Garden Notes: Backyard Foraging, Herbal Teas & Garden Lessons
🌿 A Note on My Herbal Journey
This is my personal journey, and I’m sharing it as exactly that. I’m a beginner who is learning slowly and intentionally, and I only work with common backyard plants I’ve positively identified and know to be pesticide-free. I’ve completed a beginner certificate in Herbal Medicine through Now You Know, and I consider myself a continued learner, not a medical professional.
Nothing here is medical advice, and I’m not encouraging anyone to do exactly what I did. Every body responds differently, and herbs can interact with medications and health conditions. Before trying any herb, please do your own research, check with your healthcare provider, and only forage where it’s allowed and you’re certain of both the plant and the place.
I’ve referenced a few books and article links that guide me for you to explore at your leisure. Read them, compare sources, and let your own learning lead the way.
Learning to notice, celebrating tiny wins, and finding the garden growing well beyond my patio.
Last year, my first micro-garden was a scrappy, hands-on season of learning how to grow anything at all. This year, I came back with a little more skill and a lot more curiosity, and the garden quietly stretched past my patio. It reached into my backyard, my dehydrator, and my teacup. This is my second-year garden update, with a new chapter I’m excited to share: backyard foraging and my first steps into herbal exploration.
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| Green & Purple Basil- Photo by Nherie |
🌱 The Curious Beginning
Last year, my plan was to start an herbal garden. I pictured it as a lush dream: surrounded by herbs, building an apothecary out of plants I’d grown myself. The reality was much clearer than the dream. Before I could grow herbs well, I needed to learn how to grow anything well, and how to give container plants the right conditions. So I widened my focus to vegetables, mixing starter plants with a few things grown from seed.
This year, after a steep learning curve, I tried herb seeds again with one big difference: much less stress about whether they would grow.
And while I waited, a thought hit me. I had never looked at what was already growing around me. So I turned to my backyard, picked up books on wild foraging, and started practicing with what I had access to in the meantime.
Ground Ivy (Creeping Charlie)
The first plant I discovered was ground ivy, growing in abundance across about two-thirds of my yard. It was one of the first hints of spring, with low-growing purple blooms everywhere. I first mistook it for a similar-looking plant, so I dug deeper into its low, creeping habit and compared its features against my books and online research articles on this plant, which had a distinct scent very much like mint. There was no doubt.
I cleaned, dehydrated, and infused it right away. Dried, it had a scent like an Italian or oregano blend, and as a plain tea it tasted earthy and settling. It helped me ease into rest quickly afterward. I tried it again on evenings when I wanted to wind down, and it helped again.
White Clover & Dandelion Flowers
These two were just for fun. Both have a slight sweetness, and the clover is lighter, almost like chamomile. They grew wild and abundant, so they gave me something to do every day, and plenty of practice at dehydrating, storing, and brewing tea whenever I felt like it.
Plantain
I also learned to spot plantain leaf among the other wild plants. I’ve chosen to pause on actively using it for now, but it’s nice knowing it’s there. It has a long history in herbal traditions, including use on small wounds, and it’s edible too.
This was the one I almost missed. It was growing along the fence line between my yard and my neighbor’s (pesticide free). Further research told me it’s especially popular as a tea in Asian herbal traditions, where it’s valued for its mucilaginous quality and the "reduction of fevers" but most intriguing the eccentric blue hue of the florals were also used to make a blue dye.
When a head cold set in, I decided to try the flowers and leaves as a tea. For me, it felt like relief, and it helped clear some congestion. I’ve decided to keep it for days like that instead of making it an everyday social tea. It reminded me that every herb and wild plant behaves differently in different settings, which made me even more curious to understand them better.
Mullein (Local City Park)
At a local city park, I spotted mullein growing among the rocky hills. As tempted as I was, this is a no-foraging space, and I honor that, so I simply admired the plants and respected their natural life cycle. I never want to remove a plant from a protected space. Maybe by this time next year I’ll have found an open foraging spot or grown my own.
What mattered most was being able to identify it right away by its large, velvety leaves. They were so soft, and so new that they were still growing low to the ground, freshly born. Before this year, I would have walked right past it without knowing.
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| Learning to make tea blends. |
🌱 From Garden to Cup
At home, I use a multifunctional air fryer with a dehydrator setting to dry my herbs and make tea blends. Drying naturally works just as well, and when I knew I wouldn’t be drinking a tea right away, I let the plants dry on their own. When I wanted to enjoy a tea sooner, I set the dehydrator to 120°F and let it do its work, with the time depending on how much I was drying. Sometimes I would raise the temperature, but ideally most average temperatures suggested for a slower natural drying is around 95°F-115°F. That seems to be a personal preference that depends on your own harvesting and brewing habits, but this method has worked well for me so far. To follow some of my recipe tea journey you browse through my Whimsy & Garden page where I have a collection of additional stories and herb notes.
From Craft Table to Tea Table
I also got creative and used the craft envelopes I make to hold my dry blends. Later I invested in tea bags, tucked them back into the envelopes, and labeled each one. It was a satisfying full-circle moment, taking something I created and pairing it with something I cultivated. It reminded me that my dream of an apothecary comes one new learning experience at a time.
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🌱 The Garden Side, in Brief
A little snapshot of my second-year garden: my first bell pepper harvest, the herbs that thrived, and the lessons I learned about crowding and seed coverage. For the full story, check out my videos and visit my Whimsy + Garden page.
My second year of gardening felt much more fluid than the first. I wasn't starting from scratch and could immediately apply lessons from the previous year while reusing many of the same tools and setups. Moving the garden to a new location gave me more opportunities to experiment with balanced sunlight and shade while creating a space that felt like a real garden, complete with solar lights and whimsical decor.
I even had success with a triangular pot that had earned a reputation as a troublesome herb container! It surprised me by growing dill and lemon basil with ease, although sage, chives, and lemon balm struggled to thrive in it.
Here's a look at the plants I grew this year, whether I harvested them, let them enter dormancy, or cut them back for the next season.
1. Grape Tomatoes
This starter plant had a fairly consistent growing cycle. While I enjoyed growing it, I felt it was a little too cramped in my container. It did its best, but I've decided to return to cherry tomatoes next year, as I prefer their growth habit for my available space.
2. Jalapeño Plant
This starter plant grew relatively consistently, especially considering I'm still learning. After growing jalapeños for a second year, though, I realized they're not a priority for my long-term garden. My goal is to grow foods I'll use regularly, and jalapeños aren't currently part of my weekly recipes. Next year, I'll skip this plant and save the pot for something else. I've cut it back for fall and winter, so if it returns, great! If not, the container will be ready for another plant.
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| Lisbon Onion (Scallion) |
Thyme (starter plant), dill, lemon basil, Lisbon onion, green and purple basil, and rosemary (grown from seed) all had varying degrees of success.
- Thyme: Became root-bound, so I removed it this fall.
- Lisbon onion: I harvested the entire pot to make room for another plant. I'll grow it again, but in greater quantity next time!
- Dill and lemon basil: Both grew successfully in my troublesome triangular pot.
- Green and purple basil, plus lemon basil: These plants became lush and full in their containers. To wrap up the season and start fresh next year, I harvested and dehydrated the basil for tea blends.
- Rosemary: Growing it from seed wasn't easy, but after transplanting the seedlings into larger pots, they've continued to hold their own. I even have enough growth to snip a little for a recipe when needed.
The rosemary will be one of my fall and winter experiments as I see how well it continues to grow.
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4. Green Bell Pepper
This starter plant gave me three bell peppers, which honestly exceeded my expectations for my first time growing this type of pepper! It may have benefited from more growing space, but I'm letting it enter dormancy to see whether it returns next season. I also plan to incorporate bell peppers into my cooking more often.
5. Baby Carrots
This was one of my favorite experiments! I harvested about 10–12 little carrots, and I was happy with the results. I frequently used the leafy tops in my pesto creations, too. Next year, I plan to grow more carrots so I can incorporate both the roots and greens into more recipes.
6. Cucumbers
These were grown from seed and planted much later than planned. Surprisingly, I currently have three cucumbers developing on the vine! Will they mature before the first frost? Keep an eye on my Whimsy + Garden page for updates.
7. Spinach
One of my new experiments is seeing whether I can grow something throughout the year. Unfortunately, birds and other animals dug up or ate many of the seeds. However, as of October 2026, a few seedlings have survived! I'll share updates on my Whimsy + Garden page as I see how they develop.
8. Strawberry: This was the most challenging plant in the garden this year, though not because it lacked potential. The starter plant had strong roots and settled into its pot well. The real challenge was the curious animals drawn to its juicy fruit. Ripe strawberries kept disappearing before I could get back to them, which made the season more cautious than I expected. Next year, I plan to grow more than one plant, protected inside a small greenhouse with better deterrents.
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| Squash sprouts that did not make it to maturity but nonetheless worthy of a photo. |
What Didn't Make It This Year
Squash, radishes, beets, chives, and sage didn't survive or reach maturity. I'll keep experimenting with some of them, but for now, I'm moving on to other things.
I'm also trying something new this fall and winter: starting kale, butter lettuce, Swiss chard, purple basil, and Lisbon onion seeds indoors under a grow light. My goal is to learn whether I can grow more successfully throughout the year, even when outdoor gardening slows down.
Every season teaches me something new, and this year was no exception. I'm learning to work with my space, choose plants that suit my cooking habits, and enjoy the process without expecting every experiment to succeed.
🌱 Growing Season: Costs
About $160 to $180 this year across upkeep, new tools, soil, a few herb tools, and books, which lands right around last year’s investment. Stay tuned to Whimsy & Garden Page where I’ll share more detail at the start of next spring.
🌱 Closing Reflections
This year taught me that growing isn’t only about what I plant. Some of my most meaningful lessons were already growing at my feet, in the fence line, the lawn, and the rocky park hills I would have walked right past a year ago.
The garden taught me about capacity: giving things the space and timing they need, and letting a season be exactly what it is. Foraging taught me about noticing. And somewhere between the dehydrator, the tea cups, and the little envelopes I made by hand, I learned that my apothecary dream wasn’t wrong, it was just meant to arrive one small learning experience at a time.
To anyone just starting out: begin with what’s close to you, go slowly, stay curious, and let the small wins count. The harvest is only part of it. The paying attention is the rest.
Additional links connected to my gardening journey:
- Micro Harvest Basket
- Cucumber Plant 2026
- Container Gardening Playlist
- First Pruning Practice
- First Jalapeño Bloom
- Taste Testing My First Cucumber
🔖Visit my YouTube channel - a space where I’m slowly shifting toward soft, slow moments from my creative life.
🔖Reach out if you need to connect as I’m genuinely open to friendly conversation.
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