Homegrown Herbal Tea

[Phaedra]

Wow! That’s lots of plants!

Yes, and those plants now crazily produce loads of basils. The more you cut, the more side shoots and leaves they offer.

Chive, sage, mint, and basil - I am confident that those herbs can keep producing a lot of leaves before the first frost.

 

[Phaedra]

So far, so good. I still have some mint to harvest in the garden in Cologne.

I plan to have one or two bee hives in the near future, but before that, I want to keep adding some nice plants that can become part of our selection.

Today I bought six Winterlinde/small-leaved lime(Tilia cordata) - it seems they are quite "multi-functional" plants. Can't wait.

 

[ducks4you]

Dang, @Phaedra Geiermann . You are So organized!! Here I am writing on my labels with a Sharpie, and Your labels look like you work in a lab.

 

[Phaedra]

Dang, @Phaedra Geiermann . You are So organized!! Here I am writing on my labels with a Sharpie, and Your labels look like you work in a lab.

Yeah, sometimes I am a bit picky.

 

[Jane23]

Having an herb garden is on my to-do list for the future. I have several pots of herbs right now, but I love tea, and surprisingly the chamomile I planted last year survived into this year. I was about to harvest it in the spring when we got a frost, which broke off most of the flowers. It is only coming back now. It is very hardy.

Any recommendations for what I should try to plant next year/the future? I tried to grow mint, but it never got going, so that is on my list to try again this year. Should I grow roses too?

 

[digitS']

@Jane23 , I'm not a fan of what most of us think of as mint. It's okay ... spearmint, peppermint etc.

However, here I go with my appreciation for herbal drinks in the "mint" family. If you explore a little in something like Richter's catalog, you may come up with more ideas than you can shake a teaspoon at.

It's easy, I suppose, to go astray. I tried lemon bergamot and decided, nope, not for me. Perhaps, reinforcement for an idea that would be new and different would be to check the ingredients on the boxes of herbal teas on the shelves of the supermarket or natural food store. Carry some home and try. That's how I decided to try citrus zest and licorice.

Anise hyssop is just about a pretty enuf plant to deliberately have in the ornamental garden. The bees love it. It was surprising to me that the tractor guy could till over my plants year after year and they would come back in the Spring. I had to pay attention because they certainly wouldn't be in quite the same location in the veggie garden . I stopped sowing seed, which was a mistake because that laziness in waiting for them to show up finally didn't work!

My experiment with lemon balm dry was another fail but, oh well ... It was bland at best.

Steve
darn near ready to grow catnip deliberately

 

[Phaedra]

Having an herb garden is on my to-do list for the future. I have several pots of herbs right now, but I love tea, and surprisingly the chamomile I planted last year survived into this year. I was about to harvest it in the spring when we got a frost, which broke off most of the flowers. It is only coming back now. It is very hardy.

Any recommendations for what I should try to plant next year/the future? I tried to grow mint, but it never got going, so that is on my list to try again this year. Should I grow roses too?

I realized that maybe the best way to grow mints is to use their runners. Around two weeks ago, I cleaned the pots where I grew some herbs because many mint runners were developing. If I don't clean those runners, the pot will be fully occupied by mints very soon.

I used to grow mints by rooting them in the water first. However, using their runners is even more effective and has no chance of failing. I got another runner from spearmint today, cut it into three pieces, and potted them on.

What I got from the runners taken two weeks ago:

In my opinion, the priority could be whatever you really like to use. This year, I used a lot of fresh mint and sage for making tea, which is a simple and good flavor. Rose is also a good choice, but it needs more attention (with much less output).

 

[Jane23]

I realized that maybe the best way to grow mints is to use their runners. Around two weeks ago, I cleaned the pots where I grew some herbs because many mint runners were developing. If I don't clean those runners, the pot will be fully occupied by mints very soon.

I used to grow mints by rooting them in the water first. However, using their runners is even more effective and has no chance of failing. I got another runner from spearmint today, cut it into three pieces, and potted them on.
View attachment 52848

What I got from the runners taken two weeks ago:
View attachment 52849

In my opinion, the priority could be whatever you really like to use. This year, I used a lot of fresh mint and sage for making tea, which is a simple and good flavor. Rose is also a good choice, but it needs more attention (with much less output).

My sage did well this year. I will see about sprouting some this winter to plant in the spring.

When you say rose, you do mean roses right?

 

[digitS']

whatever you really like

I think that's it .

Wild roses grow here and I have collected them, and domestic. Not quite my cup of tea ...

Trying to get away from coffee caffeine, I used both dandelions and Witloof chicory that I grew. Soon, I will dig up the "Italian dandelions" that I grew here at home this year. Last Fall, I dug up dandelions again, toasted them in a cast iron pan and ground them. Nope. My tastes must have changed ... The Witloof chicory was my first experience with trying the roots as a beverage but I hadn't grown them for that purpose. Perhaps, I had not yet eaten radicchio and didn't realize that I wouldn't like Witloof! (I do like endive well enough to have grown it for several years .)

Roses ... Raspberries ... Do you like the flavor of raspberries, @Jane23 ? Try the leaves. It really wasn't that I dislike raspberries, not at all. However, there seemed to be something "lacking." Abundant supply and dual purpose - I should try a combination with something. Somehow, I think chamomile might be a good choice ... Anyway.

Steve

 

[Alasgun]

We tried dandelion tea once. Every evening we have tea, a cookie, some chocolate and a few nuts and decided to try the dandelion. WOW!!! At 4:00 am we we’re both lying on our back’s staring at the ceiling!
I need to give it a go some morning for a fair test. A couple years ago we did the Chaga thing in the mornings; it would zing you also and we liked it well enough but after a couple years we became sensitive to it. There are 100’s of teas out there and we have a few favorites but around here the old standby’s are Anise hyssop, Chocolate mint, Rosemary and a combination of Mojito mint and Sage. All grown here on the place.