Drinking Tea From Garden

H_TX 5/31/2011, 4:38 pm

My wife loves tea and I also enjoy it occasionally. After starting a garden I realized it would be nice to have some flowers to help attract some beneficial bugs to my garden. I thought chamomile would serve a dual purpose of helping to attract some helpful bug and can be used to make some tea.

What other garden items have you guys had success with in terms of making a cup of tea? Anything that you would recommend or not recommend growing? Anything that serves a dual purpose would be even better.

nancy 5/31/2011, 7:43 pm

I'm attempting stevia this year for the first time for that very purpose. I'll keep you posted. It looked droopy today, but I still have hope!

**walshevak** 5/31/2011, 8:46 pm

Mint. For mint tea and in iced tea and lemonade.

But plant in in a pot. It is very invasive.

Kay

kjenkins82 5/31/2011, 11:13 pm

Is it bad that when I saw the subject of this thread I immediately thought of compost tea? Drinking Tea From Garden 889526

Glad no one is drinking that! I have mint and stevia going also. Unfortunately my mint is not in a pot, it was here when I bought the house and takes over a corner of the yard this time of year. I don't put much effort into getting rid of it but I probaby should... sure smells good when I mow the lawn though! The stevia is in a pot on the front steps and is growing very quickly. I'm waiting until I have enough leaves to concentrate into a sweetener.

CindiLou 6/1/2011, 12:29 am

Stevia of course.
And 4 mints, chocolate/orange/spearmint/peppermint. Each is in a different part of the yard in a pot. If two close mint will cross pollinate and make something different.

Lemon balm, for a lemon tea. It is related to mint in looks but I found it just makes a BIG bushy plant! I use the tea to relax.

I don't plant chamomile for tea because it takes so many buds for the amount of chamomile tea I drink! So I buy mine.

H_TX 6/1/2011, 11:09 am

So everyone is growing stevia. Do you make a tea out of stevia by itself or do you use it to sweeten other teas? Do you use the flowers, leaves or both? From a quick Google search there seems to be some debate about stevia or the sweeteners derived from it and it was banned in the early 90's by the FDA; not that I trust everything the FDA says.

nancy 6/1/2011, 11:43 am

This is my first time growing it and it is still small, so I am not 100% sure how I will use it yet. I'm still just hoping it grows! =)

SwampTroll 5/15/2017, 8:19 pm

I love tea. Okay, that's a bit of an oversimplification. I LOVE tea would be a touch more accurate.

While I may be newer to gardening than some folks here, I do know my tea.

Garden things that can be used to make tea:

Mint (SO many kinds, grab a lot of pots and have fun)
Ginger (great for upset bellies)
Lemon Balm
Lemongrass
Chamomile
Strawberries
Raspberries (leaf and berries)
Blueberries
Marigold
Rhubarb(NOT THE LEAVES)
Blackberries (Fruit and leaves)

These are just a few of the things that come to mind.

**Scorpio Rising** 5/15/2017, 8:29 pm

SwampTroll wrote:I love tea. Okay, that's a bit of an oversimplification. I LOVE tea would be a touch more accurate.

While I may be newer to gardening than some folks here, I do know my tea.

Garden things that can be used to make tea:

Mint (SO many kinds, grab a lot of pots and have fun)
Ginger (great for upset bellies)
Lemon Balm
Lemongrass
Chamomile
Strawberries
Raspberries (leaf and berries)
Blueberries
Marigold
Rhubarb(NOT THE LEAVES)
Blackberries (Fruit and leaves)

These are just a few of the things that come to mind.

Interesting!

Although I have had most of those "teas", herbal concoctions, I usually have done so with Celestial Seasonings or the such....never made it myself.

Raspberry tea and peppermint got me through 3 pregnancies...whoa. I have never done the ginger, but it does soothe the tummy!

Marigold? Reallly? Three Ls

SwampTroll 5/15/2017, 8:35 pm

A lot of this I have on hand for general cooking purposes, though I tend to keep the marigolds around cause the bloody skeeters hate them.

Anything those buggers hate, I love.

**Scorpio Rising** 5/15/2017, 9:48 pm

SwampTroll wrote:A lot of this I have on hand for general cooking purposes, though I tend to keep the marigolds around cause the bloody skeeters hate them.

Anything those buggers hate, I love.

Ditto!

**sanderson** 5/16/2017, 3:22 am

Swamp, This thread is an old one, but thank you for resurrecting it. Add stevia to this list. Very Happy

If you can't see the date of the last post, you can correct the date/time setting under Profile, bottom of the Preferences tab.

countrynaturals 5/16/2017, 1:23 pm

sanderson wrote:If you can't see the date of the last post, you can correct the date/time setting under Profile, bottom of the Preferences tab.

Thank you so much, Sanderson. For weeks I've been going nutz, trying to figure out the year on these old posts. thanks

SwampTroll 5/17/2017, 1:14 pm

sanderson wrote:Swamp, This thread is an old one, but thank you for resurrecting it.

I did notice that, but I do love tea and I figured some people may wish to explore and experiment so, yeah.

I may or may not have noticed after my initial respone.

**kauairosina** 5/17/2017, 11:04 pm

We have Tulsi basil, Holy Basil to some. Quite nice. It is getting pretty prolific and purported to have a market. I'll take a picture soon.

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