by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Surveying my backyard this past weekend I knew it was time to downsize my pot garden. Wait one. Before folks get the wrong impression, I mean my garden in pots. Just to be clear. Since my soil is clay mixed with concrete when I try to dig it, all my plants except for two are in pots. (The camellia and the Fairy rose are in the ground. I do not know how they survive.)
In the interest of simplifying my garden, it’s time to not plant things I don’t eat or enjoy. So the carrots, strawberries (alias slug bait), and the dill are history. But I did use big pots to plant new peppermint and sweet mint plants on Sunday.
While I don’t really use the mint, I LOVE their smell when I water them during the summer. Same goes for the basil, rosemary and the carnations. The sniff test passes as using the plants in my book.
Of course before I could plant the mint plants I had to buy more potting soil. Little did I know the bags of potting soil were wet until I tried hefting them into my grocery cart last Friday. Seriously? Then they peed in the back of the Subaru while I was driving home. Luckily I have a plastic liner back there. Note to self, only dry potting soil goes in the car.
On the upside, didn’t have to do much watering since the potting soil was drenched. Filled up the pots with a gravel base, potting soil, then the mint plants. My favorite part is sticking the little plant sign in the dirt as the final touch. Ready to go.
The rest of the backyard is in complete disarray with weeds and grass growing around the pots, dried plants from last year and the perpetual weeds. The pot downsizing has not started in earnest either.
I’ll get to that next weekend. Maybe. I hope so…. Got potting soil? Get mint!
I have a huge pot of mint that’s coming back strong. That’s one of the things I like about mint…its tenacity. And snipped off a leaf as I walk by to pop in my mouth for minty fresh breath. 😉
We had a very bad experience with mint….put it in our pond and holy cow pie….it went crazy! Finally took the pond out after 15 years and the last of the mint is GONE! I do admit…I miss that fragrance, but not that much! LOL!