Places to Chat
Gardening and Tea
Chatterbox: Down to Earth
Gardening and Tea
Gardening and Tea Thread
This is a thread about gardening and tea. Though these things go together for me (I grow a lot of the herbs and flowers I use for herbal tea) they don't have to for you.
So post gardening advice, updates on what's happening, and plants you want to grow. or post about your favorite teas or blend recipes advice on steeping them. anything you want really!
I'll start: look into growing plants native to your area! Even if you have never grown anything before, there's probably a low maintnence plant that can give food and shelter to local pollinators and animals. Most famous plants are non-native, and while they're a good start, native pollinators won't always be able to use them. Native pollinators are really important.
also, whether you garden or not, look into composting! food waste is a huge producer of methane, which is more potent than carbon dioxide, when it's in landfills. But in a compost pile, there's enough oxygen so it doesn't. and even if you don't garden yourself, if you know anyone who gardens, they'll almost certainly be glad to take your compost. and you could always get a pot and put something in it...
@pangolin, i'll post your response when this goes up.
@all, enjoy!
submitted by Blackfooted Bobcat, age a broom, and a shawl, ~Cinderella~
(April 13, 2024 - 11:30 am)
(April 13, 2024 - 11:30 am)
Tea! I love it! I've probably mentioned that before, but still, so good! It's best when steeped straight from leaves (not tea bags).
(April 13, 2024 - 4:58 pm)
what kind of tea do you like? For green, oolong, black, and white teas in particular you can stagger the timing of putting in tea leaves to give it more depth of flavor. so putting in a bit every 30 seconds for 3 minutes for example. there's a name for it, but i can't remember it... if you don't have loose leaf you can open a tea bag. i usually just let herbal teas steep a long time though since they usually don't get bitter.
(April 13, 2024 - 8:17 pm)
Yayy, thank you!! Ig I'll repost what I said on Random Thoughts/Things??
"I need to know a whole lot of gardening stuff for a project me and my friends are doing but the thing is none of us know anything about gardening and so we're all on researching frenzies and ahh yes please that'd be so great!!
ALSO, your garden sounds so splendidly amazing wow!! And TEA? :0
ALSO, roses are edible?!???? :0 :0"
But anyways, yeah!, thanks so much for doing this!! Um does anyone know what fruits/veggies/herbs are good for beginners planting Ig?
(April 13, 2024 - 7:20 pm)
yes roses are edible. the flowers are edible (at least on most types) and you can also eat the rosehips (well, you can make teas and stuff. they have itchy hairs inside so you have to strain them well). they're very nice.
as far as herbs for beginners, mint and thyme are pretty much impossible to kill. Thyme doesn't need as much water as mint, which should be kept fairly moist. tip is to always check if the soil is still moist before watering. you don't need to not water if the soil is moist (watering frequency depends on the plant) but a lot of herbs should pretty much dry out in between waterings. (Not mint, possibly but not neccesarily thyme.) watering frequency is hard to explain without examples... just research for the specific plant. but if it starts to look wilty or dry, you might be over or under watering. (or there could be another issue. a lot of the herbs I was keeping inside for winter were looking bad because they were getting root bound (too small of a container for their roots) and also because i've had spider mites. both issues are mostly gone by now. as long as the spider mites don't return/worsen...)
carrots and radishes are fun and easy. strawberries might be fun too, but I've read that you should make sure to get a variety that's good for the location. but don't worry too much about difficulty. unless it's a plant that's specifically known for being difficult, grow what you want to grow/eat/use, though.
if you need more info let me know!
(April 13, 2024 - 8:14 pm)
This comment is directed to Pangolin.
Definitely grow lavender!! I really like to use it in baking, and it makes an amazing tea (but use like 200 F water, not quite boiling since it’s pretty delicate. You can also steep it with black tea and it’s super good). If you’re going to eat it though, make sure you get English lavender. I’m pretty sure there are a few other kinds that are technically edible, but English lavender is the best. Check the scientific name on the plant (i don’t think you can get actual lavender from seed if i’m correct). I think I had French lavender since that was the only one the gardening store but in general you want a VERY well-draining soil. If you’re growing in pots (I do a large amount of growing in pots too) you can put some small rocks at the bottom to make it drain better, and make sure you get a well-draining soil mix. Also make sure there’s a lot of air movement where it is, but if it’s not inside that probably won’t be an issue.
Tomatoes work really well with basil, so I’d suggest planting some with it. I am going to try to put more flowers in my vegetable beds this year and probably grow more herbs than vegetables because vegetables are gross anyway in general heh. If you like growing carrots maybe radishes or little onions could be fun too and maybe less allergic. Also carrot allergy must be hard *shudders* planting flowers with herbs is good because it attracts more beneficial bugs and also sometimes distracts deer and things that would eat the plants.
as in the opening, i highly suggest looking into plants that are native to your area. While growing flowers is a good start, a lot of non-native flowers are actually not a good source of food for native pollinators and wildlife. Also never use pesticides or fertilizers (fertilizers are really only good if they’re something like bone meal or compost that you put into the dirt, and they can cause a ton of issues) of course. And a lot of native plants are just as gorgeous as invasive ones or even better. You can sometimes find local sales of native plants at least where i live, and also online.
What other herbs are you growing? Also is it warm enough to actually be planting stuff where you live?
(April 13, 2024 - 8:03 pm)
I have a good-sized backyard; it's mainly grass and ivy, but there are some trees and flowers. Most of them just sort of appear (they're mostly wildflowers). Currently we have violets, daffodils, periwinkles, cinquefoils, crownvetch, asters, goldenrod, and a lot of others :) There's also a tree that's probably related to a wild cherry tree? It always has the most gorgeous pink-white blossoms in spring - and then inevitably it rains and all the petals fall off :/
We used to plant vegetables like green beans and cucumbers, but lately the squirrels and voles keep messing them up, so it's been a while. Right now we're sticking to herbs - basil, oregano, and the like. (A word of caution! If you plant mint, be prepared to spend a lot of time digging up unwanted taproots. It'll spread all over the place if you let it.) We also have some fruits - raspberries and strawberries. And some blackberries. We always thought they were thorn bushes, until one year one of them bloomed, and then had berries. Still, my mom spends a lot of time weeding them, because since they're wild, they're amazingly good at spreading themselves everywhere, same as the mint. And they have horrible thorns. Their berries are amazing, though. And we have a compost bin! And in the front yard, we have a lot of classic garden flowers, like roses. (Actually there are roses in the backyard too...)
I like gardening, but I do wish the soil weren't so full of... creatures. It makes it very difficult to go around energetically digging up roots when you're not sure if you're going to murder a worm by doing so :/ I also don't like raking leaves that much, because it's very strenuous, especially when the leaves are wet. But overall I do like gardening, and I love just spending time in the garden. We have absolutely no pesticides or herbicides, so it's a haven for the local wildlife. There are rabbits, birds, squirrels, and the aforementioned voles (who are an utter nuisance :/).
Speaking of wildlife, here's a funny story - we planted milkweed one year to attract monarch butterflies. Ever since then, monarchs have come regularly to the garden, and they always seem to like the milkweed. But have they ever laid eggs there? Not. Once. And now we're just getting somewhat overrun with milkweed. Honestly, if you plant something in our garden, after a few years it'll be taking over the whole space!
I would think milkweed fluff would be really useful, for things like stuffing. It's light and silky and fluffy - there should be some way to use it...
(April 13, 2024 - 9:12 pm)
I don't have a huge elaborate garden but O recently started taking care of a Chinese juniper I named Juniper (not very creative I know)
(April 14, 2024 - 12:35 pm)
As for gardening, never have had a green thumb lol. Our garden has a weird plant disease caused by some orange bug so everything is kind of...dead. Our only successful plants are succulents, some hibiscus, and grapes (actually it might be dead now). Anyone knows plants that are kind of immune to diseases?
(April 14, 2024 - 2:56 pm)
and I'm back, to talk about tea!
it's funny, when I was younger, I hated tea, but now I drink it often and enjoy it a lot. Here are some of the types I'd recommend:
-chamomile; it's really good for relaxing, and it has a delicate, flavorful taste.
-lemon balm. If you're tense and upset, drink a cup of lemon balm!! It's so strong that (I think) pregnant women can't drink it :P So it's very effective, and it helps for physically calming you down and helping you sleep. It tastes really good, too.
-mint tea. If you need a bit of pepping up and freshening, mint tea is great! It tastes lovely, and it gives you energy. It's also wonderful for digestion. I make it using leaves from the aforementioned mint in my garden (if it's going to take over the entire herb patch, at least it's going to make some nice tea). This is a bit of a tangent, but my mom says that in Paris there's a mosque where they sell mint tea, and you can buy a glass and sit there and drink it. Somehow the idea of drinking mint tea in a mosque just sounds so poetic and aesthetic :)
-sage; if you have a viral infection, sage is a powerful antiviral
-thyme! lovely flavor; a bit hard to describe, it's just sort of thyme-y lol. And it's very good for fighting off infections.
-jamaica; it has a rich, tangy, fruity, almost tart flavor, and it's very warming and tasty. It also has the loveliest ruby color.
I don't like spicy teas like cinnamon (though cinnamon used to be the Only Tea I would drink when I was younger!), or apple or ginger, which I suppose shows that I personally prefer fresh, cool, calming plants rather than warm, energizing ones. One of the most fascinating things about herbal teas is how everyone has different teas that work best for them; you can figure out which herbs you prefer, and design your own personal palette of helpful teas. And then there's black tea, which I've had once or twice, but I don't like it that much; I'm naturally very energetic and high-strung, so caffeine just sends me round the bend lol.
Well, who knew I could talk for so long about tea :)
(April 15, 2024 - 8:58 pm)
Thyme tea is so good!!! We have a giant pot of thyme (dried thyme is actually most of what my cat eats heh, for some reason she doesn't like cat food that much but will spend a long time at the bowl of dried thyme eating) and it's really good. Both spearmint and peppermint teas are great, and chamomile is too. I have lemon balm but haven't made super much tea with it; i feel like it didn't have much flavor but i haven't tried steeping in other ways yet even though i have a ton of lemon balm (though the plant actually got mowed over and has struggled to recover even after I put it in a pot heh). i don't really like the way sage tastes on its own but with other herbs it can add a nice flavor. also cinnamon tea is absolutely delicious. i don't even know what jamaica tea is heh.
also Poinsettia, your garden sounds so cool!
(April 16, 2024 - 2:32 pm)
thanks! maybe i'll post a photo later.
you can always try adding sugar to lemon balm tea if you want - just a suggestion :)
i looked up jamaica tea and it's made from hibiscus flowers apparently?? anyway, it's made from the flowers of the jamaica plant, idk what it would be called in English. it's a common drink in Mexico :)
(April 20, 2024 - 11:40 am)
I don't know if it's the same thing, but I really like hibiscus tea! It's very tasty. and in Hawai'i in McDonalds they have some sort of floral thing in their iced tea... (at least on Maui) idk if it's hibiscus but it's very nice. Hawaiian McDonalds are just better heh. They also have like rice and portuguese sausage and spam and stuff.
if you want to post a picture of your yard or parts of it that'd be really cool! your backyard sounds really cool. Just remember internet safety of course
i would try making lemon balm tea again but my lemon balm plant is kind of struggling right now. The poor thing... it's been mowed over when it was in the ground, repotted a bunch, and now it's inside and has been dealing with spider mites, and then i left it outside at night and it got too cold... XD
(April 23, 2024 - 12:31 pm)
ooh, the iced tea you mentioned sounds wonderful! Wow, it's fascinating that Hawaiian McDonalds are so different. I tend to kind of imagine all McDonalds as just "cheesy fast-food places" lol. Although according to my mom, they're somewhat better in France, because there the government has regulations about the quality of the food they sell. I'm not sure if it's still like that, though. Have you been to Hawaii a lot? (I'm just curious because I love hearing about other cultures and places :) )
yes, I'd love to post a picture! I still haven't gotten around to choosing one and getting it uploaded, but maybe someday... And yes of course, I shall be elaborately careful as to Precautions Necessitated by the Internet :)
Oh no, your poor lemon plant! Reminds me of my ill-fated tomato plant, which was planted really late in the season, managed to make it to adulthood, managed to produce a real flower and a real tomato, and then the tomato was eaten by squirrels before it was ripe. I'd been carrying it back and forth so it could be in the sun as much as possible during the day, as the days were getting a lot shorter, and then it was all for nothing... sigh. The squirrels in my garden are a real menace, I'm slowly getting more and more frustrated with them :/ Right now I planted some apple seeds in a small pot - the apples we've been buying keep having seeds that are already sprouting, so I decided to plant them. The first batch died, but the second is thriving and it's so nice to see these tall strong green sprouts coming out of the soil... That's one of the best things about gardening, you get to give life to something, even if it's just a plant. Eventually we'll have to transplant them and I don't really want to think about that because I'm not sure they'll make it, but for right now they're very safe and happy :)
(April 29, 2024 - 8:22 pm)
I too hot water for my green tea (just a little, it's fine) so a tip! a little bit of white tea goes really well with sweeter green teas. It just adds a bit of sweetness.
(April 17, 2024 - 12:28 pm)
Ah yes, tea. Well, I like tea, but what tea leaves can you trat and use to make fresh tea?
(Does boba tea count as tea? It is in the name)
(April 17, 2024 - 4:00 pm)