Many Mints

 

MINT! I'd like to introduce you to the resident mints growing in the garden.

 

There are lots of reasons to grow mint, some healthful benefits include helping with headaches, aches, digestion and acting like a decongestant. Plus it is awesome in tea!

 

There are also benefits to your garden as well, which was part of the reason why I started growing it to begin with.

 

spearmint?

 I read in some garden literature that having some strong smelling herbs in your garden helps with deterring pests. If you think of how some creatures 'see' things by smelling, then it would make sense that you could essentially 'blind' them from knowing that you have a delicious patch of lettuce growing nearby. This is sort of the reason why people inter plant marigolds in their gardens, besides being beautiful, they are a strong smelling plant- disgustingly so for some animals.

Chewing gum mint

 

To fight off the various enemies of my garden, I decided to start growing mint... a lot of mint. I'm still working on it, but I have mint pretty well established in various parts of the garden. To buffer the fortifications of the garden, I have been strategically planting perennial herbs of all sorts on the ends of the garden beds that are closest to the fence. Mint being just one of them, but I've also planted several varieties to keep things interesting.

Cat mint for the kitties

 

There is a garden fair around my area every spring, so last year I picked up several different mints. Unfortunately I can only identify a couple of them, because I made the mistake of not recording what kinds I got and where I planted them. Oh well.

Kentucky Colonel Mint

 

Of the varieties of mint I got for the garden, I will have to say I am most pleased with the Kentucky Colonel Mint. It is the most vigorously growing mint I have, with large leaves that are easy to harvest for use. You can see it pictured above. The original plant was centered where that white tag is... so you can see how it spreads.

Apple Mint?

 

As if you can have too much of a good thing, there are usually strong warnings that come along with growing mint in a garden. Mainly... beware of the mint invasion. Mint notoriously grows so well that it will start to become a weed. Though, I'm not sure if I will mind, I have a very large garden with a lots of room for mint colonists... and also lots of pests to deal with too. Plus there is something special about the smell of weeding and the aroma that will follow you after bruising just a few leaves of mint or some other strong smelling herb.

Spearmint?

 

So once you acquire all this mint, what do you do with it?

TEA!

 

Here is my current recipe for iced tea:

 

8 cups of water

9 bags of tea

1/2 cup of sugar

mint

 

I microwave the water with the tea bags for about 4 minutes. Add the sugar and stir it until it dissolves and then add the mint. The longer you let it sit the stronger the mint flavor will become.

 

I then add it to a large pitcher and add a couple more cups of water to dilute it a little more more. Yum!