New herbs for the garden 🌿

[Mandy Onderwater]

After struggling for many months with massive burnout, I'm trying to get my life back on track. I'm no less burnt out, but making an active effort to imrpove my situation. And in doing so, trying to pick my garden back up.
So after a trip to Bunnings to replace my chives that died after 4 years of regular use... I couldn't help but keep browsing. And as I walked around I realised I had some desire to grow plants again, but also had the fear that if they required too much upkeep, I'd falter. So I went for what I enjoy most in the garden; plants that smell nice. And yes, I know what you are thinking; Mandy, why didn't you buy flowers? Well, I'll tell you why, I have a black thumb for flowers!
So after walking through the isles, embarrassing myself when I knocked over an entire tray (nothing got damaged thank goodness - minus my ego), I noticed I was attracted most to herbs. I've never been able to successfully grow herbs from seed. Plus, plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and the likes have always been easy to grow from seed. So I opted for the plants that would bring me the most immediate joy.

Lemon balm is one of my all-time favourites. I love it's scent, and would always pinch off a leaf to smell as I watered my garden in the past.
Lemon thyme also has a lovely fragrance that has an almost earthy lemon scent to it.
Common mint was quite an obvious choice. Refreshing, enjoyable.
Chocolate mint was a surprise. I despise the taste of mint-flavoured chocolate and the smell reminded me of it. But at the same time, it's a nice smell, just not a nice taste. And for $2 on clearance I couldn't leave it behind. Worst case, I might donate it to someone else that does love it.


Step 1.
Filling each individual 50L pots with potting soil.

Step 2.
Ensuring they are full and don't sink too much by gently compressing the soil. Also ensuring they aren't overfilled and will overflow when watered.

Step 3.
Plant the plants, settle the soil and water in. Also hosed off the patio.

From left to right: Common mint, chocolate mint, lemon balm, lemon thyme, 4x chives


Step 4.
Get back into enjoying my plants, and spending more time outside.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

My plants have settled nicely and are looking very healthy

I have not watered (or touched) them since I planted them a few days ago.

 

[Berkeloid]

I've often thought with things like this what I really need is an automatic watering system, so when I'm busy or tired after work I don't have to worry about the plants dying.

I have an idea in my mind about leaving a tap dripping into a large water container, and when the water level finally fills up high enough, a syphon initiates and empties the container through irrigation piping across the garden. It also means if I go on holidays I don't have to worry about the plants drying out. Only trick is to come up with a way that delays the watering if it rains...

Also you did very well to keep the chives going for four years, I've never had any last longer than four months!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I gave my mother-in-law one of my 4 pots in the past, hers died pretty quickly too! I basically neglect them, forget to water them and then water them until the soil is soaked through for the next few days, just to neglect them again. Somehow, works like a charm. They are also in full-sun.
I think they might have died because in all the 4 years I never refreshed their soil, and in the past year I hardly ever watered them, nor gave them fertiliser.

I usually water from the top until the saucer is almost full of water (or overflows, hehehe). It keeps my plants nice and moist, especially during hot Summers. And in Summer I like to water in the afternoon/at night so my plants have hours to drink what they need to survive the heat.

You could set up a sprinkler and/or hose system on a timer. It doesn't help with the rain, but it's better than nothing. And depending on how long you go away, you could look at the weather predictions and see if you need to set anything up at all
At the same time, you could perpetually underwater your garden, so it's "okay" when it rains. I find that my garden often recovers better from underwatering than it does from overwatering. And if you give it enough to just survive until you get back.. Bob's your uncle!

 

[Berkeloid]

Interesting, yes I suspect my problem was over watering. I should try under watering and seeing what happens. Direct sun is a bit of a challenge on my balcony at the moment, so it might have to wait until I get further set up on my acreage.

Interesting you find watering at night works, I often do the same, but a lot of stuff online says this increases the risk of mould forming as the soil stays damp overnight, as opposed to the surface drying out during the day when the plants are watered in the morning. I often wondered why it would matter given that it rains at all hours of the day and plants survive fine in nature, so maybe it doesn't matter!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I find that it usually rains at night here anyway. And it seems to make my plants just that little bit sturdier through drought. I used to morning water, but then realised I needed to water twice a day to allow my plants to recover after the hot day. Sitting with bone-dry soil all night is no good.
I water at night on sunny/dry days, and in the morning on cloudy days. But generally prefer night watering as I'm not up early enough most days

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Forgot to take pictures, but they're growing well! The only one with slight signs of distress is the chocolate mint. But I think that might be because I forgot to water them 3 days straight (the others bounced back better)

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Picture from a few days ago. We have an ongoing drought, but they are doing amazing

 

[Berkeloid]

It does surprise me how well plants can cope without water. Often they seem to wilt if I don't water them every day or two, but I just got back from a two week holiday and aside from the tomatoes having wilted quite badly, everything else seemed to survive just fine without water for two weeks. Amazing!

I did get a couple of these self-watering things from Bunnings designed to stop pots from drying out and they seemed to work, but they only last for seven days then you need to refill them. But surprisingly even the pots without them didn't suffer too badly.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Wow Mandy, they've grown up big and healthy looking. Good job. I was recently starting to think about making a mint collection, get one specimen of every different types, then I learned how many different types that was. Yeah, not doing that, I'd have to buy a few hectares of land to fit them all in. Does the chocolate mint taste much different to the common mint?

 

[Berkeloid]

I didn't realise there were more than a handful of different types of mint! I actually tried a very potent variety in my recent travels but unfortunately I have no idea what it was. The leaves were quite small - around the size of a fingernail - and chewing just one of them was enough to make me feel like I'd just brushed my teeth! It was much stronger than the other mint leaves I've tried in the past, despite their small size.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I've been unwilling to taste it as I actually hate mint chocolate, @Grandmother Goose . But for you, I've sacrificed myself. It definitely has a mild chocolate-y taste to it, with a stronger minty flavour. And I tried some of my common mint after, which was milder than that; it made it taste like I was chewing on grass and toothpaste at the same time

So I imagine that for those who love mint chocolate, this could be a fan favourite. I imagine it would go well with dishes that already (can) have chocolate in it, like Japanese Curry.

I've grown it for the scent only, as it's quite nice. Plus it was $2 on the clearance rack and it needed saving.

Bah, I can't get the taste out of my mouth now

 

[Grandmother Goose]

I didn't realise there were more than a handful of different types of mint! I actually tried a very potent variety in my recent travels but unfortunately I have no idea what it was. The leaves were quite small - around the size of a fingernail - and chewing just one of them was enough to make me feel like I'd just brushed my teeth! It was much stronger than the other mint leaves I've tried in the past, despite their small size.

The mentha genus has 24 species of mint, and many of those species have multiple varieties.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

I've been unwilling to taste it as I actually hate mint chocolate, @Grandmother Goose . But for you, I've sacrificed myself. It definitely has a mild chocolate-y taste to it, with a stronger minty flavour. And I tried some of my common mint after, which was milder than that; it made it taste like I was chewing on grass and toothpaste at the same time

So I imagine that for those who love mint chocolate, this could be a fan favourite. I imagine it would go well with dishes that already (can) have chocolate in it, like Japanese Curry.

I've grown it for the scent only, as it's quite nice. Plus it was $2 on the clearance rack and it needed saving.

Bah, I can't get the taste out of my mouth now

Okay then, looks like I'll have to hunt down and grow some chocolate mint then. Thanks for that. Your sacrifice is greatly appreciated.