Gardening is an essential survival skill. There’s much more to gardening, though, than growing food. Food’s good, but we should also consider other useful plants. Some have only a single function, but that one function is enough to justify cultivating it. Others are multi-use plants that can make life easier, healthier, tastier, prettier. There’s no reason to have a dull garden growing only the essential foods. Sure, rice, wheat, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, cabbage, onions, garlic, pumpkins, green beans, pinto beans, peas, greens, and peppers are good and delicious. But what about those times you scratch or cut yourself in the garden, or get bruised? What about bee stings, mosquito bites, and chiggers? What about fleas and ticks? What about coughs and fevers and diarrhea?
Growing helpful herbs for keeping healthy is as essential as growing food. The best thing about some of the more important herbs is that they are excellent “waste” ground plants, willing to grow in vacant lots and abandoned areas with glee. You don’t necessarily have to give them space in your food garden. You can scatter them throughout your “territory” (the neighborhood where you range the most) and harvest them with little effort on your part.
Or you can add them to your garden for ease of harvesting. They really don’t take any extra effort if you make sure they have the basic growing conditions they need.
I’m going to list here 10 wetland plants I think most survivalists should consider adding to their gardens. Some require swampy, boggy space where the ground is mushy and muddy and may have shallow pools of standing water. Others prefer the drier banks of a pond or stream or the edges of bogs where the ground is softly moist but not muddy. Still others prefer the damp fields and areas where the ground is drier still, but still moist most of the time.
1. Cattails. Cattails provide year round food – the corms which grow underground and will be new shoots of cattails can be picked, peeled and eaten in salads or as a potherb. It tastes slightly sweet. When the corm grows into shoots rising about 2 – 3 feet tall, they can be picked, peeled and sauteed or steams and eaten like asparagus. In fact, they have a slightly greener, sweeter taste than asparagus. In late spring, the fruiting spikes appear – the green females and the pollen-laden males. They grow in the center of the plant and need to be shucked like corn. The female spikes will grow into the brown “cattail” that gives the plant its name. At this point, when they still need shucking, they can be boiled like corn on the cob and eaten in the same manner. They can both be eaten raw, too, but steamed hot with butter is almost better than corn on the cob. Later in the growing season any male spikes not harvested will develop a golden pollen that can be shaken off and collected. This pollen can be used as is to make pancakes, cornbread type breads, and as a thickener for sauces, stews, soups, and flour extenders for breads and cakes. Once the pollen has set and the female cattails form, the root can be harvested. To extract flour from the root, collect, wash and peel them. Put the roots in water and start breaking them up, separating the long fibers. Remove the fibers and allow the slurry to settle. Pour off the clear water and let the floury part dry in the sun or in a slow oven. Cattail roots contain gluten and so can be used to make yeast breads. You can get 32 tons of dried roots from an acre of cattails, so they are very prolific. The roots can also be macerated and boiled to produce a sweet syrup. The mature brown cattails can be roasted to extract the little brown seeds for making gruels and adding to soups. Food isn’t the only thing you can get from cattails. A poultice of the split and bruised roots can be applied to cuts, burns, stings, and bruises. The ash of burned cattail leaves is a styptic. The teeny drops of sap often found near the base of the plant is an antiseptic for small cuts and toothaches. The dried stalks can be used for arrow shafts. The dried seed heads and leaves can be used as fire tender. The seed head fluff is an excellent insulator for stuffing pillows, bedding, and clothing. The leaves can be woven into baskets, hats, mats, shoes, chair seats and backs, and as sunshades. The dried seed heads, attached to their stalks, can be dipped in animal fat and used as torches. You can never go wrong growing a stand of cattails, either as part of your garden or in some ditch where you can easily access it.
2. Meadowsweet is another plant that likes damp places, not quite as damp as cattails, but in the next layer out. Meadowsweet isn’t as versatile year round as the cattail is, but it has enough different uses to make it another desirable plant. First, most important, meadowsweet has a high level of easily extractable salicylic acid – the base of aspirin. Bayer aspirin uses meadowsweet because it grows faster than white willow or slippery elm and the salicylic acid is easier to extract. White willow bark and slippery elm bark also contain salicylic acid and can be used for mild pain relief, but if space and speed are an issue, then meadowsweet is the plant for you. Aside from being a good pain reliever, meadowsweet can be used in other ways. Its leaves and flowers are sweet smelling, the flowers more like almonds than the leaves, which are mintier. The flowers are used to flavor wines, beers, sodas, vinegars, fruits, and jams, and a distilled water of the flowers makes an excellent eye drop. A decoction of the dried root relieves fever and pain, but can worsen asthma. The flowers and seeds contain a heparin-like substance along with the salicylate (which also reduces blood clotting) so shouldn’t be used on people with clotting issues or who are pregnant. The fresh root can be peeled and chewed to relieve headaches. The flowers and leaves can be harvested to make teas to ease acidic stomachs, diarrhea, and arthritis. The combination of salicylates, tannins, and glycosides and its mucilaginous properties promote healing of the stomach lining from ulcers, and the reduction in full body acids reduces arthritic and rheumatoid joint pains. It won’t ease strong pains, pains caused by broken bones or deep wounds, migraines, or cancer, or severe arthritis or rheumatism, but for pains caused by stress, mild arthritis, mild rheumatism, ulcers, acid stomach, and even mild irritable bowel syndrome, it’s a useful herb to have on hand. Plus, you can eat it and make the house smell nice, and it’s a common flower in bridal bouquets and wreaths. Using a copper mordant, the roots produce a black dye.
3. European Elderberry. This is also a damp-loving plant that will grow well with the meadowsweet. It’s a bushy shrubby plant that likes a protected area along a wall and on rocks. The berries make delicious jellies and wine and a purplish dye. The roots and bark make a black dye and the leaves a green dye. A tea from the flowers promotes sweating and reduces fevers. Syrup made from the berries eases coughs, and cold suffers benefit from hot mulled juice or wine. Elderflower water makes an astringent skin lotion. Don't forget the ever popular elderberry wine. Grown with meadowsweet, it makes a beautiful display, so your yard will be ornamental as well as useful.
4. Horsetail. Horsetail is a prehistoric plant that offers both an ornamental aspect and a useful one. It likes damp places, similar to meadowsweet and elderberries. It has no discernable flower, reproducing via spore and rhizome, and is a tall, hollow, jointed stem. It is highly invasive but seems to benefit other plants around it. It does surprisingly well among mints and roses. Crushed stems tied in a tight bundle are used to scour cast iron, aluminum, and steel pots and pans, but not glass or teflon coated. The silicon in it scratches them. Crushed stems also work as a garden styptic, in case you get scratched by the roses and other thorny plants in your garden. A decoction of the boiled stems is an antibiotic and is useful in urinary tract infections. It takes very little effort to grow, takes up little space, is ornamental both in the garden and among flower arrangements. Its use as a scouring pad alone makes it a worthy plant to grow because when the oil goes, we won’t have Dobie pads anymore.
5. Angelica. Angelica is another damp loving plant. It grows about 6 feet tall, so make sure it has head room. It likes partial shade, so growing it near the elderberry is a wise idea. Its primary use is as a culinary plant – the leaves are a good substitute for celery, the stems make an outstanding candy, and the roots flavor gin, vermouth, and chartreuese as well as lending fragrance to perfumes and soaps. In addition to being tasty, the candied stems are good for digestive problems and relieving coughs. It’s good to keep the candied stems around as “after dinner mints” and treats.
6. Mountain ash is another pretty, boggy, useful plant, growing well where cattails grow. The berries are the best bait possible for bird hunting. For city dwellers, that means pigeons and doves. It’s good food for poultry if you’re keeping any for eggs and meat. The berries are also good people food, making delicious jellies, pies, and wines or to flavor water or sodas. Tea made from the fruit eases hemorrhoids and diarrhea, and it’s an excellent scurvy preventive.
7. Elecampane. Elecampane likes damp fields, not boggy as the mountain ash or cattails or even as damp as elderberries, but damper than most plants. Its best use is as a lozenge for asthma, coughs, and chest colds. A wine made from the plant aids digestion and a tea from it has antibiotic properties for both humans and horses. If you have a horse (and in a city, that would be pretty unusual), elecampane is a useful plant to grow where the horse is pastured.
8. Mints. We all should be familiar with mints – it flavors most of our toothpastes. It’s also a favorite summer tea. Mint is another damp loving plant, growing well with horsetails and roses. As a culinary herb, mint loves mutton and lamb, does well with pork and adorns many desserts. It’s interesting paired with buffalo or venison and strong enough to hold its own with elk, wild duck, and some fish. It pairs well with most fruits and enhances jams and jellies. Mint is the primary ingredient in chest cold rubs like Vicks Vapor Rub. Steaming mint helps clear nasal passages. Mint and salt together can ease sinus congestion from allergies when used as a nasal rinse with a neti pot. Lozenges made of mint can ease coughs and sore throats (of course, most hard candies can do that, too). Mint also goes well in many potpourris to freshen the smell inside a house.
9. Air potatoes. Also known as "wild yam", it likes the same damp places that mint does – not wet or boggy, but consistently moist. Give it a fence to grow on. We discussed air potatoes briefly in the diary on Grow Your Own Sweet Potatoes/Yams, and it loves hot weather and dies in frost and cold weather, so it's not an ideal plant for everywhere, but it could be a valuable trade plant for barter if you live where it grows well (Florida, the coastal south of the United States, the Mexican border where it's damp...). The small bumpy tubers grow from the vine and hang in the air, which is why it’s sometimes called “air potatoes”. Wild yam can help the body extract good cholesterol, particularly for the elderly, reduces inflammation, treats flatulence, relieves cramps (particularly menstrual cramps), and helps regulate the body’s metabolism. A decoction of the roots is used medicinally for cramping, digestive problems, and it balances hormonal problems. The tubers are eaten as a food. To use wild yam for menstrual cramps, drink a hot decoction of the root. An infusion of the dried root relaxes the body, helps the body extract good cholesterol, and acts as an anti-inflammatory for arthritis and joint pain. A tincture of the root, diluted in cold water, helps relieve after-birth pains.
10. Larkspur. Larkspur also likes damp places, along the edges of bogs. It’s very toxic to livestock, so don’t let it grow where cattle and horses and such can eat it. However, it is one of the best delousing agents ever, killing lice, nits, and itch mites. This is what makes it worth growing, especially if you have children and find yourself living in such crowded conditions that louse invasions are highly possible. Other than as an ornamental plant, larkspur has no other use. As a delouser, make a decoction of the seeds and wash with it. Use gloves and don’t get it in your eyes or mouth. Larkspur is toxic and will make you nauseous if you ingest it. Too much (and it doesn’t take a lot) and it will kill you. Grow it and use it with caution. You have been warned. This plant is dangerous and listed only because it is such an excellent delouser.
And that’s it for the damp loving plants I think most survivalists should grow or recognize when out wildcrafting. There are, of course, plenty more, and this is just a brief overview of these plants - enough information to get you started looking and learning more if you want.