On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:20:26 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2011-07-14 13:43:38 +0100, Janet Tweedy said:

Went to an interesting garden on Tuesday, well the talk was interesting
and the plants not quite so commonplace as the average garden.
Dr primrose (that's actually his name) in High Wycombe was telling us
about not trying herbal remedies for self medication (he's a micro
biologist of course) but he did tell us some ordinary remedies. One of
which was to combat those carpet beetles/bugs that leave their casings
on the carpet looking like rice grains. Apparently they are very
plentiful this year and one proven remedy is to crush Sweet Woodruff
and place it onto the carpet. It deters the moth from laying eggs into
the carpet or clothes.

Known as Ladies bedstraw for that reason i assume it used to also be
put into mattresses in the past.


Janet

It is indeed a strewing herb, used to keep away fleas and lice in
mediaeval times. We have it growing wild in all sorts of parts of the
garden, so Ray often digs up littleb its for people who want it! It's
also very pretty!

In Germany you can get wine flavoured with it: "Maiwein". IIRC, very
pleasant...uh-oh! Wp reveals that it's been made illegal, because
slightly toxic; so any commercial kind will have artificial
flavouring.

--
Mike.