Growing Herbal Teas at Home

From personal experience, I can say that parsley grows well in a pot inside the house. I used to grow it because I use so much of it.

a reply to: zosimov

Love these gardening posts.

I also live in zone 5b and when we first switched from in-ground to raised bed gardening (makes a huge difference in season length), and I was planning crops, I watched a lot of a YouTube channel called 'Simple Living Alaska'.

I think you'd love it, because they also have a gorgeous tea garden, are growing in a challenging climate, and they dehydrate their tea components in a really simple inexpensive way and save them to mix. Very inspiring.

We've found that our cold frames are great for overwintering herbs like oregano, thyme, rosemary, and we're still harvesting in February. Usually they'd be gone by November/December.

They also keep us in salad and greens for a lot of the fall/winter.

Happy gardening!

a reply to: Atsbhct

Building a cold frame has definitely just recently worked its way to the forefront of my gardening skill improvement list... very glad to hear it works well to overwinter rosemary, etc (I tried bringing my rosemary inside this year but it didn't last).

Thanks for the suggestions, and Happy Gardening to you as well!!

I love this thread!

I’ve been obsessed with growing mint for about 15 years now. My favorite is chocolate mint and good old spearmint. But man, IF you can find it and IF you can find good quality, pineapple mint is phenomenal! I’ve not been able to find any good pineapple mint for years now.

My best friend let me use an area of his backyard for growing mint. The chocolate and spearmint come back every year and by the middle of the summer are tit high and cover a 10’x10’ area next to his patio. All I have to do is trim them before they flower. It’s heaven.

I use the mint for everything. Dry it for tea, I put it in lotions, in ice water, and this use- I take a giant handful of sprigs with me to the studio where I teach (that is, when the world wasn’t afraid of getting within 6 feet of one another), and I have a huge box fan that I run in my studio because it gets hot. Well, in the summer when those 8th and 9th grade boys smell SO BAD and their moms are having trouble making them wear deodorant, I bruise that giant handful of mint leaves and weave them into the box fan and turn it on high. Usually the mint smell will be strong enough to at least distract a bit from the horrid adolescent boy B.O.

a reply to: KansasGirl

Glad you're enjoying the thread! So many good responses and extra info added along the way.

That pineapple mint sounds great I've also taken an interest in finding apple mint. Have you tried it?

Great ideas about uses. Thanks!

a reply to: zosimov

For your growing zone there are some common wild plants that you can use and pretty much will grow on their own. Some might already be growing around you.

Rosehips (rosa rugosa isn't indigenous but a common perennial ornamental)
Various sorrels
Hemlock (tree sprigs, not the small plant) and nearly all pine tree sprigs
Blackberry
Red clover
Pineapple weed
Sweet fern
Sasparilla
Staghorn sumac or smooth sumac (red hairy berries, white or light green berries are poison sumac)

You may find this ethnobotany database interesting which allows you to look up medicinal properties of different wild and domesticated plants.

a reply to: Ksihkehe

Thanks for this really useful post!!

I appreciate your taking the time to share this info

a reply to: zosimov

It's my pleasure. One of my favorite topics along with invasive species and it's not terribly common to find people interested.

If you're into wild edibles I can go on and on, particularly in that growing region. I focused on maritime New England, but there's a lot of overlap with different varieties of the same plant through the whole zone.

You can always PM me if you have wild edible questions or about curious plants you come across.

It's a field of study that's at a strange crossroads. The availability of easy testing has increased, interest in medicinal plants is high, but it's no longer something widely passed down generation to generation. A lot of the modern research in the field isn't so much discovering medicinal uses for plants, but rather it's confirming or rediscovering uses dating back to prehistory.

a reply to: Ksihkehe

I'll definitely be interested in picking your brain some more!
I think I'll start with what you gave me, by doing a little research, maybe even seeking out a guidebook for local edibles, and I'll let you know what I come up with.

It's a fun topic to dive into. Thanks for offering your time/knowledge.

a reply to: zosimov

I’ve grown apple mint too, yes! It’s wonderful. It’s a really hearty mint, too- the leaves are almost furry, a really beautiful light green, and the stalks/stems are thick.

a reply to: zosimov

I haven’t grown anything lately that is anything of merit but I did just buy three teas in hopes of making my first batch of kombucha. I love kombucha. Have you ever gone down that path?

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

I love kombucha too. I haven't gone there--too nervous about the scoby part of the process, in fact just the name of the thing freaks me out a bit.
A couple of close friends (one a neighbor) have made their own kombucha and assure me it's easy stuff though. Enjoy learning/making something new!

a reply to: zosimov

I just keep running out of time in the day. I’m thinking I might start the process in a week or so. I have done a lot of ferments and pickles but never a fermented drink. I need to make it so I can drink a gallon of it at a sitting when summer time comes around. That’s imperative hahaha

* I have made yogurts and cheese

a reply to: zosimov

I love kombucha too.

I've been banned from kombucha in my household. I left a bottle in the garage... it exploded. It smells like vinegar now,
and it's still freezing

a reply to: JAGStorm

Oh, lol!
Thanks for sharing your cautionary kombucha tale.
Glad the disaster happened in the garage, at least.

Can't forget about the pollinators,
butterflies and honey bees !
The best thing I found, is to let the
peppermint flower and go to seed.
Also the Bergomot bee balm,
not only attracts butterflies and
honey bees but used it for tea,
especially for flue and colds.
But both,
peppermint and bergomot bee balm have
spectacular flowers late summer till frost.
Both are pest free, hardy,
perennials, easy to grow.
. . . just wanted to add that info

originally posted by: ToneDeaf

. . . just wanted to add that info

thanks for the great info!!

originally posted by: zosimov

Here is an awesome link for information regarding growing, harvesting, and blending herbal teas:
joybileefarm.com...

Thanks for reading, friends! Looking forward to hearing from some current or hopeful herb gardeners!

Thank you for posting that link!
richters herbs is fantastic, I usually take a
sunday drive out that way once or twice a year.
If there is a herb that you can't find
anywhere else, richters will be the only
place to find it.
Aside from tea herbs, the most herb I use
for cooking is garlic chives. (perenial, easy to grow)
If you have a convection oven, set it at the lowest
temp. to dry your herbs.
Convection ovens are excellent for this, and
it seems to keep the fresh color of the herbs,
more so than dehydrators do.
Any dehydrators that I've had faded and
leached of the color of what ever I was
drying. I definitely prefer using a convection
oven for drying.

a reply to: ToneDeaf

Thanks for the drying tip! I have more room in my oven than the dehydrator, so this method would work better in that respect too.

a reply to: zosimov

Ginger is another good one to grow, its the same family as Tumeric and has some interesting health effects, but in its favour, it's water-soluble where Tumeric is fat-soluble. I have been taking it for old age issues, and have found that if about a three-inch cube of the root is put in the processor with water and lemon juice is added, then watered down to about a litre and kept in the fridge a half a glass a day seems to have quite an effect on general aches and pains. I see that on some recipes they sieve out the solid bits, and call it Ginger water, but it does not have the same effect without the solids. Some side effects are more noticeable hair fall, but i also notice that I am not going bald, so it must grow back as fast as it sheds. Just plant the stuff you buy at the Supermarket and it grows away quite happily.