If you love Harry Potter stories, you’ll love Bubble Gum Alley and The Secret Garden in San Luis Obispo (SLO), California!

Bubble Gum Alley is named appropriately because the walls of the buildings on both sides of the alley are creatively covered in chewing gum. Slogans, “I love (insert name)” and all manner of other presentations with chewed gum can be found here. Although it’s humorous, I do think it is incorrectly named and probably should be called Bubble GERM Alley.

But going through Bubble Gum Alley and getting to the Secret Garden is definitely worth it! This little organic herb shop is filled with lots and lots of herbs, as well as natural and nature-inspired gifts. I almost couldn’t resist buying myself a large jar of herbal bath tea and now am inspired to consider making my own herbal (drinking) teas.

While staying with my friend Shawna who is a healer in SLO, she made personally formulated herbal teas for me every morning using herbs from this very shop. Her teas are created as she connects to you through intuition and then by using kinesiology (muscle testing) to verify the ingredients. Most days my formulation included herbs for respiratory congestion, such as calendula, hyssop, chickweed, dandelion, etc. I wasn’t even aware that I was congested but within a day or so my lungs started clearing!! Wow this stuff works!!

Shawna promised to provide me a list of the “basics” for an herbal kitchen so that I can make my own drinking and bath teas which I will post on Daily Eats! If you’re interested in receiving your own herbal remedies, contact Shawna Timmerman at shawna@shawnatimmerman.com.

This amazing little shop is located on the patio at 1129 Garden Street, San Luis Obispo. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 am to 5:30 pm and Sunday from noon to 4:00 pm. And if you can’t go in person, they do ship upon request if you call 805-544-herb.

Click on the images above to see the detail of Bubble Gum Alley and The Secret Garden!!