Tea Time! What It Is & How to Grow Your Own

🫖 /tē/ Noun: 1. A soothing preparation of hot water infused with herbs. Tea may consist of tea plant (Camellia sinensis) or any number of herbs for flavor or medicinal purposes that provides comfort and warmth to Amy year round. 2. Early afternoon respite including tea and light fare such as biscuits and cake. Usually takes place after lunch but before dinner.

Like most experiences in the garden, once you start growing your own and customizing it to your palate, it’s difficult to go back to the lifeless grocery store stuff. Tea can be very pricey as well. In a natural foods store, a box of organic peppermint tea can be upwards of $8. As most gardeners experience at least once in their journey, peppermint can go rogue and take over an entire landscape. People have injured themselves ripping out hundreds of dollars of organic tea.

Traditional tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. It can be harvested and cured as white, green, or black tea. Tea plant grows well in our moderate climate and natural soil pH (slightly acidic: pH 5.5). It likes consistent moisture, but not boggy soil. Its delicate white blooms beautify the winter landscape.

In the winter of 2021, I bought one from One Green World and planted it in a zone between our very acidic blueberry patch and more neutral soil around our apple tree. Camellia did not appreciate the very hot June we experienced that year, but once we got the drip irrigation system going and applied a thick layer of conifer mulch, she flushed out with new growth.

I’m content to let her grow to a size where I can get a significant harvest, because I have dialed in a wonderful herbal tea recipe.

Excellent Tea Herbs Anyone Can Grow

• Bramble leaf like: blackberry leaf and red raspberry leaf
• Chamomile
• Holy basil
• Lemon balm
• Lemongrass
• Mint
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Verbenas

My special Second Breakfast Gardens blend is listed in order of most to least: blackberry leaf, peppermint, chamomile, lemon balm, lemongrass. I prefer the milder flavor of raspberry leaf, but I planted my raspberry patch incorrectly and lost them all to root rot. I substituted blackberry which is also chock full of minerals and phytonutrients. To that base I blend in peppermint, all the chamomile (which is never enough), lemon balm, and lemongrass.

Harvesting and Drying

I harvest blackberry leaf, lemon balm, and peppermint as they flush out in spring. Then the chamomile flowers in late spring through early summer. Lastly comes the lemongrass in the dog days of summer. They all can be dried in a dehydrator in a few hours, but if you harvest at odd times a bit here and there, you can the try low-tech, easy methods below.

Lazy Guide to Drying

• Blackberry leaves: Strip the blackberry leaves off the cane and leave them in a flat box to air dry. (I stir them every few days.)
• Mint and Lemon balm: Bundle and hang them to dry. (Flat box or screen is great too.)
• Chamomile: Harvest flowers and spread in a box flat or tray to dry.
• Lemongrass: Cut with scissors (this grass will cut you up if you try to pick) tie in bundles and hang to dry or cut into tiny pieces and then spread on a tray to dry.
• They are fully dry when they feel crispy.
• Store dried herbs in a cardboard box or paper bag to allow air circulation.
• When you are ready crush the herbs, cut lemon grass with scissors, and remove any stems from the other herbs.
• Store in glass jars out of direct sunlight.

When you’re done, brew yourself a big cup and post on social media to impress your friends. Then invite a few of your besties over about 3 pm for afternoon tea and cakes.

Have you tried making your own tea blend? What tea flavors do you love?