How to read a safety tier
Just like the foraging guide, every medicinal entry in the Moon Phase Garden app carries a color-coded safety tier so you know how much caution a plant demands before you read a single detail.
| Tier | What it means |
|---|---|
| 🟢 Green | Gentle and generally food-safe in normal amounts — culinary herbs and mild teas. Chamomile, mint, lemon balm. |
| 🟡 Yellow | Genuinely potent: real effects, real cautions. Consult a provider, mind the dose, and avoid in pregnancy unless cleared. |
| 🔴 Red | For experienced, informed use only — topical-only plants, narrow safe doses, or species that shouldn't be wild-harvested at all. |
Gentle herbs by everyday complaint
These are the forgiving, well-known starting points — the 🟢 and mild 🟡 herbs most gardeners can grow and use as simple teas.
| For… | Common garden herbs |
|---|---|
| Winding down / sleep | Chamomile, lavender, lemon balm — calming teas. (Skip chamomile if you have a severe ragweed allergy.) |
| Digestion & gas | Peppermint, fennel seed, dill — classic after-meal teas. Peppermint can worsen reflux for some. |
| Immune & sore throat | Garlic, thyme, sage gargle, echinacea (🟡 — not for long continuous use or with autoimmune conditions). |
| Skin & minor scrapes | Calendula salve, aloe vera gel for minor burns — topical, gentle, and easy to grow. |
The ones to respect — 🔴 red tier
A short honest word on two plants people often hear about, because "traditional" doesn't mean "harmless":
| Plant | The hard rule |
|---|---|
| Comfrey | Topical use only — never eat it. It contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids that damage the liver. Use on unbroken skin for bruises and sprains, and skip it entirely in pregnancy. (It's still a superb compost and mulch plant.) |
| Goldenseal | Threatened in the wild — buy cultivated only, never wild-harvest. Strict dose limits, and not for pregnancy, infants, or high blood pressure. Best left to trained herbalists. |
Every plant, one by one
Every plant carries its safety tier: 🟢 gentle, 🟡 potent — real cautions, 🔴 expert / topical-only. Start green, and respect the reds.
| Plant | Tier | Good for | How it's used | Cautions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chamomile | 🟢 | Calm nerves, sleep, an upset stomach | Tea from the dried flowers | Skip it with a severe ragweed allergy |
| Peppermint | 🟢 | Digestion, gas, a tension headache | Tea; diluted oil on the skin | Can worsen acid reflux |
| Lemon balm | 🟢 | Calm, sleep, cold sores | Tea; a topical balm | Very gentle and forgiving |
| Lavender | 🟢 | Relaxation, sleep, minor skin care | Tea, sachet, diluted oil | The oil is topical/aromatic — not for eating |
| Calendula | 🟢 | Skin, scrapes, chapped hands | Salve or infused oil | Topical; daisy-family allergy caution |
| Plantain (broadleaf) | 🟢 | Bug bites, stings, minor wounds | Crushed-leaf poultice or salve | The common lawn weed — not the banana |
| Echinacea | 🟡 | Short-term immune support at a cold's first sign | Tincture or tea | Not for long continuous use or with autoimmune conditions |
| Yarrow | 🟡 | Slows minor bleeding; a wound wash | Poultice or tea | Avoid in pregnancy; daisy-family allergy |
| Feverfew | 🟡 | Migraine prevention, taken over time | Dried leaf or capsule | Not in pregnancy; fresh leaf can cause mouth sores |
| Marshmallow | 🟡 | Soothes sore throat, dry cough, the gut lining | Cold-water root infusion | Take apart from medicines — it can slow their absorption |
| Mullein | 🟡 | Cough and chest congestion | Leaf/flower tea, strained well | Strain the fine hairs — they irritate the throat |
| Valerian | 🟡 | Sleep and tension | Root tea or tincture at night | Sedating — never with alcohol/sedatives or before driving |
| St. John's wort | 🟡 | Traditionally, mild low mood | Tincture or tea | Serious drug interactions (birth control, antidepressants) and sun sensitivity — ask a provider first |
| Comfrey | 🔴 | Bruises and sprains — TOPICAL ONLY | Poultice or salve on unbroken skin | Never eat it (liver-toxic); short-term, intact skin only |
| Goldenseal | 🔴 | Traditionally antimicrobial | Buy cultivated — never wild-harvest | Wild-endangered and potent; many cautions |
A word on natural first aid
Some plants shine for minor, everyday issues — aloe on a small kitchen burn, calendula salve on a scrape, a crushed yarrow leaf to slow a little bleeding. That's the whole scope. For anything deep, spreading, or worrying — a bad burn, a puncture, an allergic reaction, trouble breathing — that's a job for real medical care, immediately. Garden remedies are for the scraped knee, not the emergency room.
Harvesting by the moon
If you garden by the lunar calendar, the old rule of thumb carries over: gather leaves and flowers on leaf and flower days (as the moon waxes) when the plant's oils are highest, and roots on root days (as it wanes) when energy has returned to the ground. It's a gentle rhythm, not a hard rule — but it's a pleasant way to time the harvest.