Turn garden beauties into healing teas

By Maria Noël Groves
NH Mirror Contributor

Better health can be as simple as a cup of tea or a garden salad with freshly snipped herbs. Fortunately, some of our best healing herbs are also extremely easy to grow.

Consider these great herbs for your garden or porch this year. All of them have modest water requirements and thrive in full sun to partial shade.

Tea tips
These herbs make a delicious fresh tea. Cover 1/4 cup loosely chopped or rubbed fresh herbs with 1 cup of hot water and let steep, with a lid, for 10 minutes or more.

If you prefer to use dried herbs, you’ll only need 1 to 3 teaspoons of dried herb allowed to steep for 5 minutes or more.

Also consider making iced tea or sun tea with them for hot summer days. Harvest the top 2/3 of the plant every few weeks for tea, and your plants will be more productive and healthier.

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)
Lemon balm’s citrus-scented essential oils – which are released when the plant is rubbed or crushed – are reputed to boost mood when inhaled and calm anxiety when ingested. Pretty impressive for a humble-looking mint relative.

Herbalists use lemon balm tea to ease stress, anxiety, insomnia and indigestion. Lemon balm does have a slightly bitter flavor, which is part of the reason why it helps with indigestion.

Add some fresh mint, lemon verbena, tarragon, lemon thyme and/or lemongrass to lighten the flavor of the tea. Lemon balm likes to spread in true mint fashion, so you may want to keep it pot-bound.

Bee balm (Monarda didyma, M. fistulosa)
This garden groundcover is a favorite of bees, hummingbirds and herbalists alike.

Teas and liquid extracts of bee balm are most often used to soothe the lungs and throat, making it great if you’re a singer or public speaker, or if you have a cold. It also makes great tea.

The spicy flavor is well-matched with spearmint or fresh lemon wedges.

Holy basil (Ocimum sanctum)
This culinary basil relative has a sweet, almost fruity flavor that is well-suited for tea.

It’s called holy basil, sacred basil and tulsi because it is so revered in the Ayurvedic medicine system in India.

Many health benefits are attributed to the herb, including stress reduction, blood sugar control, antioxidant benefits, inflammation reduction and weight loss.

Some folks like to drink the aromatic tea before meditation or yoga to help promote a sense of attentive peace. Drink it solo or blend it with jasmine green tea or mint.

Maria Noël Groves runs Wintergreen Botanicals, a small clinic and education center nestled in Bear Brook State Park. For information, visit www.WintergreenBotanicals.com or call 268-0548.