Grow a Tea Garden for Year-Round Tea

During the heat of summer, we dream of crisp fall evenings with a steaming mug of home-grown tea, made from the dried leaves and buds of some of the season’s most beautiful floral displays. With a little know-how and pre-planning, growing a tea garden can enable you to make your own blend of tea year-round. Here are some wonderful tea options and tips for growing them properly:

Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia): (Buds are used for tea.) Lavender is fairly simple to care for, can provide a beautiful addition to your landscape, and attract beneficial pollinators. English lavender is cold hard to Zone 5, can bloom twice in a single season, and is considered drought tolerant. Preferring full sun and alkaline soils, lavender needs to be pruned annually after the plant has been established. The plants have very few pests or disease problems. However, they can be susceptible to soil diseases such as Phytophthora, so it is important to water carefully and not create standing water around the plant. Harvest the flowers and buds for drying when they are one-third to fully open and hang them in a cool, airy, shaded room. To make a relaxing lavender tea, combine hot water with fresh or dried buds, then steep until you reach your desired flavor. For a bit of sweetness, add a few drops of honey.

Mint (Mentha sp.): (Leaves are used for tea.) There are several mint varieties to choose from, each providing a unique flavor to brewed tea. Spearmint makes a soothing tea, while peppermint makes a sweeter tea. A visit to a local nursery will likely present you with choices like apple mint, chocolate mint, and orange mint. A very hardy, prolific plant, mint can quickly take over surrounding garden and landscape areas. To keep this eager spreader under control, try growing it in containers or confining it to a bed with metal or plastic edging. Harvest the leaves and dry them in summer, then steep dried leaves for tea year-round. Iced mint tea can be very refreshing during hot months, and warm mint tea is soothing in fall and winter.

Calendula: (Petals are used for tea.) A member of the daisy family, these beautiful yellow and orange flowers add long-lasting color to any flower bed or container. Their frost tolerance, somewhat cold, hardy nature, and propensity to draw aphids away from other garden plants make them great companion plants for many of those well-loved vegetables growing nearby. Simply pour hot water over the dried flowers and let steep to your desired flavor intensity.

Lemon balm ((Melissa officinalis): (Leaves are used for tea.) Adding a lovely, gentle lemon flavor, lemon balm is an easy-to-grow perennial, that tolerates full sun to partial shade and produces delicate white, pale yellow, or pink flowers. Though, if you are interested in controlling this prolific plant, pruning to ensure that it does not set and drop seed is key. Combined with other dried ingredients, including oat straw, rose hip, orange peel, and lavender, a cup of lemon balm tea can lift the mood on a cloudy, rainy fall day.

Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile): (Buds are used for tea.) From June to August, the tiny, delicate daisies of chamomile are a wonderful perennial addition to any garden scape. Hardy to Zone 3, and loving light, dry soil, chamomile is fairly easy to grow. Two of the most common chamomiles used for tea are German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) and Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile). Fresh chamomile buds can be combined with boiling water, apple slices, and a bit of honey for a calming, warm hug on those crisp fall evenings.

For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.