Grow a pot of flowers on the balcony, and they come in handy for minor ailments, saving the whole family quite a bit on medical bills.
Keep a pot of mint at home to clear heat, reduce internal heat, and ward off colds!
The first one Huahua wants to introduce is, of course, mint, which clears heat and reduces internal heat. Ever since it cleared up Huahua's swollen and painful gums, Huahua has been practically worshipping mint!
How to use it:
1. Mint infusion
Benefits: Clears heat and relieves summer heat, alleviates symptoms such as indigestion
1. Pick the mint leaves, put them in a basin and wash them clean, then place them in boiling water and steep for about 10 minutes, and they are ready to drink. If you feel the plain mint flavor is not enough, you can also add a few lemon slices; the taste is great too!
2. Different mint varieties produce mint water with different flavors. For example, field mint and spearmint do not have a very strong flavor, while peppermint has a faint numbing taste of Sichuan pepper and the flavor of fresh chili stems, and its cooling sensation is rather sharp.
2. Celery and mint juice
Benefits: Moistens the intestines and relieves constipation, protects the liver, and helps with sleep
1. Wash the mint leaves and celery stalks clean, put them together into a juicer, and blend briefly.
2. Turn on the juicer, and in about 90 seconds, the celery stalks and mint leaves will all be blended up.
3. Pour the finished fruit-and-vegetable juice directly into a cup and drink it. Celery has the benefit of moistening the intestines and relieving constipation, while mint can boost immunity. Drinking a cup every day is simply refreshing!
Propagation method:
Mint is mainly propagated by cuttings.
1. If you want mint to fill the pot, you need to keep pinching out the growing tips. Remove the bottom 2 leaves from the picked mint stems, keeping the nodes.
2. To avoid unnecessary nutrient consumption, you can cut half of each mint leaf off, but do not cut them off completely, otherwise photosynthesis cannot take place.
3. Prepare loose, breathable soil, then insert the mint stems, whose wounds have dried, directly into the soil, water once thoroughly, and place in a cool, ventilated spot to wait for roots to form.
4. In about 10-20 days, the mint cuttings will have rooted.
Keep a pot of gardenia at home to reduce swelling, relieve pain, and clear internal heat!
Has the gardenia in many flower lovers' homes bloomed recently? Besides admiring the beautiful gardenia, you can also pick the gardenia flowers to eat, which is very good for your health!
How to use it:
1. Gardenia tea
Benefits: Clears heat and detoxifies, reduces swelling and internal heat
1. Pick gardenia buds that have not yet opened, or flowers that have just opened, remove all the flower stalks and calyxes, wrap the rest directly in newspaper, and put them in the microwave to dry.
2. After drying, put them in the refrigerator to keep chilled. When you normally drink water, pour gardenia into a cup, then add rock sugar or honey to add a sweet taste, and it is ready to drink!
2. Cold-tossed gardenia flowers
Benefits: Clears heat and reduces internal heat, prevents mouth ulcers
1. Add a little salt to the picked gardenia petals, rub them briefly a few times, and put them in a clean plastic bottle for later use.
2. Each time you want to eat some, take them out of the bottle, rinse the salt off the gardenia flowers with clean water, then briefly blanch them in hot water, add sesame oil and other seasonings, and eat them directly!
Propagation method:
Gardenia is also mainly propagated by cuttings.
1. From the mother gardenia plant, choose healthy branches, remove the lower leaves to avoid nutrient consumption, then place the branches in a cool, ventilated spot to let the wounds dry.
2. Prepare a disposable paper cup, punch holes in the bottom, fill the cup with sand, water once thoroughly, then insert the gardenia, whose wounds have dried, directly into the sand.
3. Place the planted gardenia cuttings in a cool, ventilated spot. If you are worried that the temperature and humidity are not enough, you can also find a plastic bag and cover the gardenia cuttings with it.
4. In about 1 month, you will be able to see the gardenia cuttings root!
Keep a pot of honeysuckle at home to clear heat, detoxify, and keep your throat healthy!
Downstairs in Huahua's neighborhood there is a fairly large honeysuckle, and every time it blooms, Huahua cannot resist picking some to take home and brew as tea. Especially when the throat is swollen and painful, the effect is immediate!
How to use it:
1. Rock sugar honeysuckle tea
Benefits: Clears heat and detoxifies, prevents throat internal heat
1. Rinse the picked honeysuckle several times in clean water, then drain off the water.
2. Put the washed honeysuckle into a pot, add water, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes.
3. Open the lid, add rock sugar to the pot, and cook for another 2-3 minutes. When the rock sugar has completely dissolved, just turn off the heat.
4. Pour the cooked rock sugar honeysuckle into a bowl and drink it directly. Be careful not to add too much honeysuckle at one time, otherwise it will be too bitter to drink.
2. Mint and honeysuckle porridge
Benefits: Nourishes the stomach and strengthens the spleen, boosts the body's immunity
1. Prepare the ingredients: washed honeysuckle and mint leaves, then wash the white rice and glutinous rice clean and soak them for at least 1 hour.
2. Add clean water to a pot, put in all the white rice and glutinous rice, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat for another 40 minutes. Pour the honeysuckle and mint leaves into the pot together and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Finally, add rock sugar to the pot, cook for 1 minute, then turn off the heat. Once it has cooled, it is ready to eat!
4. Cooking porridge with honeysuckle and mint together can not only sterilize and disinfect, but also boost immunity. Flower lovers with weak constitutions especially should drink a bit more of it.
Propagation method:
Honeysuckle is mainly propagated by cuttings.
1. From the mother honeysuckle plant, choose semi-lignified branches, cut off a branch of about 20 cm with a sterilized knife, then place it in a cool spot to let the wound dry. If conditions permit, you can also dip it in some rooting powder.
2. Prepare loose, breathable soil, which can be mixed with garden soil, perlite, and vermiculite in a 2:1:1 ratio, then insert the honeysuckle branch directly into the soil and water once thoroughly.
3. Place the honeysuckle cutting in a cool, ventilated spot, and in about 1 month, the honeysuckle branch cutting will have rooted!
Keep a pot of aloe at home to moisten the intestines, relieve constipation, and reduce inflammation wonderfully!
A while ago Huahua had an allergy and broke out in many pimples on the face, so mom directly picked aloe and had Huahua use it on the face, and unexpectedly the effect was really great!
How to use it:
1. Aloe for external application
Benefits: Reduces inflammation and moisturizes, removes acne and scars
1. Break off a small piece of aloe leaf from the aloe plant, or cut it off directly with a sterilized knife.
2. Cut off all the small teeth along the edges of the aloe, then peel off the outer skin, leaving only the flesh inside, then apply it directly to the wound and wrap it with gauze.
2. Aloe and job's tears porridge
Benefits: Clears heat and reduces internal heat, whitens the skin and fights aging
1. Peel off all the outer leaves of the picked aloe and collect all the flesh.
2. Soak the job's tears for about 4 hours, then pour them into a soy milk maker, add the aloe flesh and clean water, turn it on, and blend for about 1 minute.
3. Pour the extracted aloe and job's tears juice into a pot, add rock sugar, and cook over high heat for about 10 minutes, and it is basically fully cooked.
4. Aloe has the benefits of detoxifying, clearing acne, and helping with whitening, while job's tears can remove dampness. When the two are combined, the benefits are doubled, so everyone might as well give it a try!
Propagation method:
Aloe is mainly propagated by division.
1. As long as the aloe at home is given enough light and water, plus an occasional application of compound fertilizer, it will quickly fill the pot and send up many small shoots.
2. When the flower pot can almost no longer hold it, we need to take the aloe out of the pot and carry out division.
3. Clean the soil off the aloe roots, then use a sterilized knife to cut off all the aloe side shoots, and place them in a cool, ventilated spot to let the wounds dry.
4. Prepare loose, breathable nutrient soil, then insert the small aloe shoots directly into the soil, and they become a new aloe plant!
Besides the ones Huahua introduced,
plants such as jasmine, goji berry, and chrysanthemum
can all be used as medicinal materials!
Flower lovers might as well hurry up and keep a pot at home!