Tag Archives: authentic haven brand moo poo tea

Try Some Compost Tea This Year – Haven Brand Authentic Tea Is Easy To Use!

imagePlants are like people; they need food to grow…and nutritious food for best health.  I would take that one step further and say that, not only should you feed the plant, you need to add organic amendments and nutrients to create healthy soil that your plants will  thrive in.

My friend Annie Haven of Authentic Haven Brand Natural Brew created her product  with this principle in mind.  On her ranch in California (It’s been in her family since the 1800’s!), the cattle are free ranging and graze in native grass pastures, free of antibiotics, hormone-added grain, and pesticides. The manure that is produced is dehydrated, then packaged, and the tea bags are shipped out and ready for you to steep. What you make can either be used as a soil drench for roses and other plants or as a foliar spray.

Little "tea" bags, ready to brew!

Little “tea” bags, ready to brew!

At Oak Street Garden Shop we’ve carried Annie Haven’s Moo Poo Tea since last spring.  The most popular has been the Soil Conditioner Premium Manure Tea, labeled for houseplants, container plants, the vegetable garden, shade plants,  shrubs and lawns. Both are in sturdy, sewn-together “tea bags”,  ready to brew. I’ve used it at the shop and in my own garden.

They couldn’t be any easier to use; just drop each bag in a 1 gallon, or up to a 5 gallon container, fill with tap water, cover and allow to steep for one to three days.  Then use it to water any plants that need a good, rich organic boost.

steeping...

steeping…

One of my friends in Atlanta, Nancy Wallace, of Wallace Gardens, uses Annie Haven’s tea each year on her amaryllis bulbs and reports that her blooms are easily one third larger than they were on the same size bulbs before she started using this tea. She  soaks them in it prior to planting, then waters them  with it until they bloom. I’ve seen pictures of her amaryllis, and they are truly impressive.

Wallace Gardens beautiful amaryllis..

Wallace Gardens beautiful amaryllis..

Another way she uses it is as a “Super Brew”, placing 4-6 bags in a jug to make a very concentrated mixture. Then, using a hose end sprayer, she foliar sprays all of her plants with it. Summer foliar feeding like this also seems to deter bugs!

For a quick tea, if there’s none at hand, put a bag in a bucket and fill it up with water. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then begin squeezing the bag over and over; you’ll see the tea releasing into the water. Continue doing this 20-30 times and you’ve got yourself a fast made tea.

When you’re finished with the tea bags, cut them open with a pair of scissors and add the contents to your container gardens…it’s all useable!

Pricing for individual tea bags is $4.95 or you can purchase 3 for $12.95.

 

 

 

 

Our Flower Garden – Look How It’s Grown!

Our “Better Late Than Never” flower garden, planted in late June, is proving that any time is the right time to plant a garden! The response from the community has been quite gratifying as well.

Photo courtesy Dean Veren

Photo courtesy Dean Veren

A couple of examples: A  gentleman walking by, headphones on, crosses the street away from the garden, then pauses. Taking off his headphones and turning around,  he walks back across the street just to tell me what pleasure the garden gives him each morning on his daily walk. Another woman stops to say she and her sister walk by once a week and really enjoy watching the changes as flowers bud and then bloom. My favorite might well be the little girl calling out from a car driving by, “Your garden is really pretty!”

For all of us who plant a garden, it’s also exciting to see how quickly plants grow. One morning the sunflowers are just beginning to come up on wobbly, thin stems, and then, almost overnight it seems, they’re over 5′ tall and reaching for the sun. Zinnias, those stalwarts of any sunny, summer garden, have been the stars so far, and we keep planting more. The tall purple and pink gomphrena, cigar plant, peach porter weed, gloriosa daisies, tithonia, milkweed, cleome,  and, of course, the sunflowers aren’t far behind in star power though. A garden changes daily, and this one is no exception!

Pink and white spider flowers, (cleome) in full bloom...

Pink and white spider flowers, (cleome) in full bloom…

The honeybees have found it too. Each morning the large, colorful patches of the low-growing, succulent purslane are host to hundreds of them. There’s no need to be frightened; they’re just going about their business, pollinating and returning to their hives each day. The sunflowers are beginning to show off now. And, like gluttons needing more food, we’ve planted another group of them around the very perimeter of the garden. This way, we reason, when the first of them have finally played themselves out, there will be more to look forward to.

The bees, butterflies and hummingbirds appreciate the flower garden...

The bees, butterflies and hummingbirds appreciate the flower garden…

Yes, that is why we garden; isn’t it? Planting, tending, and watering aren’t chores when the end result is so gratifying, and we know the next day will bring something new in bloom. Sure, not everything works out. Some of the zinnias didn’t make it, the moonvine seems to be all leaves, the hyacinth bean vine is chewed to bits; but we filled in where the zinnias pooped out,  the moonvine leaves are a beautiful green, and, after a few doses of  Haven Brand Natural Moo Poo Tea, the hyacinth bean vine is coming along.

A parting thought…Anyone can plant a garden. It can be as small as a few pots of marigolds this fall or as big as you want it to be. There will be great successes and, yes, some failures too; but that’s true of anything in life. Cliché as it sounds, the  greatest pleasure is the joy it brings others…and that is priceless.

By Kris Blevons