I may have mentioned previously a side bed I have that is situated directly under next doors large Eucalypts. Whilst I have successfully grown silverbeet in the bed there is little else that does well so I made the decision to plant it up with mints. Into this bed I’ve put: Chocolate mint,
Basil mint,
Mint,
Vietnamese mint,
and Lemon Balm.
The bed also has some rogue potatoes coming up here or there which I look upon as a welcome addition (and I do enjoy a bit of mint in my potato salad so I think they are appropriate bed fellows.
Aside from my side bed I also grow mint in pots. I recently bought a Spearmint
and a Peppermint
which I intend to grow in pots for the time being until see how much my side bed mints grow. Of all my mints though I am most pleased with this one;
I think my fire experiment worked. This plant had mint rust and one of the recommended treatments was fire. I was a little concerned that I had killed the plant, but no, it is clearly reshooting. I think its probably a little too early to know if I killed all the rust spores but so far so good.
As you have probably guessed I love mint, I use it in salads, rice paper rolls and in tea. I have to say I use Vietnamese mint and normal culinary mint most frequently and so I would love some inspiring ways to use the other varieties. I plan to have a play around with them as the weather warms and I eat more salads. But I would love to hear from you – How do you use mint?
What a great idea to grow them all together. We bought a chocolate mint plant once and ate all the leaves on the way home in the car, woops.
My current favourite thing to make with mint is mojitos.
He, he, he, I do like the vision of you all in the car munching leaves.
The mint bed at our allotment needs a really good ‘seeing to’ as it is full of weeds.
I’m glad I’m not the only with a mint bed. I like the idea of giving it a bit of space and see how it goes.
Its surrounded by a grass path so any bits that try to escape are mowed. makes the mouth water as it does if I sit on any when weeding
You do love mint. I really only use mine in teas. I have four kinds, but I never ever use the citrus mint. So I think that one goes next year. And the Mojito mint only gets used for mojitos. Though it is my only regular mint (spearmint) so just in case a recipe calls for mint it is what I use. Not that I have any regular recipes that call for it, but on rare occasion I make something different.
I do like a dedicated mojito mint.
I’m making the most of our mint before the cold weather drives it underground. My kids like chocolate mint chopped up and sprinkled over vanilla ice cream – to be honest I do too!
I’m buying ice-cream tomorrow (we run out frequently) – this sounds like a lovely idea!
I do enjoy mint but I don’t use it nearly enough. I’ll be trying most recipes you post using it (absolutely the broad bean one from the previous post) to add to my repertoire.
I’m impressed with your ‘wild fire’ results. Nature is an amazing thing, isn’t it?
I do find it amazing how if you look at nature hard enough you will usually find something to fix most things. I sense some cookbook research coming up.
That is an incredible variety of mint! I really only grow ‘normal’ mint and Vietnamese mint. I am not sure I would know what to do with all the other flavours. I am intrigued by Chocolate mint! I look forward to seeing how you use them – the different ones that is – I might get tempted to grow other types. Glad the rust treatment worked!
I’m really enjoying the peppermint one as tea – I tasted like dried peppermint tea but much fresher (unsurprisingly i guess).
Wow – what a lot of mint. I’m trying mint again after successfully killing no less than 8 plants. They all were in pots as I know how invasive it can be if put into the ground, but none worked for me. I now have common mint and vietnamese mint in pots, so we shall see if they survive. When I have mint from others’ gardens or the markets I live it in any asian dish (also with its sidekick coriander), and that’s about the limit of it. If these survive I may have to broaden my mint horizons!
I find that mint grows well in pots for me as long as i divide and pot it up fairly regularly and keep the water up to it. I’m getting quite excited by uses for mint. I will do some more research.
Chocolate mint?!
I like to chop mint up with chilli, olive oil & lemon for a salad dressing.
I do like that salad dressing idea – I will make it for tomorrows salad.
Oh and re your top 5 post the other day, have you done a top 5 chop & come again veggies? You know like silverbeet and (I’ve only just discovered this) spring onions.
Garden Glut did that exact Top 5 – http://gardenglut.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/top-5-cut-and-come-again-vegetables.html a month or so ago. Great idea though.
I hope you don’t live to regret the planting of all that Mint, Liz. They are very vigorous growers! My favourite ways of eating Mint is in Mint Sauce with roast lamb, and in a Middle-Eastern Tabbouleh. My Beetroot and Mint bulghur salad worked out well too…
I want them to be vigorous – It is a self contained bed and they’ll need vigour if they are to compete with the huge Eucalypts overhanging them. I lvoe tabbouleh and make it all the time. I do like the idea of combining mint, beetroot And bulghur.
Minty icecream or sorbet. Coriander works well in the sorbet with lime, ginger and pimms.
Oh nice – If only my mother hadn’t thrown out a fundamental part of the ice cream maker I bought her so I could make sorbet…