Mint Gardening

One of the first herbs I truly loved as a kid was mint. My sister and I used to crush it and added it to our water bottles that we took with us while exploring the creek down behind our house. I even occasionally took some in my water bottle to soccer, but didn’t tell the other kids because I was afraid I would be made fun of. I have totally out grown my fear of being made fun of and have embraced my mint passion. I love to eat mint in mint sauces for dipping homemade Naan , in my fake pho, and fruit salads. I love to drink mint in hot tea, chocolate mint coffee, home brewed sweet tea, and those summer mojitos. I LOVE MINT! With loving mint comes the responsibility of growing mint. I chose the word responsibility for a reason. Mint can be a weed as such it should be planted with caution. You may LOVE mint, but the person that lives next door or the person who buys your house will most likely curse you and your mint forever. I have a personal collection of 17 different kinds of mint. Each one a little different from the next. You can either plant mint in a confined area such as a parking strip or cement surrounded area. Or mint can be planted in containers. (I have even seen it in old bath tubs.) In a container, I recommend that in late February or early March that the container be tipped out. The root mass cut in half. One half of the root mass needs to be placed in the trash and the other half placed back into the pot. Then refill the remaining half of the pot with fresh planting soil. You will have a much happier mint plant. I have my plants in confined in the ground.

My mint garden is about 12’ X 12’.  My husband sunk 12” drainage pipe into the ground about 18”. He left a rim above the ground about 2”. Here is a picture of a piece of the pipe.

We used the drainage pipe because it is extremely heavy duty. I have seen it done in buckets and the mint burst the sides. We sunk them 18” because I have mints’ roots do not go deeper than that. We left a rim that was 2” above the ground so we could see the side runners from the mint plants.

We have had these in the ground for nearly 10 years. The only time that I have had escapees is when I have not removed the flower heads (the bees love the flowers) before the seed was mature. But the escapees were easily removed once we noticed them. Once you get your mint growing you need to do something with it.  Here is a link to my Minted Sweet Tea recipe: Sweet Minted Iced Tea .  I have been working on this for a while. I am not a Southerner so I don’t like super sweet tea, but this is plenty sweet for me.  

 Now go grow!

One of the first herbs I truly loved as a kid was mint. My sister and I used to crush it and added it to our water bottles that we took with us while exploring the creek down behind our house. I even occasionally took some in my water bottle to soccer, but didn’t tell the other kids because I was afraid I would be made fun of. I have totally out grown my fear of being made fun of and have embraced my mint passion. I love to eat mint in mint sauces for dipping homemade Naan , in my fake pho, and fruit salads. I love to drink mint in hot tea, chocolate mint coffee, home brewed sweet tea, and those summer mojitos. I LOVE MINT! With loving mint comes the responsibility of growing mint. I chose the word responsibility for a reason. Mint can be a weed as such it should be planted with caution. You may LOVE mint, but the person that lives next door or the person who buys your house will most likely curse you and your mint forever. I have a personal collection of 17 different kinds of mint. Each one a little different from the next. You can either plant mint in a confined area such as a parking strip or cement surrounded area. Or mint can be planted in containers. (I have even seen it in old bath tubs.) In a container, I recommend that in late February or early March that the container be tipped out. The root mass cut in half. One half of the root mass needs to be placed in the trash and the other half placed back into the pot. Then refill the remaining half of the pot with fresh planting soil. You will have a much happier mint plant. I have my plants in confined in the ground.

My mint garden is about 12’ X 12’.  My husband sunk 12” drainage pipe into the ground about 18”. He left a rim above the ground about 2”. Here is a picture of a piece of the pipe.

We used the drainage pipe because it is extremely heavy duty. I have seen it done in buckets and the mint burst the sides. We sunk them 18” because I have mints’ roots do not go deeper than that. We left a rim that was 2” above the ground so we could see the side runners from the mint plants.

We have had these in the ground for nearly 10 years. The only time that I have had escapees is when I have not removed the flower heads (the bees love the flowers) before the seed was mature. But the escapees were easily removed once we noticed them. Once you get your mint growing you need to do something with it.  Here is a link to my Minted Sweet Tea recipe: Sweet Minted Iced Tea .  I have been working on this for a while. I am not a Southerner so I don’t like super sweet tea, but this is plenty sweet for me.  

 Now go grow!

Wigglers

Just thinking a little about worms. They are a wiggly important part of our gardens. We have earth worms in our raised veggie beds. They seemed to have done very well during the winter leaving all of their great worm castings with no work on my part. Here is a picture of two of the monsters that came out while I was working up one of the beds. They must have been 8-10" long.

We also have another type of worm friend that is part of our veggie garden world. We have a worm composting box. In the box we have a colony of red wigglers. Red wigglers (Eisenia Foetida ) are great for composting. We used a design that is offered on the Metro website.


(Here is the link: Http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=554/level=3 )
Mine was a gift from my husband for my birthday, but you can even use salvage materials so there doesn’t need to be a big investment. And the worms a gift from a friend in college. My box has been in use for over 10 years. It is placed behind our workshop so the fruit flies don’t bother anyone. There it is also shaded to protect the worms from the summer sun. I used to collect my fruit and veggie waste out of my kitchen in a 1 gallon mustard container, but it was clear plastic and my family got tired of seeing the mass sitting on our countertop. So this Christmas I received a ceramic bucket, which I must admit is a vast improvement. If you take out your kitchen waste daily than a bucket under the sink can be used or you could use an old cookie jar with a lid if you wanted to wait a couple of days. My worms eat all of our household fruit and veggie waste. They also get coffee grounds, tea (loose and bags), the crusts off my children bread and even the occasional paper towel. They also get a scoop or two of leaves in the fall. I have learned not to include squash seeds or prune pits. The first germinated when we used the compost in our lettuce bed and the latter just encouraged mice. We try to turn the mass occasionally, but it is not done on a regular schedule. Our worms are very happy and reproduce well. I have given some them to friends several times to start their own colonies or for their gardening classes. Red wigglers are available via seed companies like the Oregon based Territorial Seeds, but I would recommend asking friends and neighbors first. They may have a Red Wiggler colony of their own or may know someone that can share.

Just thinking a little about worms. They are a wiggly important part of our gardens. We have earth worms in our raised veggie beds. They seemed to have done very well during the winter leaving all of their great worm castings with no work on my part. Here is a picture of two of the monsters that came out while I was working up one of the beds. They must have been 8-10" long.

We also have another type of worm friend that is part of our veggie garden world. We have a worm composting box. In the box we have a colony of red wigglers. Red wigglers (Eisenia Foetida ) are great for composting. We used a design that is offered on the Metro website.


(Here is the link: Http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=554/level=3 )
Mine was a gift from my husband for my birthday, but you can even use salvage materials so there doesn’t need to be a big investment. And the worms a gift from a friend in college. My box has been in use for over 10 years. It is placed behind our workshop so the fruit flies don’t bother anyone. There it is also shaded to protect the worms from the summer sun. I used to collect my fruit and veggie waste out of my kitchen in a 1 gallon mustard container, but it was clear plastic and my family got tired of seeing the mass sitting on our countertop. So this Christmas I received a ceramic bucket, which I must admit is a vast improvement. If you take out your kitchen waste daily than a bucket under the sink can be used or you could use an old cookie jar with a lid if you wanted to wait a couple of days. My worms eat all of our household fruit and veggie waste. They also get coffee grounds, tea (loose and bags), the crusts off my children bread and even the occasional paper towel. They also get a scoop or two of leaves in the fall. I have learned not to include squash seeds or prune pits. The first germinated when we used the compost in our lettuce bed and the latter just encouraged mice. We try to turn the mass occasionally, but it is not done on a regular schedule. Our worms are very happy and reproduce well. I have given some them to friends several times to start their own colonies or for their gardening classes. Red wigglers are available via seed companies like the Oregon based Territorial Seeds, but I would recommend asking friends and neighbors first. They may have a Red Wiggler colony of their own or may know someone that can share.

Cutting Celery and Par-Cel

There are two items still growing in our veggie beds that are left over from last year. These two plants are Cutting Celery and Par-Cel. I have never grown either before and I am shocked to see that they both survived our winter and my parsley did not.

The Cutting Celery is a type of celery that looks much like the tops of the celery stocks that we are familiar with, but it tastes a little more bitter than celery. It has a dark green, lustrous foliage. I personally would recommend it to be used in soups, stews or making of stocks. Somewhere the longer cooking and blending of flavors would mellow out the Cutting Celery bitterness. The bitterness does not seem to bother our pet rabbit who seems to enjoy it and munches on it daily.

Par-Cel looks like a curly parsley, but it tastes like a celery stock. It is very often mistaken for curly parsley while we are at markets. Par-Cel has a milder flavor that the Cutting Celery therefore I would recommend using it for soups and stocks, but also in salads. I like it in tuna and chicken salads for sandwiches or in potato salads.

We will carrying both of these plants again this year. If you are planting a veggie garden this year I would recommend giving one or both of these a try. They do not require much space or special care. I will definitely be including them again in our garden.

There are two items still growing in our veggie beds that are left over from last year. These two plants are Cutting Celery and Par-Cel. I have never grown either before and I am shocked to see that they both survived our winter and my parsley did not.

The Cutting Celery is a type of celery that looks much like the tops of the celery stocks that we are familiar with, but it tastes a little more bitter than celery. It has a dark green, lustrous foliage. I personally would recommend it to be used in soups, stews or making of stocks. Somewhere the longer cooking and blending of flavors would mellow out the Cutting Celery bitterness. The bitterness does not seem to bother our pet rabbit who seems to enjoy it and munches on it daily.

Par-Cel looks like a curly parsley, but it tastes like a celery stock. It is very often mistaken for curly parsley while we are at markets. Par-Cel has a milder flavor that the Cutting Celery therefore I would recommend using it for soups and stocks, but also in salads. I like it in tuna and chicken salads for sandwiches or in potato salads.

We will carrying both of these plants again this year. If you are planting a veggie garden this year I would recommend giving one or both of these a try. They do not require much space or special care. I will definitely be including them again in our garden.