Cucumber herb is a medicinal plant in your vegetable garden
Perhaps there is no other such controversial plant as cucumber grass. On the one hand, it is a very healthy crop, given its medicinal properties. Another positive point is that it belongs to edible herbs. Luscious green foliage is a great source of vitamins in early spring and is great in salads. At the same time, many gardeners by autumn no longer know what to do with overgrown bushes. They form many seeds, which sprout by winter, turning the plant into a weed. So is it necessary to fight it and why do knowledgeable people leave cucumber grass in the garden?
In scientific literature, the herb is known as borage, and among the people - as borage or borage.
Description of the plant
Borago is a herbaceous plant in the form of a rather tall, up to 1 m bush with upright ribbed stems. Both shoots and oblong rough leaves are covered with bristles. There are also coarse hairs on large leaf blades.
At the end of May, the borage blooms with pale blue small flowers. Their long petioles are collected in loose inflorescences - shields. Flowering lasts until frost. The plant propagates by self-sowing and many new bushes sprout up next spring. Some may appear in the fall. It is important to control the process and break through crops in order to vegetable garden has not become a field of weeds.
Cucumber herb: where and how it is used
Many people grow cucumber herb for culinary purposes as a salad plant. Due to the fact that young leaves taste like cucumber, they are used for making salads. Actually, it is for this that the culture is called "cucumber".
Leaves can be added to:
- meat;
- fish meals;
- sauces as a spice.
Fresh flowers are used for flavoring confectionery or candied as a dessert. It is also used to make a healthy and tasty herbal tea by brewing fresh or dried shoots with leaves and flowers.
Useful properties of cucumber herb
Borago herbal tea has tonic and tonic properties. It increases efficiency and improves the functioning of internal organs.
It is better to drink infusion and tea during the daytime. It should not be consumed at night because of its invigorating effect, which leads to insomnia.
Borage infusions, decoctions and tea have a positive effect on the body, namely:
- soothe the nervous system, relieve bouts of irritability;
- reduce blood pressure and blood glucose levels;
- increase lactation;
- promote wound healing;
- serve as a diuretic, diaphoretic and laxative.
Borage oil is no less useful. It softens the skin and also helps in the fight against rheumatism and osteoporosis.