I have only just got a garden to plant anything in. we been here for 6 months. and already Db's Garden grows.
I love gardening and the pleasure i get from watching it grow and bare fruits..It is exciting to use tomatoes you have grwon yourself. lettuce, onions etc,,and all the herbs for cooking and smells in the house.. it so nice to have basket of freshly picked herbs on your kitchen bench.. nothing beats it. It makes our home a home.
I am yet to cultivate for tea.. or use any of it for medicinal purposes as they have all only just been planted.
But i surely intend for them to be used.
I have aloe vera which is an older plant and has been used many times. it is in an old terracotta pot I cant remember how long we have had it..
I have echinacea which when it flowers ,the flower semi dried & infused as a tea is great for reducing any flu or cold symptom.
I have Basil which is going spastic, it is used most in my house, we use it in cooking and used to make dips and also as an airfreshner.. by placing the flower heads in a shallow pan of water and gently simmer, basil juice from this exercise is also great in your bath water, and excellent for headaches and stress. lemon peel and orange peel also gently simmered is a great house freshner as well both combined an excellent pick me up.. especially if you feel lethargic and heavy.
We have Lemon Basil which is also used in the pot for a house freshner and a pick me up, and also used in cooking.
Once a week i go out and cut off all the flower heads of both basil bushes, and these heads sit in a lovely basket on a bench top in my kitchen the aroma of both is absolutely divine.. just before the heads wither is when i plonk them in a pot. and then go cut the next lot off..
we also have fennel, if you love licorice this is a beautiful plant for cooking with fish or again as a air freshener. I use the leaves, and the heart at the base i allow to reproduce suckers for the plant to reproduce, so i have a never ending supply, once I have at least 5 plants from the one then i start taking the hearts and using them in cooking. I am going to experiment and try making my own licorice by using fennel and see how it goes.
We have sage for smudging, i dont use sage for cooking as we dont like the taste LOL!!
I have Thai mint, absolutely so much better tasting than corriander (it is like a strong corriander taste, but more distinct, as in corriander tends to blend with the ingredients giving a hint.. whereas Thai mint stands on its own) and much easier to grow in the tropics, so fantastic for stir frys... it again is good infuser.
I have chocolate mint absolutely divine finely chopped add some crushed nuts with icecream.HMM MMM!!
We have been able to grow rosemary which we are absolutely stoked about , because rosemary doesnt normally grow well up here..
same goes for lavender.. I would love to find a species that likes the tropical weather.
we have chammomile happily growing..I didnt think it would but woohoo it is going well so far, too small to cultivate yet..I think i will let this one seed so I can grow more.
I am sure i have forgotten a couple as i have them poked all over the place in my garden..
I have got into growing miniature tropical fruit tress as well, not only for the fruit but for the essential oils in the leaves and skin, to use for healing, and pick me ups oh and of course infusers..and of course as many veges that will grow here too, I have over a dozen different veges and salad plants growing already. For my birthday i have put in an order for a minature green house
for seedlings.. Guess what i got for mothers day
Plants!!! edible and ornamental.
Next on my list is to find all the ingredients for chai tea and try growing the ingredients.. I dont know whether Black tea is illegal to grow. as i have been told coffee is, I will be checking up on our local laws to make sure.. as i use to grow the illegal poppies at one stage for their seeds to sprinkle on my home made bread, I had no idea they were illegal LOL!! why would they be if you can buy them in the shops, was my logical argument as i thought LOL!! .. I just grew them from the seeds i bought.
apparently you can buy them, but you cant grow them
But i would love to grow some tea and coffee beans.. I dont drink much coffee anymore preferring tea these days. But my own home grown ground coffee would certainly make my house smell yummy and the taste i would hope would be nice and smooth., If i grow my own especially coffee and tea, i would know for sure no slave labour was involved in picking it and of course no chemicals were used.
same with cocoa..Child trafficking is involved and slave labour for cocoa beans.. it is such as shame as we all love chocolate, but since we saw a program we wont buy it now unless it holds a fair trade sticker. and they are very scarce. My chocolate mint does fill our choccy craving.
chillis and peppers are also next on my list, not only for medicinal but also cooking.
My garden is only small but i intend to cram it with anything i can use for medicine, or cooking or just pure yum factor like fruits and nuts..
I use my front yard for ornamentals the back is used for edibles
But i am sure once we get fully going the edibles will creep in on the ornamentals LOL!!