In the middle ages, physicians, cooks, and housewives knew that herbs and plants had a variety of uses for keeping people healthy and the home clean.

Listed here are a number of plants we know were cultivated for food, medicine, and other helpful applications.

Some useful definitions:

beauty – a plant grown for its beauty

cooking – a plant grown as a food source or spice

dyeing – a plant grown for use as a dye

fiber – a plant used for making thread/cloth

fragrance – a plant grown for its scent

fulling – a plant used in the process of turning raw fiber into thread/yarn

medicine – a plant grown for medicinal uses

repellant – a plant used as a pest repellant

strewing – a plant used to lay around a room or chest to provide pest repellant and a pleasant fragrance

Book References:

Margaret B. Freeman – Herbs for the Mediaeval Household For Cooking, Healing and Divers Uses

Sylvia Landsberg – The Medieval Garden

Robin Whiteman – Brother Cadfael’s Herb Garden