSD, and why consistent garden routines may help with reorientation and memory for older adults. Dr. Beatrice Hyppolite also brings in research stats that surprised her, including findings tied to dementia risk reduction and measurable shifts in stress.

Then we get practical. Nurse Roberts shares approachable ways to start small, how tools like Google Image search remove the intimidation factor, and why a few minutes of daily plant care can change your mood faster than you think. We also get into physical and social benefits, from calorie-burning garden work and better sleep through circadian rhythm support to the connection-building power of community gardens. Plus, we touch on simple plant-based creations like teas, salves, and tinctures, and how nursing knowledge helps her evaluate what she’s making.

If you’ve been craving a calmer mind and a more grounded routine, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review. What’s one plant you’d grow first if you started this week?

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Beatrice Hippolyte and this is your world. Hello everyone. Welcome to a brand new episode of Your World with Dr. Beatrice Hippolyte. Today we have the privilege to have a special guest, Nursa Tanesha Roberts. I said your name right.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Thank you, Dr. Hippolyte. Okay. I appreciate the invite.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Oh yeah, welcome, welcome. But before I even turn the mic over to her to basically present herself to everyone, I I want to give like a big shout out to my baby sister, nurse Naji Massey, who love today, you know, to happen. Yes. Thank you, little sister. Now you have the mic. Tell us a little bit about you.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Okay. So I am um I've been a nurse for about 22 years, but before I did nursing, uh, my first degree was culinary arts. And when I was a young girl, a lot of the programming that I watched on television revolved around cooking and gardening. And my first degree, like I said, was culinary arts, but that wasn't a job that was really sustainable long term when you're trying to grow a family. So at that time is when I decided to go into nursing. Now, at this point of my life, when I have adult children and I have more time to be able to do the things that I want to do, and a career like nursing allows you to do that because you're working three days and you're off four days. What it has allowed me to do is to really get back into my gardening, almost like get finding my roots back, almost like you know, just getting started, and then additionally with that comes the produce that comes with the gardening that I do. So I'm able to use a lot of the things that I grow to nurture that um desire to cook.

Why Gardening Supports Mental Health

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Okay, okay, interesting. Interesting. So, our subject today is uh the therapeutic benefits of gardening. Why this subject is important, why you want the viewers to know about the importance or the benefits of it?

SPEAKER_00 2:27

I think that a lot of people um suffer different mental health ailments, and something like gardening, it really addresses a lot of things, you know, whether it be depression or anxiety, whether it be PTSD or dementia, ADHD in children. There's something there in gardening that offers people a chance to kind of therapeutically manage whatever the symptoms are that are associated, whatever their diagnosis is.

Cortisol Relief Through Soil And Routine

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Okay, okay, so then you have my ears, and I'm pretty sure my viewers are listening. You walk us through it.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Okay, so um gardening, one of the big things about gardening is that it reduces the amount of cortisol that your body uh is holding on to. Okay, when we become in stressful environments, when we are uh subjected to traumatic events, or even or even things that are consistent, like everyday things. You're sitting in traffic and you're waiting on the light and you're frustrated. When you get home, maybe a good idea is to get your hands in some soil. Because what the soil will offer you is um a microacteria vacae, which is in soil, and that's something that helps reduce the cortisol. It allows you to kind of offload some of that byproduct that you've created that you don't really need and it doesn't really serve you. Serve you. Right. So when we're talking about um uh gardening as far as the generations are concerned, when it comes to children with ADHD, what gardening allows them to do is it allows them to maintain movement but give focus so they continue that activity that you know instead of they're all over the place, now they're here. They're digging a hole in the soil, they're picking out which seed they're gonna put, they're watering, they're pruning, they're doing things that are keeping them busy and keep them focused on the task. Because it's a project. Right, exactly. It's a project, it's something to do. And the same thing is kind of similar when you're speaking about, let's say, an adult who's got PTSD, you know, suffered some kind of traumatic event in their life, right? So a plant is not gonna judge you, a plant is not gonna make you talk to it, a plant is not gonna do any of those things, and there's consistency, there's a predictability, and you know, if I put this seed in this dirt and I put water there, that that plant is gonna grow. So that gives a sense of stability, a sense of safety in whatever it is that you're doing. And then again, it takes the mind off of all the other outside noise, and you're able to focus and hone in on what it is that's really gonna serve you the best. Now, in the geriatric population, it's helpful with um people who have dementia or people who are showing signs of dementia, um, because what it does is it reorients you. So it gives you an opportunity to be reoriented and allows you to um Are you talking about the early, early stage? The early stages. It allows you to be reoriented, it allows you to bring back some of your memory. If you had a garden while you were younger and someone takes you outside and puts you in front of that rose bush, you're gonna know what to do, and it's gonna come like this because that's a practice that you had, and that's allowing them to have that memory. And in the same turn, the smells that come out of the garden, right? So you know what the rosemary smells like, you know what the roses smell like, you know what the lilacs smell like, and then you know, those are all things, those are sensory things that allow you to kind of focus back in and reorient yours you to self.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Oh, okay, very interesting. Me, myself, you know, it's like I love you know, you know, when I go to people's places, if they have a very beautiful guy, yeah, so I'll enjoy everything that is there, but I'm not I don't think that I have the hands for it. So, but it's was it was pretty amazing to see when I was conducting the research on that subject uh prior to us meeting today, to see so many benefits, you know, yeah, that has especially on mental health, like you just mentioned before. And according to research, that you know, so people who are involved into gardening, so that can help them reduce uh the amount of the stress tremendously. Yes. Research uh stated that that 30 minutes of gardening lower stress hormone more than 30 minutes of waiting.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Then isn't that amazing? And the and the thing about it is this is that when you take the time and you take that 30 minutes and you invest it into gardening, it's not like a book. You put the book down, the book is read. When you're done with that 30 minutes, specifically if you're consistent with it, there's a harvest that comes with the work that you put in. So it's not like you're just pouring all of this time, 30 minutes at a day, into a book. Yeah, there's a lot of things to learn in the book, but you plant that seed. Say you plant a radish seed today, within a month or so, you're gonna be pulling radish out of the ground. Do you know what I mean? So it's more than just that it reduces the stress level more, but it gives a confidence. It allows you to have confidence and your ability to be able to be a little bit more self-sustainable, to be able to grow something. You start here, you spend this 30 minutes today, you spend another 30 minutes tomorrow, and as time goes, you see what bountiful things become of you as opposed to just a bountiful stack of books that's taking up space and collecting dust.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

And uh it's also improved mood mood. According to research, uh, soy contains uh micro microbacterium vacae? Yes, it's a macrobe that triggers uh serotonin wheelis.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

That's right. It does trigger serotonin, and it does more than just that, it um it assists with your brain and your gut. The axis that's there in between. And so what happens is it can reduce inflammation. It's the soil that you get into, the more varieties of soil that you get into, is gonna increase your ability to not have so many um allergy symptoms, you know what I mean? It it really boosts your immune system. So there's a lot of stuff that goes on with just interacting with the soil.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Earlier, when we were having our side conversation, and you mentioned some of the uh plants that people can even use throughout the year.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

That's right. So for me, um in the springtime is when I'm really coming alive. That's the time that I'm really coming alive, and one of the first indicators for me is when the magnolia trees start blooming. Because what I'm able to do is I'm able to go out there and pick some magnolia flowers and dehydrate them. You can do it in the oven at a very low temperature, or you can put them in a dehydrator and you give yourself you make enough so that you have tea for the whole year. So I can make magnolia tea.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Do we have many many types of that? Or because sometimes I've seen, I've seen, I've seen purple, I've seen white. So which one are you referring to?

SPEAKER_00 10:03

I have a I have two magnolia trees. One of them is called the lobniery merrow, and that tree is tall, um, it's kind of compact in shape, and it has white flowers, small white flowers, right? And and you know, the magnolia tree are kind of they all kind of look like a trumpet. They kind of sit like this and then they leaf out of the sides. That one is a lobniery merrow. One of the other trees that I have is a magnolia jane, and she's the hot pink one. She's the one that has like those hot pink flowers, and what you'd notice about her canopy is she's a little bit more broad. She, you know, she kind of like lingers out, you know. Um, and she doesn't grow as big as the magnolia an, which is the most popular out here on Long Island. That's that faint pink one, and you see those trees get gigantic. And their canopy, a lot of times, specifically if people don't prune them appropriately, they can get so big and you drive past them and you can smell them. But all of those trees produce flowers that you can create tea from. So, you know, if you have a magnolia tree, it's lovely to be able to go and get yourself some flowers and dry them. But if you're just taking a walk in your neighborhood and you notice that somebody's got an out-of-hand magnolia tree, and you're literally the trees are a foot from your face, take a couple flowers, put them in your purse, dry them out. You know what I mean? Because it makes a very, very nice tea. And the one of the benefits of drinking magnolia tea is that it's anti-stress, it's anti-anxiety. And so now here you are going through the steps of making the tea. You got your tea leaves, you're gonna put them in your, you know, the isn't the same one that helps you, you know, with your seasonal allergies. Nope. The one that helps with the seasonal allergies, most people look at that plant like it's a weed. It's called a purple dead nettle. And it kind of looks like um, it grows up in the lawn. It's kind of like this little like umbrella of little flowers, they're very short to the ground, but that is a good plant for allergies, it's good for skin, it's good for a lot of different things. I specifically drink it for allergies because I do have terrible allergies. When allergy season comes, you know, the face puffs, the itchy skin, all those kinds of things. And what purple dead nettle does is it's very specific to the region that you're getting it from. So if the plants that are in and around my neighborhood are the things that are causing me to experience allergy symptoms, that specific plant is gonna fight against those specific plants that are in my neighborhood. It's gonna be very specific, which is why it's good to instead of going out into your yard spraying roundup on everything you see, maybe take a picture of it. Google what the plant is, and then maybe see that there's a use that you can have. There's something that you can possibly use that plant for.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Oh, yeah, you know, I'm glad that you mentioned the word Google because it's like sometimes I had that experience where I had a plant and I didn't know what the heck to do with the plant. I took a picture of it, you know, go to Google and you know, plug it into Google Image, and to my surprise, so it's like you know, Google Image gave me all the details that I needed to know about that plant. And now, if you see that plant, it's like it, it's like it's more like a tree.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

And the the thing, the thing about things like Google is that in days past, you would have had to go to a library, use the little Dewey Decimal, you know, the the Dewey Decimal system so that you can figure out where the books are and all the things. With Google, it's instant information. So that I feel like releases some of the barriers that people have when they want to decide that they're gonna start doing some gardening, because the information is there. And as far as I'm concerned, if you have the information and you have the resource, you can get anything done. You just need to have the know-how and the resources to get it done. And if you want to have a magnificent garden, you absolutely can. If your goal is only to, you know, just have a small pot of mint, you can get it done because Google will give you all of the information that you need to be able to guide you on the right path to whatever it is you're looking to do.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

You know, to go back to what you mentioned earlier about dementia, there was a research that was conducted and the result came out. You know, it was a 16-year study that found out that daily gardening reduced dementia risk by 30% in adults 60 and over.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Yep, and that's that consistent reorientation. That's the person's ability to be able to come back to the same spot on a regular basis and manage whatever the gardening task is, whether it's pulling the weeds, whether it's picking the flowers, whether it is pruning the tree, whether it's doing the watering, whether it is um trimming the grass, whatever it is that those tasks are, those kinds of tasks, they are able to reduce the cortisol. They're able to increase the way that you're being you're able to remember things from day to day, and then also it reorients you to the current situation.

Exercise Sleep And Immune Benefits

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Uh so now, so it's like we we address the mental health benefit, the cognitive benefits. So, and you know, to my surprise, there are some physical benefits about it too. And the first one is a digging, planting, caring, watering, you know, it's also it helps you burn calories, a lot of calories, and help you with uh your joint.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Yes, I'm gonna tell you this season, this season, as I amended my soil, because I I I generally plant out of raised beds. So, in the process of amending the soil, what you need to do is you need to have a good base soil because I use raised beds, I get raised bed soil, and those are heavy bags, right? So inside my wheelbarrow goes the bag, I split it down the middle, flip it open, inside that same wheelbarrow goes another bag of compost, split it open, and then I put all the amendments the bone meal and the blood meal and the worm castings. But then I gotta take a shovel and I gotta mix it.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Well those terminology they like just challenges to me.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

These are the things, these are the things that are gonna give my plants um a good start. You know what I mean? Everything starts at the foundation. The soil is really the foundation of gardening because without good soil, you're not gonna be able to harvest too much of anything. You know what I mean? You can harvest some stuff, and there are some plants that are very tolerant to you know, less, you know, less um nutrient soil, but for my purposes, I want to have a lot of stuff. So in my wheelbarrow, I have all of these different things, and I gotta use that shovel to turn this stuff over. I gotta get what's on the bottom and the top, and I gotta make sure that I have a nice homogenous mixture before I put that stuff into my plant beds. And then once I get it into the plant beds, there's still more shoveling to do because I want to mix last year with this year. A lot of exercise. Right. So it is a lot of exercise. So it's not hard to believe that you would burn between 200 and 400 calories an hour gardening. It's and and and when I tell you I have to take frequent breaks because it does take a tremendous toll. It does take a tremendous toll.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Otherwise, you would feel exhausted, otherwise you will feel exhausted.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

And like, for instance, also with the um the carrying, because you have to carry water during this part of the season. I just had the the irrigation people just came to my house this morning to re-hook up the irrigation for the season because at the end of the season, you know, they blow it out in the in places where it snows and where it gets cold. So I have been having to use the water for my rain barrel in order to water the things that I have going. I've purchased pepper plants, I put in a couple of berry bushes, I put in a raspberry and a blackberry, but those things need watering. So now I gotta get my five-gallon bucket, I gotta go to the wane barrel, I gotta drain it, and I gotta carry that five-gallon bucket to where it needs to be used. So there's a lot of physical activity, but at the same time, once those hard pieces are over, it's kind of light work. You know what I mean? Like once the irrigation is started and all I have to do is maybe pull out a couple weeds here and there, it's easier on your joints than let's say, you know, running or that kind of thing. Um, but definitely a lot of physical activity goes into gardening.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Okay, so and I've noticed that heat to it help people sleep better. Mm-hmm. It's also improved humanity.

Community Gardens And Social Connection

SPEAKER_00 18:44

That's right. So when you're out in the sun, first of all, you expend the energy, and when you're out in the sun, it helps kind of regulate that circadian rhythm that we have that allows us to sleep at night. So we're reducing the cortisol, we are um improving our circadian rhythm, and we're doing all the things that are gonna allow us to be able to go home at night and get nice, well-rested time.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

We wanna continue with the benefits, we have the social and environmental benefits. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

So, as far as the environment is concerned, we need plants. We need them. We need plants. These the plants that are here on earth, they were provided for us to be able to benefit from whatever it is that they're offering. And when it comes to living in society, the benefit of having a garden is really nice because, for instance, I grow things, and there's a woman who lives across the street from me who's in her 90s, and she loves to see me coming. Because here I come with my little basket, and I got fresh collards, and she hasn't had fresh collards, you know, since whenever the you know, for who knows how long. And then the other thing is things like community gardens. So libraries can have a community garden, um uh uh facilities that house the elderly, they may have a community garden, and that also helps when it comes to the dimension and it allows people to create connections, it allows people and because gardening is something that you have to be consistent with, it allows for that consistent connection, and that can really help people when it comes to you know, people who have um dementia because it's familiar faces that they may see. It's good for children who have ADHD because it allows them consistency, consistency with the movement for people who are adult and have the PTSD or other traumatic events, they are able to, you know, they tend to be a little bit more introverted, they tend not to want to have too many connections, but if they don't have to necessarily focus on the person standing next to them, it can be more of a gradual introduction into being societal within a group of people as opposed to forcing someone into a room with a whole bunch of people, and then the anxiety builds. This is more of a casual kind of here we are, I'm focused on my task, you're focused on your task, and the interactions may or may not happen, but over time eventually they're more likely to happen than not to happen. But it allows community to be fostered when you have a community garden.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

But it was amazing to read that community gardening, you know, help uh decrease isolation up to 60%. Yep. This is a large number.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

That's right. And the thing is too, is that that is a multi generational thing. Because if you think about it, you are not gonna have a 60 year old person tossing soil in a wheelbarrow. You're not gonna have them picking up the That five-gallon bucket of water, you're gonna have somebody in the community who's maybe a little bit younger. So now you have multiple different generations sharing in the same task, which really, really amplifies the idea that this communal um participatory event is something that is gonna be beneficial to everyone who's involved.

How Strong Is The Dirt Science

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Okay, so you know, uh we're gonna go back, we're gonna play with the statistic. Let me go to the set of questions that I had for you. What is the most surprising research fighting on gardening and mental health that people don't know?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

I think that people do not realize how much it can assist you with depression, with anxiety, with PTSD, all of the ailments that that we come across or we experience in our day-to-day lives, and the diagnoses that you may have, gardening can be such a helpful tool to help you navigate through some of the symptomatology that goes along with those diagnoses.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

It's very important. Uh we hear dirt makes you happy because of microbacterium uh. How solid is that science? And does it matter for the average gardener?

SPEAKER_00 23:30

It does matter for the average gardener because, like I said, that science, what that science tells us is that it's gonna lower the cortisol levels, it's going to increase the brain and gut communication, def decreasing the inflammation, all of those things. And so when you have something that is so um beneficial, right, you want to be able to really get involved in that because you know that if you have some, you know, some kind of um psychological issues, you want to be able to use what is readily available to you, and dirt is everywhere. There's dirt everywhere everywhere you go, we can find dirt. There's dirt in places where we don't even want it, right? So you can always go somewhere and and and and and subject your not subject yourself because it seems like now I'm I'm trying, but you can always go and experience the movement that happens when you're gardening, the movement that happens when you're moving dirt, the movement that happens when you make the little hole and plant the seed. There's so much to be offered. The soil has so much to give us.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And some people believe that the soil can sometimes heal. Of course, it's healing.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

The soil is healing, it is healing, it absolutely is healing.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Uh, studies are show gardening courts depression score up by 37%. In your work, what changes do you actually see in people week to week? For those who may parties, or we kind of find yourself enclosed.

Small Daily Habits That Shift Mood

SPEAKER_00 25:07

We kind of touched on this a little bit earlier. I suffer from seasonal affective disorder. So during the winter months, you know, I could take it or leave it. But as soon as I see that that magnolia tree in my front yard is starting to blossom, just like that. Just like that. As soon as I start seeing the buds are growing, they look like they're about to flower, the excitement builds. It's a complete change in my mood. It's a complete change in that drab October, November, December, you know, those cold months where you feel like there's not much going on as far as the gardening is concerned. So um I would say that people who start gardening, I would say that within a week or so, you know, but even 10 minutes, if you consistently do 10 minutes or something every day, and it doesn't have to be a big thing, it could be, you know, you're brushing your teeth and you're looking at your plant, picking off whatever yellow leaves you have, you know, checking to see, brushing your teeth, checking to see how moist the soil is, maybe giving the the plant a little a little bit of water. Just 10 minutes a day, 10 minutes, just to involve yourself in something where you are interacting and providing care for something that is living, but not a person who is not gonna talk back to you, not a person who is not gonna, you know, maybe make you feel a certain kind of way. It's a plant, and you can give as much as you want to that plant and see that plant flourish. The thing that I would advise against is doing too much to the plant. You don't want to overwater it, you don't want to over-fertilize it. You want to be doing just enough, just enough so that the plant can survive and live at its optimal, it's at its peak.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

I've heard people before stating that it's important to talk to your plant. Is there any benefit to that? I don't know. I'm a plant lover, I just love plants, but I just don't know how to nature them.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

I don't necessarily know the numbers and the efficacy of what the plant feels when you're talking to it, but what I can speak to on is if you have a person who is having a difficult time with their own thoughts, a difficult time having conversation with other people, that is a good opportunity for people. That's a good thing for people to talk to the plant, then. You know what I mean? If you if you're comfortable talking to a plant, because like I said, you're not gonna get any verbal feedback, nothing's coming back. Nobody's gonna say that's a bad idea, nobody's gonna say, Oh, your thought process is horrible. You're just letting it out there, and that that ability to be able to vent, it's almost like journaling, it's almost like going to your plant and journaling what your experiences are, and that's therapeutic in itself.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Yes, indeed. So now you know I'm gonna ask you that question. So it's like uh if uh you had the experience, you can share. If not, we'll skip to the next one. Uh, can you share a specific uh uh I know you are a nurse, I will use the word patient myself, you know, you know, sometimes I use I use both patient and client depending on the setting that I work. Uh can you share a specific uh patient story or client uh where gardening was uh the turning point for their mental health?

SPEAKER_00 28:40

I don't know that I can specifically do that, but what I can say is that for let's take, for example, the people in my household. If I start seeing somebody in my household with their lip hanging low, I'm trying to get them out into that yard. I'm trying to get their hands in some soil, I'm trying to have them focus on something other than whatever it is that is bothering them for the moment so that they can process that stuff. If they take their time and their energy and they focus it on what's going on in the garden or the task that I've asked them to complete, then that's what they're focused on. And when they're done with that, their cortisol is lower, their mood has lightened, and now they can more effectively deal with whatever it was that was agitating them in the first place. And so I think that's a pretty good practice.

Gardening As Personal Healing Practice

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Okay, okay. What is your own relationship with gardening? Did you discover the benefits personally?

Making Salves And Tinctures At Home

SPEAKER_00 29:41

So, like I said, when I was younger, I was um I was a latchkey kid born in the Bronx, and so I spent a lot of alone time at home, and I would watch a lot of the gardening channels, and I always knew that I liked, you know, all the plants and the flowers, and look at how nice everything looks. And I it didn't dawn on me until I started my own garden. It's like going down a rabbit hole. It's like you see one thing and you say, Okay, now what is the best way that I can manage this particular plant? And then you go down and you look and you say, Wow, this plant has this many benefits. This plant does this, it does that, it does the other thing. And it's it was just so easy for me to just dive right in because it excited me. You know what I mean? And as I as I um matured in life and I don't have any young children anymore, my my child is adult. Um, I have a lot more free time to dive down those rabbit holes at will. And like I said, when you have the information and the resource, which as you get older, you're able to have some of that resource and some of that information offered to you, like on Google or Chat GPT or whatever the case, it really fosters my ability to be able to hunker down into the craft and to the hobby that I enjoy, and it allows me to be able to spread some of what I gather from that hobby. You know what I mean? Because I can't eat all the tomatoes that I grow by myself, or the cucumbers, I can't eat all the cucumbers by myself. Yeah, I can pickle a whole bunch, my pantry closet is nice and full, I do a lot of canning. I do, but also I have the neighbor across the street, Miss Stevens. I have my colleagues at work, I you know, create things, and even on the off-season, let's say I have a whole bunch of herbs at the end of the season, I just hang them up in little bushels and I dry them, and then my brain starts wondering now what am I gonna make with this? And I'll come up with a salve, you know, because this you know, this is a pain reliever, or I'll come up with a tincture because this helps with anxiety, or a body scrub, or whatever it is that comes to my mind, those are the things that I'm able to do because those are the rabbit holes that I choose to go down.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

So all the things that you were able to create or make with those plants, so you you do you normally go on the benefits of that particular or specific uh plant? I do.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

I do. So, for instance, the purple basil plant that I use, I'll make a pain salve with that. And so, what I'll do is I'll and that that you would have the dried purple basil and you would put it in oil. And I traditionally use grapeseed oil, and you just let it sit in the grapeseed oil for several months and you allow that oil to extract the benefits of the basil. Now I have a product here that now I can turn this into a salve. All I need to do is to add some other supporting stuff to it. So I'll add some peppermint oil, which is supportive, it's gonna do the same thing as as far as relieving pain. I'll put some camphor in it because we know that camphor is gonna help with relieving pain, and I'll solidify it with some beeswax. So I'll warm everything up, I'll put some beeswax in, and then I'll pour it in little jars, and then I have a salve so that when my muscles are sore from tossing all that soil in the wheelbarrow, I have something to rub onto myself that's gonna help me. But I will also take that same plant and process it differently. I could take that same plant and process it in a very high-proof alcohol, right? Um, and let it sit for the same amount of time and then strain it out. And what I've created is a tincture, and that I will put in little bottles that have a dropper vial so that, say, for instance, someone has period cramps or you know, they have upset stomach or some other kind of pain, they can take a drop or two or full of those and put it in their tea and they can dose themselves and relieve the pain without having to pop the pill that comes from the pharmacy.

Nursing Knowledge Behind Herbal Choices

SPEAKER_01 33:46

You know what? That's funny you mentioned that because while you were talking, so and that question kept coming to mind. So, you know, I was just wondering whether your nursing background, what role your nursing background plays into all of that.

SPEAKER_00 34:04

I think a lot. And I and the reason why I say that is because a lot of times when I'm looking up, um when I'm looking up a plant and to see what benefits it has, it's a lot easier for me to understand. Like if a if if a if there's a plant and it says that it's a natural diuretic, I understand what that means. I understand that that's gonna make me shed some unwanted water weight. You understand what I mean? So I think that my nursing has a lot to do with that. Um, it does allow me to really lean on both of my expertise and come up with things that are really gonna be beneficial for my family and the people who are around me. Because I have an uncle, and when I tell you he's always asking, you ain't got any more jaws that I salve? He's always ready to receive it because he has arthritis. And he knows if he rubs that on his knees, he's gonna be able to get some relief without having to be swallowing a whole bunch of pills and along with the regular medications that he has to take.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Okay, this is amazing. My next question.