A cup of tea can perk you up in the morning or help you to fall asleep at night. There are over a thousand different plants that are grown to make up all the different tea blends found around the world. You can even grow your very own tea garden in your backyard. Here are a few tips on how to plant a tea garden.
Plant Your Faves
You can make a tea from the leaves and blooms of flowers in your garden. You can also add them to a base of either black or green tea. To help you relax at night, make sure to plant lavender and chamomile. To give you a boost in the morning make sure you have orange mint, pineapple sage, and lemon basil growing.
Here is a list of plants that are great to grow in a tea garden:
- German Chamomile
- Lavender
- Lemon Thyme
- Lemon Verbena
- Lemon Balm
- Lemon Basil
- Pineapple Sage
- Salvia
- Stevia
- Rosemary
- Orange Mint
- Spearmint
Keep Them Organic
There is no sense using synthetic soils or fertilizers on plants that you are planning on ingesting. You can plant directly into the garden soil or a container garden. Use a good potting or garden soil to get the plants growing like Supersoil or Black Gold. To fertilize them every month add in earthworm castings plus bone and blood meal.
Growing Tips
All of the above mentioned plants like to be grown in well-drained soil and have 6-8 hours of sunlight per day. Lemon Verbena and Lemon Thyme love to grow out and trail, which makes them perfect to grow on the edge of the garden or container. Always grow any mint plant in a container, otherwise it will take over your garden. Both Lavender and Rosemary are perennials and grow about two feet in every direction. Lemon Basil likes it hot and sunny, just make sure to keep it watered. Chamomile attracts bees and butterflies, helping to pollinate the entire garden.
As the plants grow, you can harvest leaves and flowers and dry them. Dry them either by hanging upside down or just by leaving them on a paper towel for a couple days. Mix them together and steep in hot water – enjoy fresh tea made out of your very own tea garden.
One Response
What a cool idea- I grow a lot of veggies but never thought of growing tea! I’m going to have to order some seeds!