Newbie Gardener: You CAN Grow Mint!

I planted this pot of mint last spring.

If you've never successfully kept plants alive, starting a garden of any size can be a daunting prospect. This spring lots of people are turning to vegetable gardening to cope with anxiety and provide a stable food source for their families in wildly uncertain times, but for the absolute newbie or apartment dweller those rows of tomatoes and massive mounds of squash can be a non-starter. Where to begin if you want to grow SOMETHING but don't know anything about gardening?

I've got one word for you: MINT.

If you have a semi-sunny space for a pot anywhere then you can grow mint. Mint is so hard to kill it basically functions as a weed. Once you start a pot of mint you will have plenty of it for as long as you want. The one thing you must know up front is that you should never, ever plant it in a bed because then you will have beds of mint forever, and the mint will spread and take over until you have mountains of the stuff. PLANT THE MINT IN A POT!!!

Aside from being impossible to kill, mint is super handy in the kitchen. You can use it in tea, alcoholic beverages, salads, meat dishes, and even desserts. The more you harvest the more it will grow, so feel free to use it liberally once your pot of mint gets established. There are quite a few kinds of mint if you have specific uses in mind, but a generic mint is tasty and versatile.

Put the pot of mint in a sunny spot, water it every now and then, and watch it grow like crazy. It doesn't need fancy soil conditions, fertilizer, or any special treatment. Pests mostly leave it alone and will have a hard time making a dent in it even if they do pay a visit.

My pot of mint from last year wintered over, died back in the cold weather, and is now bursting with new growth. My front beds, unfortunately, are also full of mint because the previous owner naively planted it there, and I will be pulling mint out of those beds until I'm old and gray.

There has never been a better time to start growing something, especially a practical kitchen staple that you can use lots of different ways. You can get small pots of mint at nurseries, home improvement stores, and even grocery stores (our local Publix always carries small kitchen herbs in pots). Call and ask about delivery or curbside pickup if you need to avoid any risk of contact.

2020 Garden Update: March 29

Thyme, thyme, thyme!

You might think I would have more time to post with COVID-19 keeping everyone at home right now, but planting season in garden waits for nothing. I've been outside every day planting, potting, and tending the flowers, herbs, and vegetables. It feels really good to have something productive to do and something to look forward to each morning.

We called ahead at our local garden center last week to make sure they were open and able to maintain good social distancing measures before we made a trip over there to stock up on plants. With a dozen greenhouses and lots of outdoor paths we had no trouble keeping our distance from other patrons, and we tried to make sure that we bought everything we'll want for quite some time to come. I'm glad that we could support our independent nursery in spite of everything going on. Normally I would be in there constantly this time of year! We bought thyme, basil, a cucumber start, a gorgeous fern for the porch, a succulent pot, and quite a few plants for the flower beds.

Cucumber seedlings Take 2.

Back at the house things are really growing and settling into spring. The Lady Banks rose produced its first blooms, a great sign after the stress of moving it in the fall. The green peas are shooting up, the lettuce is going gang busters, and the tomato plants are all thriving so far. The squash and zucchini are doing well, too, and the pollinator beds are full of tiny sprouts. I started several new cucumber pots after the disappointment with my first round; this time I started some of the tried and true Salad Slicer seeds as well as the fancy ones I got from Baker Creek. I hope I will have better luck with them this time, but I also have the Lemon Cucumber start from the nursery as a backup. I might be drowning in cucumbers in a couple of weeks, but I'm sure I can find homes for them!

Our gladiolus order from Holland Bulb Farms also arrived last week, so we now have 70 glads planted in the front and back beds. I can't wait to see how the flower beds look this summer; we've got daylilies, lilies, glads, and liatris ready to take over from the daffodils and tulips. The shade beds are also filling in nicely, with the astilbe doing especially well and the hostas and ferns coming along, too. Eventually I should dig the monkey grass out of those beds, but I wanted to make sure other plants would actually grow there first.

Lettuce, green peas, and squash.

One of the challenges this year is a robust slug population. I never had any trouble with slugs at the old house, but a nightly slug hunt has become part of my routine lately. I use a cup of soapy water and a flashlight to hunt them on the raised beds and pots. They almost devoured my original basil plants before I figured out what was happening, but now I move the basil out of slug reach each night, and the plants are recovering.

Many of my intended garden projects will have to wait for summer or next spring, but even in the midst of the pandemic there is plenty to do right now. I started gardening as a response to anxiety, and I'm really glad to have this outlet now as we cope with such a massive crisis. I hope you are also keeping busy and managing to get some fresh air while staying safe!

Starting Your Kitchen Garden While Social Distancing

With the pandemic keeping everyone at home this spring, you might be looking for something productive and stress reducing to do, either by yourself or with the kids. This might be the perfect time to start that kitchen garden you've always talked about wanting, but you might not know where to begin. Since I'm still relatively new to gardening myself, I know how important it is to have plants that won't die, will grow quickly, and will tolerate mistakes or weather changes. Of course, the pandemic complicates shopping right now, but if you have a sunny patio, balcony, or a backyard of any size you CAN start your kitchen garden while social distancing!

Baby lettuce growing in a pot.

First off, home improvement stores are essential businesses because you still have to fix broken toilets and replace fridges, so your local Lowe's or Home Depot is still open. Garden centers are usually not crowded on weekdays or evenings, so time a trip accordingly if you're going to shop. Make sure you get everything you want in ONE trip. You'll need soil (either potting or garden), containers if you're using them, seeds or starter plants (try a mix), some feed/fertilizer, and a hose or watering can if you don't have them already. Leave the kids at home for this part, practice good hygiene while you're out, and wash your hands often. Independent garden centers might also be open in your area, depending on your location, and the ones where I live are now offering curbside delivery and phone ordering, so try those if you want to support local businesses and minimize contact. Don't forget to buy stakes if you are going to grow climbing plants!

Basic Supply List:

* Soil (potting or garden or both depending on your plans)
* Containers (pots, a raised bed frame, grow bags, or whatever you want to use)
* Seeds or starter plants (seeds are cheaper but take longer)
* Feed/fertilizer (especially if you're planting in regular yard dirt!)
*Watering system (a watering can, a long hose, or even a soaker hose if you're getting serious)
*Stakes for climbing vine type plants
*If you don't have them - a shovel, a spade or two, gloves, other tools depending on your plans

Squash is fast and prolific!

The other big question for a new gardener is what to grow. You might be tempted in the current crisis to go full apocalypse homestead, but practically speaking you should keep things simple. Start with a couple of easy vegetables and a few hardy flowers to cheer you up as we all get through the next few months. Remember to grow vegetables your family will actually eat! For kids and anxious adults, the faster growing plants will provide maximum interest and comfort.

Basic Vegetables (buy as seeds or starter plants):

* Tomatoes - the top home veggie. If you haven't grown them before try a cherry or grape variety for larger yields and less disappointment when you lose a few fruits to critters. Remember to bury starter plants up to the first set of leaves!

*Squash and Zucchini - they grow fast and produce A LOT. Give them room to spread or train them to grow vertically on a cage. These are great for kids to grow and - hopefully - eat!

* Cucumbers - I had wilting issues with the heirloom varieties I started from seed this year, so go with disease resistant seeds or buy a starter plant. Give them support to grow vertically.

*Beans/Peas - These are fast growers and great for cooler climates where spring is slower to arrive, but if you live in a hot region go with cow peas like black eyes or purple hulls. They LOVE the heat. Remember that they will need stakes or other support!

*Lettuce - A cool weather plant, but great for containers, especially if you want to grow baby lettuce as a "cut and come again" crop. Start from seed and sow a container or a few rows; if you space out starting them you'll have a longer harvest.

*Radishes - My family won't eat them, but if yours will then radishes are super fast growers and small enough for patio and balcony containers gardens.

Daylilies ordered online from Oakes.

Basic Herbs (buy as small starter plants):

*Mint - you can't kill it! Don't plant it in the ground; put it in a container, or it will take over your yard forever. You can even buy live mint at the grocery store and plant that.

*Basil - you can also get it at the grocery store in small pots. Basil is great for pasta dishes and easy to care for in containers.

*Rosemary - The scent is wonderful, and it's also super easy to care for, so splurge on a rosemary plant even if you won't use it for cooking a lot.

Basic Flowers (buy as seeds or small starters):

*Sunflowers - These are GREAT for kids! Regular ones will get huge, so buy dwarf varieties if you have a small space. There are many different types to choose from.

*Marigolds - Also really easy to grow from seed, but you can get multi packs of small ones at garden centers very cheaply. They have a great scent and deter many pests in the vegetable garden. Regular varieties can get quite big and busy, so look for dwarf types if you want smaller plants.

*Daylilies - You cannot kill them. Plant them in sunny spots in the yard, in containers, wherever. Look for cheap rebloomers like Stella D'Oro or Happy Returns for maximum enjoyment.

*Wildflower mixes - If you want to attract pollinators to brighten your home isolation, try scattering a wildflower mix in a sunny spot. The flowers will help bring bees and other helpful insects to the garden so that your vegetables get pollinated. Some flowers in the mix will grow better than others, but that's OK.

Remember that you can also buy seeds and other garden supplies online from a wide variety of providers. I use Oakes Daylilies, Baker Creek Seeds, and Holland Bulb Farms, but be aware that some seed companies like Baker Creek might be currently overwhelmed by orders.

2020 Garden Update: March 10

We've had warm, wet weather recently, and the forecast suggests that spring is really on its way now, with highs in the 70s and no lows below 50 in the near future. Everything in the garden says, "Spring! Spring!" Meanwhile, the first plants for the season are turning up at the local garden center, but for now I'm sticking with the cold hardy selections that can handle a few more cold nights if we get them.

The lettuce is doing very well, and last night we actually got to eat some of it because it was time to thin the micro greens and make room for remaining heads to grow to full size. The green peas are also shooting up, and they'll probably need their trellis to go up this weekend. I'm trying to err on the side of caution where my squash and tomato seedlings are concerned, but they are hardening off in their Jiffy pots and starting to look like proper plants.

As we head into mid March I'm definitely getting excited about the season ahead with the new garden. We have been bringing in bags of soil over the last few weeks and getting the raised beds ready for planting. The daffodils are blooming profusely, and we even got several more after a neighbor secured permission for us to remove them from the empty lot across the street (construction there would have buried them under concrete in the next few weeks). I'm eager to see how the garden will look come summer!

Sadly, my cucumber seedlings wilted, leaving me with just one Dragon's Egg seedling. I'll try again with the Salad Slicer from last year, which never had any wilting issues, but I'm disappointed to have lost all of the DAR Cucumber seedlings so early. The tomatoes probably need potting on to get their stems buried, but so far all of them are doing quite well. The squash, though, are practically begging to go in the ground! They'll have to wait a little longer; I don't want to lose any to a last-minute frost.

In the flower beds we've added some sedum, a couple of creeping phlox, and the rescued daffodils. We've got more daylilies and a big order of gladiolus coming soon. We managed to get the crepe myrtle removed from the front bed, as well, creating a nice big space for more planting. (It was too close to the house and had to go - why do builders always put trees too close to the house?)

This part of March is all about anticipation and restraint. It's so tempting to get out there and plant everything the first warm week, but we know that March is fickle! Once April arrives, we can really get cracking.