Your Questions About Gardening

GardenersCardiff answers:

Hi tt!

If you make your own tea, you’re going to have a blast! I’ve done it, and it’s so much fun! You can create teas (even more than one kind) that you’ll love, and your friends will love them, too. Could I offer you a couple of suggestions? Keep a pencil and paper handy to write down what herbs you’ve added and how much of each herb. Once you get started, it can get confusing about what you put in it — trust me! The other suggestion is to start out with an easy tea. I started with chamomile, which is a very pleasant tea that relaxes you. It’s easy to make, and I learned things that helped me with more complicated teas.

There are LOTS of websites that offer excellent advice about how to create your own tea and even put the teas into teabags if you want. The tea (or teabags) make fantastic stocking gifts at Christmas for friends and family! It’s always nice to give something homemade.

You can buy herbs at health food stores or online. Lots of places sell them. Go to http://www.google.com and put “where to buy herbs” into their search engine, or look in your Yellow Pages.

Anyway, here are the links to the websites. It seems like a lot, but what one site doesn’t teach you, another site will, and it’s good to have as much information as you can find.

Http://www.farmersalmanac.com/food/2007/09/01/make-your-own-tea/

http://herbgardens.about.com/od/herbrecipes/a/HerbTeas.htm

http://doit101.com/Foodrink/Teablends.html

http://www.howtodothings.com/health-and-fitness/a3303-how-to-make-herbal-tea.html

http://coffeetea.about.com/cs/herbaltea/a/growingherbs.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_4904701_own-herb-tea-bags.html

http://www.hgtv.com/landscaping/grow-your-own-tea/index.html

http://herbs.lovetoknow.com/Recipes_for_Your_Own_Herbal_Teas

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Have a great time, and good luck! 🙂

GardenersCardiff answers:

Dig a hole, drop the tea bags in…a little sugar…water frequently.

*giggle*

sorry.

It’s exactly like growing herbs…
The drying part is done by banding 10 to 12 sprigs and hanging them to dry.

However, a little research showed me that there’s such a thing as a Dryer for herbals that may expedite the process.

These get ground once dried.

They have special spoons that hold dried leaves so you don’t have to grind or chop too finely if that’s a concern. Whole dried mint leaves taste good like this.

I hope that helps a little bit.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Tea is a large woody shrub (Camellia sinensis), growing up to 10′ tall. It is hardy through a large portion of the USA (hardy to USDA zone 6). So it is possible to grow it, and harvest it. From seed, however, you’re talking about years and years before you’ll have enough leaves to harvest.

Just to clarify, Tea is a specific plant, as well as a general term for a type of drink. For instance, chamomile tea, is comprised of the herb, and not the actual Tea shrub. Do you follow? You might have better luck tea-ing some other sorts of plants, rather than proper Tea.

I hope that this helps