Sleepy Time Garden Plan

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Sleepy Time Garden Plan

Get a good night’s rest with herbs from your own garden with this sleepy time garden plan.

By Marietta Marshall Marcin

Teas to soothe, teas to relieve, teas to rejuvenate—Herbal Tea Gardens (Storey Publishing, 1999) contains everything you need to know to grow, blend and brew healthful and delicious herbal teas. You’ll find more than 100 tea recipes, as well as 22 illustrated garden plans. Find more herbal tea garden plans in Herbal Tea Gardens for Stress, Colds, Flus and More.

You can purchase this book from the Mother Earth Living store: Herbal Tea Gardens.

At some point in our lives, we’ve all needed something to help us sleep, so here is a garden of herbs designed to help achieve restful slumber. For most people, herbal sleep remedies are not habit forming and work gently without side effects or lingering grogginess.

The Sleepy Time Garden, with its long, flowing lines and sinuous curves, evokes feelings of peacefulness and calm. A tall linden tree towers over the woodruff planted in its shade. Chamomile, lemon verbena, and dill spread out beside and behind the tree, and a hops-covered triangular frame completes the taller side of this garden.

A gentle curve of lavender caresses the other side of the streamlike pea gravel or bark walkway. Rosemary, skullcap, catnip, and valerian are interspersed with plantings of anise.

Sleepy Time Garden Plants

• Anise: 3
• Catnip: 2
• Chamomile: 3–5
• Dill: 2
• Hops: 4
• Lavender: 10–20
• Lemon verbena: 1–3
• Linden 1
• Rosemary 2
• Skullcap 2
• Valerian 2–4
• Woodruff 10–20

Number indicates quantity of plants needed

Caution!

The sedative qualities of valerian make it a time-honored antidote for insomnia when taken in small doses. However, if more than one or two cups are drunk daily, the herb is dangerous, producing reverse effects — nervous agitation, vertigo, muscle spasms, even hallucinations. A small percentage of people also react to valerian as a stimulant, rather than a sedative.

Herbal Sleep Remedies: Tea Recipes

Sweet Dreams Tea Recipe
This is a sweet, minty blend that will help you get to sleep.

• 1 teaspoon dried catnip leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried chamomile flowers
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried mint leaves

Mix herbs. Infuse 1 teaspoon mixture in 1 cup boiling water for 5 to 8 minutes,
or to taste.

Hippity-Hop to Bed Recipe
This is an effective tea to aid in getting to sleep.

• 1 teaspoon dried hops flowers
• 1 teaspoon dried chamomile flowers
• 10–20  drops skullcap tincture
• 10–20  drops valerian tincture

Mix flowers. Infuse 1 teaspoon mixture in 1 cup boiling water and steep 10 minutes. Strain, then add tinctures.


Excerpted from Herbal Tea Gardens © Marietta Marshall Marcin, illustrations © Laura Tedeschi used with permission from Storey Publishing. Buy this book from our store:Herbal Tea Gardens.

  • Published on Feb 19, 2014
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