Shepherd’s Purse Made Me Do It.

Well, not fully. Many of you know I moved from Illinois to Texas to California and you know it was difficult for me to leave my home state. I was and still am in love with the Midwest’s flora (and fauna). Texas was rough- but I managed to study many new plants while living there in Big Bend National Park. When I moved to California, I only lived in Sequoia National Park for a couple of weeks before moving to a plain old subdivision in a (very) dusty ag town. Not many natural growth areas to speak of in my area. Mostly silty soil mixed with sand that blew in the wind when you walked in it.
At first it didn’t feel lucky, but the home we moved into had a pretty large back yard that was mostly dirt. It had been hard packed by the previous tenant’s dogs. No sod, no natural growth, just dirt. That was in mid September. The most we did was rake some debris and scratch up the surface of the area to see what we were working with- but as it began to cool off, which isn’t much in the Central Valley, some things began to grow.
We got pretty revved up about it and watered the yard a bit. Put a little grass seed down. Put in a tree and a raised bed for vegetables. (We had a nice landlord)

The yard almost began to look like a normal one- like the other grassy, irrigated backyards of our neighbors. But we noticed that it wasn’t really grass. It was a mixture of all kinds of little plants. Miners lettuce, purslane, shepherd’s purse, dandelions, and surprisingly, wood sorrel.
I was familiar with the uses of all those- except for shepherd’s purse. I couldn’t find a monograph anywhere.
I finally found it in a book that belonged to my grandma called Magic and Medicine of Plants. A very dated, but useful book.
I picked a bit and pressed it for my materia medica. It was that day that I decided to change my business name and begin offering services as an herbalist. I had been creating herbal products for over 20 years, and giving helpful advice on herbs- but not formally online.
I can’t explain why trying to revive a neglected yard and a sweet little plant like shepherd’s purse made me take that leap- maybe because it goes by names like witch’s pouches and mother’s heart- but it did.