Plant Allies

A Living Herbalism Apprenticeship

Plant Allies is a year-long herbalism program for people who want more than a list of herbs and their uses.

Together, we will learn to recognize plants as living teachers, ecological community members, sources of nourishment, and potential partners in our everyday lives.

You will meet plants firsthand, visit them through the seasons, learn how they grow, discover the wildlife and landscapes they support, and practice turning them into teas, tinctures, oils, salves, syrups, vinegars, and other preparations.

This is not about memorizing hundreds of remedies.

It is about building lasting relationships with a smaller circle of plants you truly know.

Enrollment is now open for the founding cohort.

[JOIN THE FOUNDING COHORT]

Herbalism Begins With Relationship

Many herbal courses begin with symptoms:

What should I take for sleep?
What herb helps digestion?
What is good for stress?

Plant Allies begins somewhere deeper:

Who is this plant?

Where does it live?

What does it need?

What other beings depend on it?

How has it lived alongside people?

What happens when you taste it, grow it, prepare it, and return to visit it again and again?

Each month, we will slow down and spend meaningful time with a small group of plant allies. You will learn their traditional uses and modern research, but you will also meet them in gardens, fields, forests, kitchens, and your own body.

By the end of the program, you will not simply recognize their names.

You will know them.

What You Will Learn

Build a Foundation in Everyday Herbalism

We will begin with nourishing and broadly accessible herbs that can become part of everyday life.

You will learn how to work with plants through food, tea, long infusions, topical preparations, and other gentle approaches before moving into more concentrated forms.

Lessons will include:

• Herbal actions and energetics

• Taste as a tool for understanding plants

• Basic human physiology

• Traditional uses and current research

• Dosage, preparation, and responsible use

• Safety, contraindications, and medication interactions

• How to evaluate herbal information critically

This program is educational and is not a replacement for individualized medical care.

Learn to Make Herbal Preparations

Throughout the year, you will build practical medicine-making skills through guided demonstrations and hands-on projects.

Preparations may include:

• Herbal teas and nourishing infusions

• Decoctions

• Alcohol tinctures

• Glycerites and vinegars

• Herbal honeys

• Oxymels

• Infused oils

• Salves and balms

• Syrups

• Powders and electuaries

• Bitters

• Simple formulas

You will finish the program with a small home apothecary and the knowledge to continue creating your own preparations responsibly.

Understand the Ecology of Every Plant

A medicinal plant is never only an ingredient.

Every plant belongs to a place and participates in a community.

For each featured plant, we will explore:

• Native range and habitat

• Soil, moisture, and light preferences

• Seasonal growth and reproduction

• Pollinator and wildlife relationships

• Successional role

• Cultivation and propagation

• Ethical harvesting

• Threats from habitat loss and overharvesting

• When growing a plant is more appropriate than gathering it from the wild

You will learn not only how plants may care for people, but how people can care for the plants in return.

A Year of Meeting the Plants

The curriculum follows the seasons so that we can encounter plants as they emerge, flower, fruit, set seed, and return to dormancy.

Spring: Awakening and Renewal

Meet the plants that arrive early, restore nourishment, and help us reconnect with the fresh growth of the year.

Possible plant allies include:

Violet, chickweed, dandelion, cleavers, nettle, plantain, raspberry leaf, and spring tonics.

Summer: Vitality and Abundance

Explore aromatic, flowering, and pollinator-supporting plants at the height of the growing season.

Possible plant allies include:

Lemon balm, tulsi, bee balm, calendula, yarrow, rose, mountain mint, skullcap, and milky oats.

Autumn: Roots, Fruits, and Resilience

Work with berries, seeds, roots, and plants traditionally associated with protection and seasonal transition.

Possible plant allies include:

Goldenrod, elderberry, hawthorn, rose hips, burdock, spicebush, and nourishing roots.

Winter: Rest, Reflection, and the Home Apothecary

Turn inward to study formulation, conifers, barks, dried herbs, stored medicines, and the deeper principles that connect the plants you have met.

Possible plant allies include:

Linden, pine, spruce, birch, ginger, marshmallow, and your own personalized allies.

The final plant list will reflect seasonal availability, regional ecology, and responsible sourcing.

Discover Your Personal Plant Allies

Not every person needs the same relationship with the same plants.

As the year progresses, you will begin noticing which plants repeatedly draw your attention, suit your constitution, fit your landscape, or support the areas of life you want to tend more carefully.

Partway through the program, you will receive guidance in choosing a smaller group of personal plant allies for deeper study.

You may be invited to:

• Spend regular time with them

• Grow or responsibly source them

• Prepare them in several different ways

• Research their history and ecology

• Track your experiences in a plant journal

• Create a personal formula or ritual

• Develop a stewardship practice that supports them

This is not a promise that one plant will solve every problem.

It is an invitation to develop discernment, curiosity, attention, and reciprocity.

What Is Included

Your year-long apprenticeship includes:

Monthly Live Classes

A live online class introducing the month’s plants, herbal concepts, ecology, safety information, and medicine-making practice.

Recordings will be available for enrolled students who cannot attend live.

Plant Relationship Practices

Guided invitations to observe, taste, grow, draw, photograph, journal about, or spend time with the featured plants.

Seasonal Field Experiences

Optional in-person plant walks, garden gatherings, harvesting demonstrations, and medicine-making days in the greater Philadelphia region.

Exact dates and locations will be announced in advance.

Medicine-Making Demonstrations

Step-by-step guidance for creating herbal preparations at home, including sourcing, sanitation, storage, labeling, shelf life, and responsible use.

Downloadable Plant Profiles

Each profile will bring together:

• Identification

• Habitat and ecology

• Traditional uses

• Current research

• Preparation methods

• Safety considerations

• Cultivation guidance

• Reflection prompts

Community Gathering Space

A private space to share plant observations, ask questions, post photographs, compare preparations, and learn alongside the cohort.

Personalized Plant Ally Guidance

Support choosing a smaller group of plants for deeper relationship and continued study.

Founding Cohort Access

Founding students will help shape the future of the program and receive opportunities to provide feedback throughout the year.

What Makes This Program Different?

Relationship Before Consumption

You will be encouraged to meet and understand a plant before treating it as a product.

Ecology Is Part of Herbalism

We will study plants within their habitats, relationships, and seasonal cycles rather than separating medicine from the living world.

Depth Over Memorization

Instead of racing through an enormous materia medica, we will return to foundational plants repeatedly and learn them through multiple senses and methods.

Science and Tradition in Conversation

We will explore traditional knowledge, historical use, lived experience, plant chemistry, and modern research without pretending that any one source tells the whole story.

Stewardship and Reciprocity

Whenever we gather, grow, purchase, or prepare a plant, we will ask what responsibility comes with that relationship.

This Program May Be for You If…

You want to learn herbalism but feel overwhelmed by where to begin.

You already love plants and want to understand their medicinal traditions.

You want practical skills without reducing plants to symptom-based remedies.

You enjoy learning through observation, experience, discussion, and making things with your hands.

You want to know the ecological role of the plants you use.

You want a slower, seasonal learning experience rather than a self-paced course you may never finish.

You are interested in building a thoughtful home apothecary.

You want to become more attentive, capable, and connected to the land around you.

You Do Not Need…

You do not need previous herbal training.

You do not need to live in the countryside.

You do not need to know how to identify plants yet.

You do not need a garden.

You do not need to purchase every herb or make every preparation.

You only need curiosity, a willingness to observe carefully, and a desire to build a more reciprocal relationship with plants.

Program Format

Length: 12 months

Format: Live online classes, recordings, community discussion, independent plant practices, and optional in-person experiences

Location: Online, with optional gatherings in the greater Philadelphia region

Time commitment: Approximately 3–5 hours each month, with additional optional time for field observation and medicine making

Experience level: Beginner-friendly, with enough depth for gardeners, land stewards, and people with some herbal experience

Founding cohort begins: [MONTH AND DATE]

Founding Cohort Tuition

Monthly Enrollment

$[AMOUNT] per month for 12 months

Includes the complete curriculum, live classes, recordings, plant profiles, community access, and personalized plant ally guidance.

[ENROLL MONTHLY]

Pay in Full

$[AMOUNT] for the full year

Save $[AMOUNT] by enrolling for the full apprenticeship.

[ENROLL FOR THE YEAR]

Herbs, jars, alcohol, oils, and other medicine-making materials are not included unless specifically stated for an individual gathering or optional kit.

A limited number of reduced-cost spaces may be available. Details will be shared before enrollment closes.

About Your Guide

Tyler Kruszewski

Founder of Reviving Wisdom

Tyler is an ecological designer, restoration practitioner, herbalist, educator, and lifelong student of the relationships between people, plants, and place.

Through Reviving Wisdom, Tyler helps people transform lawns and degraded landscapes into thriving habitat, learn the plants growing around them, and become active participants in the ecosystems they inhabit.

Plant Allies brings together ecological restoration, practical herbalism, seasonal observation, plant folklore, medicine making, and the belief that knowledge becomes meaningful when it is rooted in relationship.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a certification program?

The founding cohort is an educational apprenticeship and does not provide a license to diagnose, prescribe, or practice medicine.

Students will receive a certificate of completion documenting their participation and coursework.

Will we forage wild plants?

Responsible wild plant observation and harvesting may be discussed or demonstrated, but harvesting will never be required.

Some plants are abundant and appropriate to gather in certain settings. Others should be cultivated, purchased from responsible growers, or left entirely undisturbed.

Do I need to attend every class live?

No. Classes will be recorded, although attending live will allow you to participate in discussion and ask questions.

Will the program tell me which herbs to take for a medical condition?

The course will teach herbal traditions, preparations, safety principles, and frameworks for understanding plants.

It does not provide medical diagnosis or individualized treatment. Participants with health conditions, allergies, pregnancy considerations, or prescription medications should consult a qualified healthcare professional before using unfamiliar herbs.

Is this only about native plants?

No.

We will work with a combination of native, naturalized, cultivated, and globally significant medicinal plants. Their origins and ecological impacts will always be discussed clearly.

Do I need to buy special equipment?

Most preparations can be made with ordinary kitchen equipment and a few jars, strainers, and bottles.

A complete suggested materials list will be provided before the program begins.

Can I join from outside Pennsylvania?

Yes. The core program is online.

Because local ecology varies, students outside the region will be encouraged to research and meet related plants that grow responsibly in their own landscapes.

Become Part of the Founding Cohort

There is a difference between knowing what a plant is called and knowing it as a neighbor.

Over the course of one year, you will learn to identify plants, understand their habitats, prepare them responsibly, listen to your own experience, and participate more consciously in the communities that sustain them.

You will leave with practical medicine-making skills.

You will leave with a growing home apothecary.

Most importantly, you will leave with relationships that can continue for the rest of your life.

Founding cohort enrollment closes [DATE].

[JOIN PLANT ALLIES]

Questions about the program?

Email [EMAIL ADDRESS].

Plant Allies is an educational program. Information shared through the program is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease and is not a substitute for care from a qualified medical professional.