In the middle of the summer, I was wandering around the garden center, determined to find something to plant. My timing was all off and the only thing I found worth buying was a lonely lemongrass plant. At the time, I had no idea how to plant and care for lemongrass or what to do with it if I was lucky and it actually grew. Once home, I found a nice spot for this pretty grass (that smelled amazing) and planted it. It grew like crazy and every time I went in the garden I couldn’t help rub my hands on the leaves and breath in the lemon scent. I’m so happy that I found that lonely lemongrass plant because it has been about the easiest thing to grow! Lemongrass is really pretty too. It’s a great back drop for shorter plants or as a tall centerpiece in a container.

So what can you do with lemon grass? The edible portion of the lemon grass is the bulb portion at the base. You can peel off the outer leaves and chop up the bulb to put in soups or other dishes. It’s quite popular as an ingredient in Thai dishes, although I have yet to experiment with this.

The leaves smell amazing so I was trying to figure out a way to use them in some way. I love to make iced green tea and usually add fresh lemon and ginger, so I thought why not throw in some lemongrass leaves along with the tea? It came out great – the lemongrass gave the tea a nice lemon flavor! I tried making a tea without the green tea, just using lemongrass leaves alone and that was good too. The leaves need to be in boiling water for a good 5 minutes to get the full lemon flavor. If you just let them steep in the hot water for a few minutes, like you would regular tea, the lemon flavor isn’t as strong. Fresh or dried lemongrass will make a good tea, so don’t worry if you don’t have a plant to pick fresh leaves from.

My lemongrass plant took a bit of a beating during our last storm and quite a few of the blades were bent over, so I was trying to think of a way to preserve them and came up with these cute dried wreaths. When I want to made tea, I can pop one or two of these cute wreaths into the pot.

Lemongrass wreaths are super easy to make and look so pretty. A nice jar filled with these would also make a unique gift for a tea drinker.

How to Make a Lemongrass Wreath

I used leaves that were about 3 feet long and each wreath is made with one leaf. If your leaves are shorter, use two or more together.

Start by making a circle and then just twist the long tail around the circle, pulling it through the middle and wrapping it over the top.

Keep wrapping until the leaf is all used up and the wreath is complete. Any loose ends can be tucked in or trimmed.

That’s it – super easy and cute, ready for a pot of tea. These would be great in soup too and easy to scoop out before serving. I made up quite a few of these and popped them into the dehydrator for about 8 hours (overnight) so they will last longer. I think they would dry naturally pretty well too as long as you have a spot that isn’t too humid. Once dry, I placed them in a mason jar for storage.

Below is a short video showing how I made the wreaths.