Over the past several months I've been growing and maintaining three mint plants in the window of my dorm. I initially did this because I couldn't find a closeby sustainable source of mint for cooking or mixology. I have found that, in doing this, I've saved a decent amount of money, and also I have constant access to fresh mint, which has its own distinct flavor that really gets lost a day or two after being picked. I recently picked up kentucky colonel and cuban mint seeds and I'm looking to have these planted and started off before the end of the summer. I've done a fair amount of research and was wondering if any of you have any recommendations for soil. I'm looking for something with really good drainage. Also, what have you been successful at growing in order to save time and money?
We have mint in the planter box and it is prolific. The purpose of that is for use when we have house guests for lunch or dinner. However, it's been a long time since we have a guest so the mint have outgrown the space. My husband potted some extra mint runners in a small plastic pot that can serve as decoration as well. And I am planning to buy a hanging pot so we can have mint in the terrace. For now, the main purpose of our mint is for the benefit of our neighbors. They usually ask us for pepper which is also prolific in the backyard, pandan leaves for cooking rice and some other garden produce for culinary use.
A great use for all that extra mint would be to use it in both hot or iced tea! Using fresh spearmint in iced tea gives it a nice added kick of refreshment. It gives a very pleasant, fresh feeling in the back of your throat with each sip. It goes great with just about every black tea I've tried it with, and I think it would complement lemon very well.
As growing and preserving all my own herbs is something that I've been doing for as long as I can remember - no doubt about it - not only does growing your own herbs save money - but they taste and smell - way, way better than anything you're ever likely to find in a store. Anyway in answer to your question regarding the best soil for mint - as all mints - of which there are literally hundreds of different varieties - are not too fussy about soil type and will grow in almost anything providing there is good drainage - you generally can't go too far wrong with a general purpose compost. I would however just add - that its not a good idea to grow any mix of the mint family in one container - the reason being - that when peppermint, spearmint or other flavored mints including lemon balm - are grown together - they have a tendency to interbreed and produce new strains that are highly unlikely to taste anything like you were expecting - especially as the flavor is generally quite the opposite of delicious and also - as the majority of flavored mint varieties don’t come true when grown from seed - either in terms of flavor or looks - if wanting a specific variety - its usually way better to either buy a young plant from a nursery/garden store or propagate from cuttings. Oh and speaking of mint - as I grow many different varieties of mint - all of which have different flavors - if you haven't yet tried - orange mint, pineapple mint, ginger mint or chocolate mint - I highly recommend giving them a go and especially chocolate mint - as not only is the attractively colored foliage with its exquisite aroma a wonderful addition to any herb garden - either indoors or outdoors - but it adds an irresistibly delicious minty chocolate flavor to food and drink - of all kinds.
Oh, yes, I am always forgetting that mint is good for lacing drinks. One of our favorite Chinese restaurant here has a promo that when you order food worth more than $10 you get a free pitcher of iced tea. We had that the other Wednesday and it was cute because the slender pitcher came with leaves of mint. And the taste was good. Maybe I can do it with our mixed drinks at home particularly the cantaloupe drink that we sometimes add lemon drops for a tangy taste.
I need to take a page from your books folks as there is a lot of great advise in this thread, thanks for sharing.
It's a lot easier to get started than you'd think! I started with a plant from a grocery store and just went from there. Just a matter of a window and some water and you're set! The more you do it, the more rewarding it is, and you may even find yourself involved in a new hobby. Currently growing cuban mint for the purpose of selling live plant online when they're of size. Just takes a first step.
Its quite economical to grow your own culinary herbs since they are not cheap in the market. I have grown some healthy rosemary near my window and have also grown parsley in the past. One good thing about culinary herbs is that they are not consumed in big quantities and are likely to last for long. One can also sell the excess which contributes to the bottomline. They are very easy to grow and require minimum outlay in terms of fertilizers and are generally pest resistant.
I've always wanted to put up an indoor garden but unfortunately electricity here is very expensive so I can't afford having lights turned on the whole day just to grow vegetables and in that way probably just buying it from the market would turn out to be much cheaper if not just equal in price. I guess herbs would be naturally easier though so I have been thinking of starting with those as I can just put them up by the window and they can get natural sunlight from there. Soon I will have to collect some seeds and learn more about the complexities of planting herbs indoors.
Most herbs can be grown from cuttings, so if you were to get a sprouted plant from, say, a grocery store, you would be able to trim off shoots, dip the stems in water, and they would eventually grow roots. This is probably the easiest way to propagate most herbs, just because most have a lengthy growing period before they are harvestable. Currently growing mint in the backyard from seeds, and the germination period is between 2-3 weeks. Germinated some in a papertowel successfully just to make sure the seeds aren't duds, and are growing, just slowly. In another week I hope to have some sprouts. Overall, I'd probably say it's probably cheapest to buy a living plant and working from there, circumventing all of the waiting period. I'm only growing from seeds just because I wanted these particular types of mint which I couldn't find in any stores.
Wow I did not know this. Now I'm even more curious and interested seeing as how seemingly easier it is to start up than regular plants. I'll have to experiment with this soon and hopefully the herbs I do like will be this easy to do. Not too fond of mint myself so I'm hoping the other herbs will be just as easy to grow. We also get a good amount of strong sunlight in our apartment so maybe that's at least a plus.
Basil is really amazing fresh, totally worth the effort of growing yourself. It's also very common, so you're likely to find a small potted version at a lot of grocery stores. The taste of fresh basil is really amazing, and it definitely is miles better than packaged basil. Also, you'll end up saving a good amount of money if you do use basil often. At the grocery store near me, they do sell a lot of potted herbs, though they do need a bit of TLC once you buy them to keep them healthy. My biggest tip is to not overwater, as potted plants are prone to root rot and that's not good! A good way to determine when to water is to stick your finger around an inch or inch in a half into the soil, and if it's dry, it's time to water it.
I would love to grow my own herbs. However, I do not have my own garden or at least a balcony to do that. Once we do have a garden I will consider following through with it because it does make more sense to me to grow them yourself. Spices nowadays have too many chemicals in them and are way too expensive.
I want to do this so badly but with edible herbs...they're far too expensive in stores and I want to use them more with salads instead of old and dehydrated or without being able to get them organic. I am absolutely in love with the idea
You don't actually need much to get started! I began with just a window in my dorm. As long as it gets adequate light, you're golden. If not, you could alway supplement the light with a lamp. You need very minimal space to get started unless you're planning to feed a multiple people every night using the herbs. I ended up with two mint plants which ended up giving WAY more mint that I thought it would once spring came and they were getting around double the light they were.
I also Ana a big fan of growing your own herbs. I have a windowsill full of them. It definitely saves a lot of money especially when you cook often. I've also started trying them out to use as spices. This works great as well. Also, in the summer time I grow a lot of basil outside. I use this to make pesto which I freeze and use all year round. I have an easy time growing basil and mint but a much harder time growing cilantro and parsley. My cilantro only seems to stay a few weeks or so.
I have a window box where I have planted 2 varieties of Basil, they are doing very nicely. I also keep planting mint regularly but never can grow it fully as either the mint stems are uprooted and taken off by sparrows. Initially, when this happened, I had no clue where the cuttings disappeared but one day, early in the morning, I caught them red handed. It seems like the sparrows like to line their nests with the fragrant mint cuttings. Other times, the cuttings grew well but the pigeons sat on them and squashing the new leaves. I have just planted a few cuttings again today, I hope they do well this time at least. Besides Basil, I also have a pot full of lemon grass which I use to season my tea with.
We used to have several herbs here. The cilantro is a favorite of the birds so it did not last long. The basil in the front yard was damaged by the typhoon so it's also gone. Only the mint is left in our planter box in the front yard and it is a good decoration for the plate when we have guests. And I have been seeing that mint is getting to be a decoration of drinks like iced tea and lemonade. What's good in mint is that it is prolific so whenever we would pick some leaves, new ones will replace it fast. It's a lot of money to buy mint every time we need it, good thing we have it in the garden.
I made a small garden off our condo's veranda. I've planted rosemary, dill, basil, tarragon, oregano, Italian oregano, stevia, and thyme. The only thing that didn't last are my stevia plants possibly because the soil they're planted isn't suitable for its survival.
