Top: My herbs, so far. Rosemary, lavender, sage, genovese and purple basil.
Bottom: Last year's Kentucky Colonel spearmint, neglected and flourishing.
Since we're planning on moving into our dream home sometime this summer/year, we decided to forgo a traditional, all-out vegetable garden. It was a hard decision - we quite enjoyed ourselves, and learned so much last year. But it seems like the right energy to put out into the universe: that we believe we will move soon, that we are ready to move soon, that we are willing to sacrifice short-term pleasures for longer-term goals. And I am all about the power of intention.
But, we still have the urge to plant things. To grow our own food, to watch fruits ripen and eat them straight off the vine (or in the case of my herb garden: to directly muddle them into cocktails). So, we've each taken our own approach. I've potted everything: so far, an array of herbs, and grape tomatoes. Universe translation: Have pots, will move! Micah is going to use our plots for short-term, high-yield crops (like bush beans). Universe translation: Beans today, gone tomorrow!
The one lovely, unintentional (pun INTENDED), exception to this has been my Kentucky Colonel spearmint. I kept it potted last year, and after it flowered out and seemingly died, I dumped the remnants of the pot into one of the main plots, and turned it into the soil. Fast-forward to this spring, and bam! – its infamous runner roots did their thing and created a spiderweb of new mint plants (if you look real hard, you can see where they all originated in the middle, from a single plant).
I know that many people lament the invasive spread of mint in their yards, and I will dorkily admit that this is one of the most irresponsible things I have done as a renter. Yeah. I LET MINT SPREAD. Probably because I just don't get the problem. Too much mint? Make things with it. Tea, ice cream, juleps. Or mow it down and enjoy the most rapturously fragrant yard on the block. Anyway – rant over.
My plan for the mint is to let it go buckwild, and use as much of it as I can while I'm still here. Then whenever we move, I'm going to cut a clipping or two and let it take over some wild corner of my new yard.
...Or maybe I'll pot it.