Scarecrow

sorry i had to i'll leave the thread alone now haha

all right, i guess i'll go for it then. and i'll look into those other suggestions also, thanks! ooh, that one does look interesting. relevant to the biochemistry stuff i'm doing in my course, too! ...i'm getting the feeling that this thread will be bad for my hip nerve

oh, so it is, and-- egads, i have no idea what i'm looking at. i don't even

i'll vouch for this! i was trying to decide whether or not i should get a copy of this, because i've heard great things... but to be honest i have no clue what to expect inside, and that's the main thing holding me back.

i'll go for some chillies

whoops, you seem to have made two threads about this. you may want to ask a moderator to delete the other one...

fair enough! i've sent you a message. thank you! i'll do that.

so, i've been told it's acceptable to post a wish list in this section, such that others might be aware of my interest in certain plants, and perhaps give suggestions for other plants to look into. but a little about me before i post my list; i don't subscribe to any religion (but i think it's fascinating to look at its roots and ends), i don't particularly enjoy being confined to society (although i see and understand the necessity), and i'm not really too interested in any specific shamanism/belief system/culture as such (apart from taking away what wisdom i can from their traditions/methods)... really i'm just going about my life making decisions based on my own experiences, and following my intuition along whatever path my heart pulls me towards. at least, i am now. i've gone through some rough/destructive/substance abusive (so much coffee) times to find the path i'm on today... a series of long-term health problems (in hindsight, self-inflicted and easily avoidable), ritual herb related awakenings, and lots and lots of books, have led me to: - meditative living (not just sitting meditations) - experimentation with 'ritual herbs' for spiritual self-cultivation - a deep interest in pharmacology/biochemistry - drop out of multimedia development to study traditional chinese medicine - particular interest in chinese herbology specifically - interest in other herbal medicines and entheogens (...this community!) - ...a sudden desire to learn how to garden i'm not entirely sure where my life is headed with this, but i might guess that the direction i'm heading in/feel might be my calling is to (once i'm more qualified and experienced) try to classify some of the powerful ritual herbs according to chinese medicine, and thereby be able to balance out their effects on health and be able to better choose which is best suited to help heal an individual. at the same time, i want to be able to understand how these herbs are functioning from a scientific/western medicine perspective. NOTE: there's actually a book by John Mini on Cannabis use/effects according to traditional chinese medicine. i hope to be able to make similar evaluations with other herbs. i've got a copy on the way in the mail i'm getting the feeling that what i've gotten carried away writing "a little about me". i just felt that some history might be important to mention because i'm a new face here, and i felt that the structure/content of my list so far might make me appear ignorant, or as some dude who is just interested in getting a really awesome water feature. but i've written way too much, haha TO THE POINT: here's a list i've been working on/gathering information about the contents of. i'm hoping to be able to grow all of these myself at some point, but at the moment my collection consists only of two wormwood plants and a pedro cactus. i've only just come to acquire a substantial amount of money for spending for the first time in a while, and i've got so many things i want to buy that it's disappearing a little too quickly (i spent nearly $300 on resource books -__-), so my garden may have to wait a bit longer before i can start getting a serious collection together. ...it's ruined all my tab indents, so it's a little bit messy. i hope it's not too bad. [edit] i've updated and made my list a little safer/removed my personal notes. anyway, so far the shaman australis shop is pretty much the only place i know to look for any such plants. if anybody knows how/where to get a hold of any of these, or has any of these for sale for a reasonable price, i'd be happy to hear about it! although i may not necessarily be able to purchase anything immediately. i would also love growing/propogation tips for anything listed, because my knowledge of gardening so far consists entirely of love, hope, soil, water and sunlight. i'm pretty sure there's a fair bit more to it than that. if you bothered to read my self-absorbed spiel, perhaps you might be able to suggest other plants that might interest me? i'm fairly new to entheogenic herbs, but i have a book on the way to hopefully remedy that. you might have noticed i like books. anything i've linked, i would probably greatly encourage anybody to read gosh, i talk too much. i won't feel bad it you skipped half this post.

all right, as i suspected i might be pushing my luck. i've updated the first post with my real, non-satirical list, which doesn't have any jokes about extracting chemicals from the herbs. [edit] oh yeah, i also wanted to ask if anybody knew if it would be possible to make the "anti freak out formula" into a tincture or something, for long-term storage/easy access when it's needed? i'm not sure what the active ingredients i'm after in these herbs are, or whether i'd be able to extract them that way.

i could definitely go for some good chillis! the ones at the supermarket are pitifully weak. count me in, gracious giveaway host

thanks! sounds like a plan.

howdy, i have started studying traditional chinese medicine this year at the southern school of natural therapies, and i've long since had an interest in being able to sustain my own health using just a garden as a primary source of herbs for decoctions. i've asked around at my university and it seems that while we cover herbs as a subject, growing them yourself is not something that's going to be looked at in any detail. now, i understand there's a few things to consider; for example, not all of the traditional herbs are able to grow in an australian climate, and herb quality/strength is influenced directly by the circumstances in which they are grown... so i was curious to know if any of you have any experience growing herbs locally for traditional chinese medicine? where's a good place to start? any suggestions on what would be most likely to be useful, but which i can grow here easily? i have some fairly good sectioned off garden space available to work with. i have ordered a book on the topic which looks very interesting and useful, but it's written mainly regarding an american locale. it's gonna take a while to get here anyway, and i'm keen to get started early such that i can have a decent collection ready to use by the time i graduate.

thanks for the advice, I have been doing just that actually. if anybody else is interested i found a "list of 50 fundamental chinese medicine herbs" on wikipedia... i'm not sure about the validity of this, but it seems like a good place to start. something to narrow it down, at least! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_herbology#50_Fundamental_herbs i hadn't really expected such a list, but having found this i'm encouraged that there would be similar lists available elsewhere, so i'll try looking for those more specifically. just aside, on the topic of wishlists, i'm curious to know if there's a thread around somewhere regarding these? something along the lines of you being able to post things you're interested in, along with reasoning, and others might do the same and give each other ideas/suggestions of things to try or add to their list?

dangit, I really wish I'd seen this thread sooner. could potentially have been a good start for my collection here's me anyway

hmm, not quite what i'm after... i'm sure i can find a place to get a hold of the seeds and such. i'm more looking for experience/advice regarding what to try to grow and how. thanks though.thanks anyway, though.

right, sounds promising. thanks for the advice guys!

Has anybody read P.D. Ouspensky's "A new model of the universe"? Goes into some fascinating depth about the model of physics in the past, physics today, levels of dimensions, time, and ends up putting forward a very convincing case that our entire universe is a single particle in another, higher dimensional universe, and that a single particle in our universe may contain an entire universe within itself. Or something along those lines. It's a pretty big topic and my paraphrasing isn't too great.

all righty, sounds like a project for the weekend. i'll be sure to water them more often, too!

Finally got my registration through, I'm Jasper, the bearded guy with a hat. Just wanted to thank everyone who was there, you all seem to be hella chilled people and I'm looking forward to becoming a part of this community and learning what I can. I am totally new to gardening, though, so I'll be asking for help left right and center. For example: the plants Carl generously gave me (thanks Carl!) are doing okay, but these artemisia absinthiums are wilting a little. My guess is it's to do with the heat wave, but I guess it might be to do with the fact that they are still confined to these pots? Should I be planting these, or are they probably fine as they are? I was curious if someone could remind me what the name of that drink was though? I asked just before I left, but I'm pretty sure I forgot the name within about ten seconds of walking away.