Wonder Wednesday 40: Garden Teas and Tonics
Wonder Wednesday is over the hill!! Can you believe this is month number 40?
Happy Over the Hill Birthday Wonder Wednesday!
As we age, we need more teas, tonics, and home remedies to ease our aches and pains, so to celebrate Wonder Wednesday heading officially into middle age, I offer you Tea and Tonic recipes, but not for you, for your garden!
These recipes are all safe and easy to make at both home and school, children can make them independently even, and they’ll give your plants a nice boost.
These recipes are also great garden extension activities for teaching about solutions and infusions, as well as tannins and pH!
Wonder Wednesday #40:
Garden Teas and Tonics
Oak Leaf Tea
You know I love to make a garden grown herbal tea, but in this recipe we put fall’s leaves to good use in Oak Leaf Tea.
Feed this to your outdoor acid loving plants like ferns, camellias, azaleas, and gardenia. You can also feed this tea to any yellowing plants and really any plants especially if you have more alkaline or hard water. They will love it!
Ingredients
2, 5 gallon buckets
Dry brown oak leaves (Rake your own if you have a tree, or snatch a bag from the neighbors curb on yard trash day like me!)
Water
Procedure
Fill the bucket about a third full with leaves. Really pack them in.
Add water nearly to the top of the bucket.
Let the bucket sit and steep in a sunny spot for about a week or so. Until the water is brown and looks like tea.
After a week, pour the oak tea into the second bucket. if you have a compost strainer you can pour it through that to make sure the leaves don’t splash out into the second bucket.
Discard your tea leaves into your compost.
Use this oak tea in a watering can or however you dispense water and liquid fertilizers to your plants.
Vinegar Tonic
Apple cider vinegar is surprisingly healthy for both plants and people. It can shift pH levels as well as add trace minerals to soil, and in higher dilutions kill weeds and bugs!
This tonic is great for indoor house plants and will perk them up and green them up. You can make this tonic each time you water if your house plants look sad, or you can serve it monthly as a boost.
Ingredients
Raw apple cider vinegar, raw is the key here. I use the brand Braggs because it is unpasteurized, unfiltered, very high quality, and happens to be what I have on hand for culinary uses.
Water
A bucket or watering can
Measuring spoons
Procedure
Add 1 tbs to 1 gallon of water
Mix well
Water your houseplants with this tonic to make minerals and nutrients more available to your plants.
What are your favorite organic gardening home remedies?
Share in the comments below!
Share pics of the happy plants your Garden Teas and Tonics feed on Instagram #wingswormsandwonder
Seeds to Sprout:
You still have time to shop Wings, Worms, and Wonder gifts by the holidays! Check out the Etsy shop for fun unique gifts that creatively connect humans and nature. Â
Give a creative nature connection experience to a friend! Sign them up for a nature journaling course. Check out my course offerings here.Â