Growing Your Own Tea Garden: The Guide to Growing and Harvesting Flavorful Teas in Your Backyard (CompanionHouse Books) Create Tea Blends to Manage Stress, Boost Immunity, Soothe Headaches, and More

by Jodi Helmer

You love to drink tea. Why not grow your own? If you've ever considered raising your own tea, this comprehensive guide is the place to start! Growing Your Own Tea Garden is packed with inspiration and practical instructions for cultivating and enjoying delicious teas from a variety of plants in your own personal tea garden. You don't have to be an avid Author Jodi Helmer, a food and farming journalist, provides all the information you need to plan and plant a healthy, bountiful backyard tea garden, with nine suggested garden designs and useful cultivation advice. She shows you how to choose the right crops for your soil and climate, starting with the tea plant ( Camellia sinensis ) and going on through a survey of tisanes (aka herbal teas). Explore a directory of over 60 ingredients, including medicinal herbs like milk thistle, chickweed, rugosa rose, burdock, and more, with notes on their active properties and purported health benefits. Discover how to grow the full range of plants that make wonderful teas and herbal infusions, from flowering chamomile and lavender to chicory roots, rose hips, lemon verbena, peppermint, aromatic bergamot, and more! Jodi shows you how to harvest, dry, and store your tea to enjoy all year long, along with brewing tips and creative recipes specially formulated to provide natural remedies for headaches, upset stomach, and stress. An included plant index shows you how to grow dozens of crops that make marvelous tea drinks, herbal infusions, and decoctions. Included are instructions for growing tea in container gardens and raised beds; understanding the differences between black tea, green tea, white tea, and herbal tea; harvesting, drying, and storing your seasonal leaves for consumption on cool autumn days; and how to brew the perfect cup of tea. You'll also find tea garden designs to help you grow a garden that works for your lifestyle and can help address common ailments, offer immune support, provide a natural and nourishing health boost, and support stress management. Do you suffer from tension headaches? Try growing the Headache Tea Garden with its vibrant tufted violet and trumpet honeysuckle. Do you enjoy a good party? Try the Hangover Cure Tea Garden! Are you stressed out and having trouble unwinding or falling asleep? Try the caffeine-free Relaxing Tea Garden or the Sleepytime Tea Garden. If you're feeling tired, sluggish, or just need a burst of energy to fight that afternoon slump, skip the the Fatigue-Fighting Tea Garden will put some pep in your step! There are designs for an Immune-Boosting Tea Garden, Tummy Troubles Tea Garden, and more! Don't buy store-bought blends when homegrown is so much better! You'll find everything you need to know to start growing, blending, and brewing your own high-quality tea inside Growing Your Own Tea Garden ! "Never settle for store-bought, premade blends again! With beautiful images and detailed instructions for growing, drying, and brewing, passionate tea drinkers at every level of gardening experience will love this book."—Allison M. Sidhu, Managing Editor, Gardener's Path

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Tea, Nature, Food, Cooking, Cookbooks

144 pages, Paperback

Published April 9, 2019

Reviews

[Deanne Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like me I'm sure a lot of you drink tea, iced or hot it's delicious.
Have you ever thought of growing the herbs,berries,etc to make your own tea?
I'll have to admit I have made my own tea before but only one kind. I used the lemon mint in my yard. It's makes a lovely and refreshing tea.
If you're just starting out as a tea enthusiast or are already there but want a little more detailed instructions this book has everything you could possibly need to brew that delicious cup of tea.
It's amazing how many herbs,berries,etc. are listed here.
You will find complete instructions on how to grow it,where to grow it,what zone you can plant it in and how to harvest it and make that perfect cup of cold or hot tea. It also warns you about possible side effects of drinking too much of certain kinds of tea which I appreciate because it wasn't in other tea books I've read. I am all about natural foods and health with my body so this book is much appreciated. Very well written and I will be definitely reading more by this author.

Published May 14th 2019 by CompanionHouse Books
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you.
All opinions expressed are my own.

[Bonnye Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jodi Helmer brings us very precise information on what herbs and plants make good tea or tisanes, excellent pictures of those plants and recipes and suggestions for making beverages hot or cold. We have excellent instructions on the planting and growing of these herbs and spices and weeds, how to harvest and dry or prepare them green and what to beware of in our yards and fields.

I already have an extensive herb garden and many of those plants are tea producers - how neat! I had no idea the fennel I treasure for its seed and root would also be great for tea, along with thyme and rosemary, cilantro and yarrow. I can't wait to get out there and start sampling those teas and tisanes, and the suggested combinations of various herbs, as well. I was really pleased with my second-year growth of chamomile, which I adore, and now I have all these other options. Thank you!

I received a free electronic copy of this informative book from Netgalley, Jodi Helmer and CompanionHouse Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this book of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.

pub date May 14th, 2019
CompanionHouse Books
Reviewed May 16, 2019 at Goodreads, Netgalley, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Not available at BookBub or Kobo.

[Dora (Swift Coffee Book Blog) · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's better than reading a book about different teas while slowly sipping a huge mug of hot tea yourself?

Well, a lot of things - it was a pretty nice experience for me nonetheless. This is a basic guide to different plants that are possible to transform into tea/infusion, and there are also a couple of tips for tea brewing and recipes so you have some ground you can star off. There was a time while reading about the leaves and fruits and roots and plants when I felt more and more bored with the (otherwise very vague and not too long) botanical descriptions, but when I started to think I should put it all away, the book suddenly turned to other stuff: the actual tea making. And that saved it for me all the way! I'm not sure I will ever grow my own tea leaves on the window seal, but it's nice to know that I probably could.

[Laurie Garrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love growing herbs, flowers and drinking tea, so when I noticed this book I just had to try it. This book will help you learn what herbs are great for making teas and the vitamins and nutrients each one has along with how to brew them.

I really enjoyed the history of tea section so informative as a matter of fact, this whole book is full of useful information, heck I never know you could use blackberry leaves in for tea, you learn something new every day. LOL.

Are you wanting to kick the habit of those carbonated no healthy syrup drinks? Well, grab this book pick some herbs you would like, buy the dirt and containers and get to growing. I plant most of my herbs into containers so they are easy to keep up with and handy to cut off when needed so this book just adds more excitement for me to use more of my herbs. Oh, and don’t forget a lot of flowers are great in tea, yep, this book covers it all herbs, fruit, and flowers

This book covers herbs, flowers different teas so you can understand what is different between white or black tea. How to dry your leaves, how to grow crops, herbal infusions and so much more.

Highly recommend to anyone that would like to expand their tea drinking horizons.

[Carrie Templeton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was underwhelmed by this. I was hoping for something highly geared toward gardening, and this was mostly details about brewing and preparation of products from your tea garden. There was a small bit of information about gardening for each item, but less than I expected from the book’s title.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic resource! Specific information on a range of plants to grow for using in tea, along with instructions on how to harvest and prepare the plants and many different recipes. Really excited to try some of these.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got some lovely recipes for homemade tea from this book.

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun and informative book filled with information on growing your own herbs and other plants for homemade teas of all sorts. The book starts with very thorough information on the history of tea and the kinds of tea (black, green, white, etc.) and then features many plants you can grow in your garden to make your own teas. It also includes some tea recipes.

Color photos are used throughout, though they are stock photos and not provided by the author. Stock photos seem to be used for the recipes too, which is always a disappointment to me as I want to see what the actual recipe looks like and not just a purchased photo of some sort of herbs and a cup of tea next to it. That said, it's got quite a lot of great information, especially for folks who are new to gardening.

I would have liked more tea recipes, more foraged and medicinal teas, and more information about the flavors, but it is a very helpful book and a great read.

My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost

I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing Your Own Tea Garden
by Jodi Helmer

Growing Your Own Tea Garden is bursting with practical instruction and illustrations for growing and cultivating delicious teas. An ideal guide for those do-it-yourself gardeners, environmentalist, and sustainable living; even helping beginning gardeners effectively and successfully design and plant a productive backyard tea garden. Growing Your Own Tea Garden provides a brief history on tea, a lot of prudent advice regarding plant identification, plant picking, and what to look for and what to look out for.

Growing Your Own Tea Garden has simple garden designs with cultivation advice, showing how to choose the right tea crops for a specific soil types and climates, includes instructions for growing tea in container gardens or in raised beds; with suggestions of herbs, and flowers to grow. Ms. Jodi adds ways in which readers might be able to grow teas, out of the growing zone (in the United States and Canada ONLY). Growing Your Own Tea Garden is user friendly and systematically organization, well-written and presented, and a recommended addition to personal and community libraries. I will be buying a copy for myself, it is that useful and worth the investment.

Author Jodi Helmer writes about food, gardening, farming, the environment and sustainable living. And here Ms. Helmer shows her readers a comprehensive investigation of herbal teas, black tea, green tea, white tea and herbal tea. Readers will discover how to grow and blend a full range of herbal infusions to make wonderful teas; from edible flowering plants, to adding chicory roots, rose hips, lemon verbena, peppermint, aromatic bergamot and much more. Ms. Jodi Helmer also shows her readers how to harvest, dry and store teas, for enjoying all year long, along with brewing tips and creative recipes.

This is the first tea gardening books I have read, and I believe would be useful even to those who have no intention of gardening; but simply want to educate themselves on the different types, blending of flavors and benefited medicinal properties of teas. I received a free copy of this informative book from Companion House Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with your readers. I have read this book of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work, and it is my opinion both are deserving of the full 5-star rating. Well done!

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books starts by giving a brief and easy to follow history of tea, and what you can expect to find with each sub category of tea. The growing sections are helpfully divided into what part of the plant you use to make the tea, and I found some new ideas listed, along with some old favourites. More focus is placed on making the tea than growing the plants, and I feel some of the difficulty is understated with some plants. I would love to use Yaupon holly to make tea, but that usually requires growing a tree instead of a plant, and a difficult one to obtain even the seeds for in Canada. (I have so much disappointment in practice and passionate love in theory for this plant!) I like that Stevia was included in the book as it is easy to grow, easily available at places like Wal-Mart, and a good sweetener. The instructions for saving and storing tea ingredients were well explained, as well as proper preparation and foraging warnings. This is a helpful start to creating your own tea garden but be sure to temper your expectations when thinking about the ease of obtaining, growing, and maintaining the plants based on your location, experience and space.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an informative book full of ideas for growing your tea garden. The intro covers the history of tea, including the history of the tea bag. The next chapter covers the types of plants for the garden including a brief history of each plant and tips for optimum brewing. The subsequent chapters cover garden designs and present the best practices for growing a tea garden; you will also find combinations of plants to brew tea for specific purposes.

The book is filled with gorgeous photos and illustrations making it easy for the reader to follow. The author shows you how to make to make the perfect cup of tea using different tools such as the kettle, french press, and a tea-ball strainer; the best temperature for brewing a specific tea. As a tea drinker, I'm keen on growing my tea garden using this book as a guide. Can't wait to try out the recipes in this book! Definitely recommend this one

Many thanks to Jodi Helmer, NetGalley and CompanionHouse Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. I really like the individual plant profiles here - each of the 62 plants includes basic growing info, herbal effects, & (my favorite part) brewing recommendations. I was less-impressed with the garden "best practices" - it was pretty general stuff, and the detergent recommendation, while a common one, is not evidence-based & not better than some of the better products intended for plants. I was originally excited to see the Garden Design section, as I've always loved that idea, but these were just illustrations (photos would have been nice), and they seem poorly-thought-out for the size and growing habits of some of the included plants (i.e., honeysuckle in the middle of the immune-boosting garden). The recipe blends are a nice touch, but after telling the reader how to dry herbs, the recipes are only for fresh herbs without any instruction on how to convert the amounts. Overall, good, not great... but I still might add it to my personal library for the nicely-done plant profile section.

[Sascha · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars

I have been fascinated by herbs since I was a tween, perhaps because of folklore or their ubiquity in literature or the mere fact that the old farmers I knew in West Virginia used fresh ones in such a commonplace manner, which I never saw in the city where I lived. And, even before that I was a tea drinker and still am. So it was only natural that I would be drawn to a book like Growing Your Own Tea Garden by Jodi Helmer.

Growing Your Own Tea Garden suggests possible herbs, flowers, and tea to grown in your home garden and the way in which you might grow them, if you’re out of the growing zone. Please note here that the growing information is geared toward the US and Canada. If you live in another region you might want to compare your average temperatures to the recommended growing zones.

read more: https://saschadarlington.me/2019/05/1...

[Tesha Ham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is a great book for tea lovers looking to start their own garden or wanting to know more about the ingredients in their teas. This title includes a brief history of tea, which is a nice touch as many books don't include that. You can find how to grow, harvest, and dry tea ingredients; as well as how to best brew each kind of tea. It also includes details as to what ingredients will grow in different parts of the world, based on the climate and soil that best suits them. The book also details what items you need to garden and harvest, how to take care of the plants. And, of course, plenty of recipes and garden designs to spoil yourself with. I adore this title so much and honestly think it is a great addition in a tea lover's home.

I voluntarily read and received a free ARC copy of this title through NetGalley in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Growing Your Own Tea Garden" is a very basic, short gardening book about growing herbs to make into tea. The author started with a brief history of tea, then she included entries for numerous plants that can be used for tea. She covered true tea and herbal teas made from the leaves, flowers, fruits, and roots of various plants. In each entry, she provided very basic planting information, the plant's uses and health benefits, and how to brew it into tea. She suggested some combinations of plants for making your own teas and for planting together in your garden. She also briefly gave some basic gardening advice, basic tea brewing advice, and advice on drying and storing the herbs. This book would be most useful for those new to growing herbs or those looking for new types of plants to use as teas.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting read. Before I came across this book, it never crossed my mind I could grow my own plants to make my own tea.
It starts with a brief history of tea drinking, which I found fascinating. Then, there is a list of plants you can grow with a bit of information on each one. It's written for an American readership, so it might be a bit frustrating for readers of other countries, but that's fine with me, you can hardly write a book that will suit everyone as the plants will vary wildly from one area of the world to the next. The last part of the book is all about how to harvest, prepare and make various teas.
It's a very informative book which I will use to experiment in my garden with the plants I can grow in the UK!

Disclaimer - I received a free digital copy courtesy of Fox Chapel Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Gina House · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and inspiring introduction to tea gardening! I loved this book so much. Slim, easy to read, and with a short chapter on the history of tea. The photographs are multiple, good sized, and gorgeous. I loved how the book was set up with separate chapters on choosing plants (sectioned into leaves, flowers, fruits and roots, which I found to be very helpful!), practical gardening advice, garden designs, making the perfect cup of tea, and finally recipes. The resource section at the end was also informative and fun to browse through. All in all, I truly enjoyed the time I spent reading this book and I'll be keeping it on hand in my kitchen because it's not only wonderful to flip through, but very practical, too. Highly recommended! I hope Jodi comes out with another book about gardens (or tea!).

[Leyla Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very informative book on both tea and growing and making your own tisane. There is a very interesting history of Camellia sinensis tea which includes what and how white, black, green and oorlong tea come about.
The rest of the book explains about herbal teas or tisanes, there is an extensive catalogue of flowers, leaves, roots and fruit that can be brewed into teas, each with a photo, growing information, herbal benefits, and parts to use. The book also has a wonderful information of on brewing and mixing.
All in all this book has some very interesting information - even if you don't fancy making tea or tisane from your own plants, it has some interesting the history or growing information for the gardener.

[Susan Bewley · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who can’t live without her tea, I couldn’t wait to open this book when it arrived. I was truly blown away by all the wonderful knowledge and how many fruits, and parts of fruit plants could be used to create various kinds of tea. This is one of the first times I have ever seen a book approach making tea in a fun, information, and easy to follow way. Probably the most challenging section is learning about the most common teas – black, white, green, and oolong – and what you need to know before you start growing. Overall though, after finishing Growing Your Own Tea Garden: The Guide to Growing and Harvesting Flavorful Teas in Your Backyard, I recommend that every tea lover and gardener go out and buy this book!

[Rebecca Prosch · Rating 1 out of 5]

TLDR: if the purpose of the book is not to give medical advice but to give advice for growing plants commonly used in tea, then medical advice should not be given, especially without being a doctor.

-Has a disclaimer immediately about how the author is not a medical professional, but medical uses of herbs referenced heavily in book.
-No clear scientific data referenced.
-Sources are primarily from companies that make their money selling seeds and teas or from historical countings of tea used in commerce/culturally.
-Uses genus and species interchangeably.
-heavy focus on medical uses for women only.
-inconsistent photo captioning.

[Suzanne Kramb · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of all time! Especially when it comes to tea and gardening.

While the first chapter about history was way too short, I appreciated that Jodi Helmer included it. You'd be surprised at how often it's skipped over and you jump right into the process. The detailed pages for each leaf, flower, fruit, and root you can use to make tea (and then she went over and beyond to include directions for it's best brew) quickly took this book to my favorites! And I can't wait to try some of the recipes she included at the end. Yummm!

I 110% recommend.

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I drink several cups of tea a day and would love to grow some of my own tea. I only drink black tea with milk, but some of my family enjoy green tea. Plenty of useful and interesting information in this book. My daughter has a huge garden and loves to grow plants/veg that is different from the norm. I am sure she will be interested in this book. Recommended.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers. This is my honest review.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was worried that this book was going to be all about tisanes, not a fan, and was pleasantly surprised to find actual tea included! Sadly, I can't grow it in my yard, but the brewing and info on teas was appreciated! Nice to learn what the varies tisanes and teas can be used for medicinally, too. I only knew the folk uses of two from my own family. May need to add a few more to my medicine cabinet! Good read- resourceful!

I received a Kindle ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I drink lots of tea and also love to garden so this book is right up my alley! I loved the simplicity of this book and that the author gives a wide variety of herbs and such that you can easily grow in most gardens. I also love the brewing tips (I would hate to go through the whole process of growing tea to only ruin it by seeping it too long!). I was also really surprised that parsley can be made into a tea! I would have never thought to try that, but now I can't wait to try a cup!

[A.J. Saktiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Growing Your Own Tea Garden" is a very basic, short gardening book about growing herbs to make into tea. The author started with a brief history of tea. This book will help you learn what herbs are great for making teas and the vitamins and nutrients each one has along with how to brew them.

I really enjoyed every part of this book. This book provides me some advice and ideas how to growing and maintaining the plants.

[Siena Fedak · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book of the year!! Very quick/easy/informative read. A little overwhelming because I learned about like 50+ things and what their zone is and how big they grow but that’s okay! Some plants would be like “this works just as good as antidepressants but it causes seizures :/“ so I won’t be using those in my tea garden. It also had a section of different ways to design your garden so I will definitely come back to this book if I need specific instructions again.

[Sally Wilsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like tea and gardening so this was a go together book for me. I did not know some of the herbs I grow can be turned into tea, like cilantro, lavender and pineapple sage. I really like the additional information in the book like the history of tea, zones to grow herbs and companion planting. This is a must have for any tea lover or if you like to grow herbs. There is also an additional part on fruit and teas.

[Whitney Stanfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very informative in regards to the history of tea and tisanes and the plants that are most commonly used to make them. It goes less in-depth in regards to the actual gardening. The layout and illustrations are fantastic. I checked it out from our library and would recommend anyone else interested in herbal infused drinks to do the same.

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, and well written. This book offers basic knowledge on tea, both the history and the actual plants themselves.

The only thing is, while it gives nice summarized descriptions, health benefits, and growing tips; this book doesn't contain enough information to actually grow you own tea garden.

Still a pleasant and informational read, would recommend.

[Alicia Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book! I originally bought it for a gift, but after thumbing through it, I went back and bought a copy for me, plus another gift. I teach classes on herbs for culinary use, and consider myself well informed on the subject, but I learned something on every page!