About Stevia: How Much to Use?

A friend recently introduced me to stevia. I am a type 2 diabetic and am rather strict about my diet. However, I do miss some sweetened tea or maybe a sweetened fruit smoothie. My question is this:
I have seen the stevia plants can be bought and grown on. How much, weight or volume of the dried leaf would one need to make a useable supply for a home sweetener?

When growing your own stevia you use the leaves in either their fresh picked or dried forms. With your favourite tea you can add a few leaves to the teapot, adjusting the quantity according to your taste.

Should I try buying some of the dried leaf first before trying to grow it? How much should I buy? There doesn't seem to be much information about "quantities" when referring to stevia and its uses.

Buying dried leaf is an excellent way to get started. It takes a while to discover what your likes and dislikes are when using stevia because stevia is not an exact substitute for sugar or other sweeteners. Not everyone likes stevia. Once you know when and how you prefer to use stevia, you can go to the next step and grow your own. Stevia is easy to grow so we do encourage people to do that.
To start we recommend buying a 25 gram package of dried leaves. This will be enough to sweeten perhaps 50 or so cups of regular tea. If you like it then you can order it by the kilogram.
Stevia is also available as a white powder extract. This is a much more concentrated form of stevia that has been partly purified to reduce the naturally occuring bitter principles form in stevia. Stevia powder is also more convenient to use. Again, our small size is recommended to start with.
Here is the link to our stevia listing in our online catalog:
www.richters.com/Web_store/web_store.cgi?product=X6030