Heart-smart herbs: tonics

Heart-smart herbs: tonics to keep your ticker in tip-top shape - includes related articles - The Herbalist
HE BEAUTY of a spring meadow in bloom. The profound sense of presence in a grove of redwoods. The appearance of tiny green shoots in a garden--all these things can give flight to the heart and bring us peace. Yet the heart-healing power of the earth's magnificent flora is not just spiritual; it can be physical as well.
Garlic and hawthorn berries are two herbs you can take every day to gently strengthen your heart and circulatory system, and prevent heart disease. A word of warning though: Self-diagnosis is a very hazardous pastime! If you suspect you have any kind of heart condition, see your health-care practitioner. Keep in mind that the favored tools of cardiology--drugs and surgery--do have an appropriate place and can be dramatically successful at treating acute conditions and cardiac emergencies.
Our discussion of garlic and hawthorn berries is limited to their use by generally healthy persons. While well-trained phytotherapists (health-care practitioners clinically trained in the use of botanicals) may have striking results when using them for patients with heart conditions, the layperson's use of these herbs should be as a preventive measure, not a substitute for medication. Like a low-fat vegetarian diet and regular exercise, herbs that benefit the circulatory system are best viewed as one aspect of a healthful lifestyle (see "Prevention Is the Best Medicine," p. 106).
HEALING WITH HAWTHORN BERRIES
Victorian garden edging tiles
Among the many materials used to edge walks, parterres, and planting beds in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the most popular was dwarf, or edging, box (Buxus sempervirens Suffruticosa). This dense, slow-growing, evergreen shrub was easy to propagate; it thrived in a variety of growing conditions; and it resisted insects and diseases. Often referred to as Dutch or English box, this popular edging plant was clipped in April and July to maintain the desired height of five to six inches. As late as 1834, John Claudius Loudon's Encyclopoedia of Gardeninq noted that dwarf box was superior to every other edging.
While dwarf box remained in common use throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, by 1843 there are references to the use of tiles as a substitute for box. The earliest of these occurs in Jane Loudon's Gardening for Ladies; and Companion to The Flower Garden:
Edgings are lines of plants, generally evergreen, to separate walks from beds or borders. The plant in most universal use for this purpose in British gardens is the dwarf Box.... Edgings to beds and borders are also formed of other materials, such as lines of bricks, tiles, or states, or narrow strips of stone, or even of wood.. .. Edgings oldies, to be kept securely in their places, should be set in concealed brickwork; otherwise they are apt to get out of place and to have a ragged and temporary appearance. (2)