Its striking silvery-white foliage emits a powerful sage fragrance when bruised – this is the ‘smoking sage’ that is used in important ceremonial purifying rituals by Californian First Nations people.

Thyme is an evergreen perennial, so leaves can be picked fresh all year round. However, the best time to pick thyme is in early summer, when the plant is at its most productive, before flowering. Dry or use fresh.

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) has been used for hundreds of years to treat painful muscles and joints, eczema, arthritis, gout, and anemia

Spilanthes or toothache plant is a lesser known flowering annual native to the tropics. Known technically as either Spilanthes oleracea or Acmella oleracea, its whimsical common name is garnered from the antiseptic properties of Spilanthes toothache plant.  

Asparagus racemosus is a species of asparagus common throughout India and the Himalayas. and northern Australia. It grows 1–2 m tall and prefers to take root in gravelly, rocky soils high up in piedmont plains, at 1,300–1,400 m elevation.

Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, or Chinese skullcap, has been widely used as a medicinal plant in China for thousands of years, where the preparation from its roots is called Huang-Qin. Tough creeping perennial plant hardy to zone 4 that dies down in winter.

(Wu-wei-zi) Perennial woody vine. Native to Manchuria, northeastern China and Japan. The odoriferous pink or white flowers give way to bright red fruit which droops down in clusters from the vine. This is known as the many-flavoured berry.

Peppermint has a pungent, peppery bite with a cool aftertaste that sets it apart from other types of mint. It’s a flavour that almost all of us have tried in candies, desserts, or health care products at some point.