How to Harness the Healing Benefits of a Fragrant Garden
A Guide to Growing an Aromatherapy Garden
Catching a whiff of honeysuckle reminiscent of first love, the aroma of fresh pine needles that transports you to the childhood Christmas tree farm, or the scent of fresh lavender like Grandma’s powder room soap can easily send one on a trip down Repressed Memory Lane. The power of scent can be strong enough to savor a souvenir from the past, induce a swift shift in mood, or inspire a change in life direction. Aromatherapy is a booming business that has carried over into numerous fields. Herbalists rely upon the medicinal properties of plants and healing herbs for treating physical and mental ailments. Culinary experts cultivate cuttings for expanding the flavor profile of their dishes by garnishing them with invigorating scents. Apothecaries harness the benefits of bouquets in haute bath products. Discover the science behind the emotional connection of smell and the various ways you can harness its potent powers at home by growing your own fragrant garden.
The Science Behind Scent
It’s no secret that sense of smell is linked to the part of the brain that controls mood, emotions, and memory In fact, in a recent panel discussion, “Olfaction in Science and Society,” Harvard professor, Venkatesh Murthy talked about how smell and memory are linked due to the brain’s anatomy. The brain’s olfactory bulb, the structure in the front cortex that transmits smells, relays important information to the other portions of the body’s central command for additional analysis. Odors take an immediate sprint to the limbic system, including the amygdala and the hippocampus, the areas that correspond to emotion and memory.
Because of this, marketers like Dawn Goldworm have discovered the money-making magic of “olfactive branding,” which creates “immediate and memorable connections between brands and consumers.” From helping celebrities achieve a signature scent to cleverly infusing a combination of basketball shoe rubber and soccer cleats in grass and dirt into Nike stores, this type of subconscious publicity packs an indelible impression.
During this brain-bending event, Goldworm noted that because “smell and emotion are stored as one memory, the basis for smells you will like and hate for the rest of your life” stems primarily from childhood—specifically from birth to age ten. This explains how many of us experience “deja vu” when encountering a scent from our younger days. We naturally tend to gravitate toward smells that help us revisit pleasant memories and avoid ones that bring back the bad.
6 “Scentsational” Plants for Your Fragrant Garden
So, if you’d like to build memories and boost your mood, plant some of our top picks to begin your aromatherapy adventure:
1. Lavender
A pollinator-friendly perennial, this woody bush sprouts spikes of aromatic purple flower stalks. This fragrant herb requires full sun and excellent drainage and is ideal for raised garden beds with sandy, fertilized soil. Perennial L. stoechas (Spanish Lavender) is an excellent choice for north Texas.
Benefits: Calming, Relaxing, sleep-inducing; treats headaches and anxiety
Additional Uses: Blend into sweet syrups for desserts and drinks; popular for bath products
2. Mint
This hardy, invasive herb offers numerous varieties such as spearmint, peppermint, sweet mint, and chocolate mint. Plant in fertilized soil and keep its container damp.
Benefits: Improved concentration, alleviates nausea, upset stomach, and headaches; enhances athletic performance, freshens breath
Additional Uses: Excellent for muddling in summertime cocktails or garnishing salads and desserts
3. Basil
This sweet-smelling culinary herb offers an array of options such as Thai, Cuban, Greek, Lemon, Lime, Cinnamon, and more. Ideal for 80-90 degree temperatures, this annual thrives in well-drained, fertilized soil.
Benefits: Calming and uplifting; aids the circulatory system and digestion
Additional Uses: Perfect for salads, pesto, pasta, or even potpourri
4. Rosemary
This hardy, full-sun herb can survive with minimal watering until the first frost. Given the right conditions, it can flourish into woody bushes.
Benefits: Its earthy, evergreen scent helps improve alertness and cognitive performance, helps treat headaches
Additional uses: Use a pinch to flavor meat, fish, or vegetables
5. Garlic Chives
This full-sun plant prefers well-drained soil with compost or organic matter. While the scent of the flat-leaved herb is garlicky, its colorful, edible blossoms actually boast a sweet, honey-like perfume. They also produce plentiful nectar for pollinators.
Benefits: When ingested, this herb helps fight cancer, boosts immunity, improves bone and cardiovascular health, eases digestion, improves sleep and mood, and even aids in vision health
Additional Uses: Enhances the flavor of dishes
6. Jasmine
These lovely, sweet-smelling blooms surface at night during spring in north Texas. Their oils are extracted and their exotic floral fragrance is often used in perfumes.
Benefits: Its extract is an excellent stress and headache reliever, and also helps ward off depression, anxiety, and PMS symptoms
Additional Uses: Teas, perfume
Ways to Harness the Healing Powers of a Fragrant Garden
From mood-boosting teas and soaps to essential oils, balms, and candles, learn how to harness healing herbs’ medicinal and mood-boosting powers.
Flower & Herb Cuttings
Bring a sense of joy, calm, or wellness to a room with fresh cuttings of your favorite aromatic herbs and blooms. Add freshly-pruned stems to a stellar entry vase to stop and smell the roses. Plant lavender and lemon balm in an indoor container to languidly drift to sleep. Grow herbs in your kitchen windowsill for an uplifting treat within easy reach for cooking.
Infused Oils
Numerous essential oil companies have cashed in on this olfactory phenomenon, offering plant-based oils to diffuse throughout a room to boost a mood, reduce pet odors, or even entice your partner. Scent rollers containing clever blends of oils can also be inhaled or applied topically to the skin to ease headaches, balance hormones, or ward off germs. However, a true, pure essential oil requires an enormous amount of herbs (for example, to create 1oz of lavender oil, it takes 250 ounces of lavender); infusing herbs in a carrier oil such as olive, almond, or coconut is more suitable for DIY, but also much less potent.
Teas
Harvest and dry herbs for healing teas to suit your every need. Boil some water and brew a batch of fennel tea after a heavy meal to assist with digestion, chamomile to relax after a stressful day, or ginger to alleviate nausea.
Bath Products
Invigorate a tired mind and body with a shower of mint and eucalyptus. Wind down the day with a soak in lavender or add a little romance with rose or jasmine. From soaps to salts to candles, there’s an array of aromatic options waiting to be created.
Potpourri
Create your own potpourri by drying herbs and plants and placing into decorative containers or bags to freshen a drawer or add a fresh burst of scent to any room.
Beneficial Balms
Blend a little beeswax with your infused oil to create beneficial balms to heal, moisturize, and soothe the skin with pleasing aromas.
Thyme to Plant
Need some assistance selecting the right location, plants, soil, and fertilizer for your fragrant garden? Your garden manager is a wealth of resources and can aid in sourcing, planting, and maintaining an aromatherapy garden ideal for you and your space. Contact us today for a custom consultation.
— by Tammy Dalke Vanderkolk
References:
https://www.fix.com/blog/the-benefits-of-growing-aromatic-herbs/
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