If you have been reading the old posts you will know I am fond of the herb stevia. In this post I will finally tell you more about it as well as other natural sugar replacements you may like to try. In the second part of the post some recent questions about planting times and growing from seed will be discussed.
Growing Stevia
So what makes stevia so special? Its known as the sweet herb as its hundreds of times sweeter than sugar. It can be used as an alternative for people wanting to eliminate sugar from the diet. Eliminating sugar from the diet is a great idea for anyone, with or without diabetes. Stevia is a great herb for people with diabetes to use. Sugar leaches the body of nutrients, depleting calcium in the teeth and bones. Sugar is a processed substance and does not occur naturally as say sugar cane does - it is also acid forming withing the body.
I have mentioned books in previous posts such as "sugar blues" and have come across a few more worth mentioning for those of you interested. I have not read these yet but if anyone else has please leave a comment below with a review. The first one is - " lick the sugar habit" by Nancy Appleton. The second is "Your body doesn't lie" by Dr John Diamonds...
Back to the stevia plant. Most of what I know about growing this plant has come from Isabell Shippard (see link below). Stevia is best grown in pots in temperate areas and will grow well in warmer areas. It can be grown as a perennial in warmer areas such as the Gold Coast. The leaves are sweetest just before flowering which is usually at the end of summer.
I have some stevia in a pot at the moment that is just starting to flower. It is great to just chew the leaves when you need a sweet hit. My potted food plants on the balcony do bring problems (usually) when they start flowering though - sap sucking pests with an army of ants. As soon as the flowers were out, I noticed ants up and down the stem which had to mean sap suckers on the tender stem and flowers. On this occasion I found some scale on the stem junctions and mealy bugs hiding on the bottom of the leafs near the flowers. This can be such a problem with balcony gardens it warrants its own post. That will be coming soon.
The leaves can be used fresh or you can buy the powder from the health food shop. The powdered taste is very sweet at first with a strange aftertaste. Simply chewing the leaf or adding it fresh into dishes does have the sweet taste but a milder aftertaste. You can use the fresh leaf as a tea as you would licorice root. Both these sweet herbs have incredible health benefits. Licorice root in chinese medicine (Gan Cao) is added to the majority of herbal blends for its numerous benefits and to make the mixture palatable.
While stevia offers such great health options for being so easy to grow, there are other naturally occurring sweeteners - agave syrup is another option. This does have naturally occurring sugar (like fruit) but is a much better health choice than processed sugar. It can be purchased from health food stores and is a quick addition to teas, drinks, oats and recipes.
Stevia can be purchased from specialist herb nurseries. All rare herbs will certainly have it via mail order. Also the herb cottage at Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast sell most herbs cheaply and also do mail order.
Planting guide online
Some people have been asking for a planting guide that tells when to plant what. There is a great one online that I will give the link for shortly. Although its good for beginners to start from, I have never thought gardening should be done completely from charts - that is one of the reasons I have not posted one online or in organic gardening. Once you know the basics, start to break the rules a bit. Try planting local varieties earlier or later than the chart says. That is the way a persons gardening skills improve and they become a true gardener. Just doing everything only when and where the chart tells you is just not gardening to me.
Having said all that - the best planting chart is available to view on the eden seeds webpage. Here is the planting guide
Seeds V's Seedlings
I had an email during the week from a member in Sydney who was considering the jump from planting seedlings to growing from seed. I remember being in this situation and feeling like it was such a challenge to grow from seed successfully. It is really like the planting guide issue above - although seedlings can be handy (especially if you get them cheap and in healthy condition) you will better yourself as a gardener when you grow from seed.
Growing from seed simply takes more care and a bit more time. Some seeds like amaranth and rocket are great to throw in the garden bed directly. Others take more care and like to be raised in seed raising mix with some protection from the elements. Sometimes it can be to hard to grow special plants from seed. For herbs such as stevia it can be hard to find the seed to begin with while asparagus can take years to grow from seed to plate. So there are exceptions, but for the commonly grown plants try starting from seed.
Everyone should be encouraged to at least grow some plants from seed. Then ultimately to grow most or all from seed or strike healthy cuttings of herbs etc. The advantages are you will become a better gardener overall, better plants and much more cost effective by saving the seed and replanting.
Sweet herb articles by Isabell Shippard
