Brewing tea for plants (tisane, really)

I've been tending my mother-in-law's gardens for the last 7 weeks, and have experimented with brewing a tisane version from fallen leaves to nourish them. The idea came from throwing rinses out into the yard, about considering how the plants would probably prefer the main infusions, what I drink instead.  Then she also keeps very large jars around to catch rainwater to use, and leaves falling in those brews a light infusion that might essentially feed them. 

Connecting the ideas I tried out putting a large amount of leaves into two large empty pots, then filling them with water, pouring that on the plants, and repeating the process.

 

It sounds like an impractical amount of work, doesn't it? I've spent hours on the experiment. I remove the water using a couple of small buckets, straining most leaves by drawing it from one side. It takes many such buckets to empty a pot, maybe 40, drawing out 3 liters / quarts at a time, emptying maybe around 30 gallons a round (130 or so liters).

Does it work though?  How could I know if it's helpful for the plants, or if there is some form of risk (eg. mold contamination)? I asked that in a gardening group, drawing no response. I could tell by the plants' health, I guess. Some that had been growing very pale, yellowish new leaves have gone mostly green in just a few days, with green coverage spreading from the inner veins. Who knows though, really.

Mentioning this here relates to it being interesting, and vaguely related to tea. And to potentially drawing feedback, which isn't really how blogging goes.

Conventional composting would probably be easier and more efficient, piling these leaves mixed with some soil, and keeping that damp. That brings up another comparison that would only ring a bell or be interesting to tea drinkers, about shu pu'er.

One pot I filled with drier, fresher leaves, from the top of a pile swept together, and the bottom layer had been there for a couple of weeks, regularly wetted by rain in that time.   The bottom of that pile had already been decomposing, seeming a bit like dirt, or I guess also like shu pu'er.  It "brewed" a lot faster, producing rich, brown liquid right away, while the other leaves produced a paler liquid the first day. It has evened out some since, but the one pot is still breaking down faster.

It sounds like I'm going somewhere with all this, doesn't it?  Not so much.  If anyone has feedback about the pros or cons of this sort of practice it would be interesting to hear that.  I'll close this with more photos of the garden.

birds of paradise

many of the plants are in pots, some with minimal soil, making watering them more demanding

some recent additions from a farm in Chayapum; one will become a jackfruit tree

these are blue pea / butterfly flowers, a tisane, but I don't care for that

papaya!  there are a dozen or so growing now; the race is on with the squirrel

higher growing flowering vines have a sweet scent, only in the evening

Myra Kidney

cat in natural environment

Mama Nid with the kids and that one cat