Last night, I picked my first batch of spearmint for the year. I am an absolute fan of Mint Iced Tea – Ice Tea in general. I drink a lot, so I am careful what it is that I am drinking (specifically that it is natural, has few calories). And my seasonal favorite is Mint Ice Tea.
As long as I have had a piece of dirt to grown things on, I have planted mint. My preference is Spearmint over peppermint, but either will do. I have found that the many varieties of mint that have been created are kind of mind blowing. The most interesting to me would be the “Chocolate Mint” variety. My mother in law found some once, but I thought it was a little weird.
My present mint patch is along the side of my house. And unfortunately it has not done so well in the past few years. I do not know if it is because I over cut it (usually 5 stems every other day). I would say it is low sunlight, but it used to produce much better. I will be looking into what I need to do with the soil to improve the yield, as I will be drinking this all summer.
Over the winter, I have looked for other alternatives, when fresh mint is not around. The closest thing to my tea is Boston’s Mint-in-Tea. I used that for a couple of years until my wife and I found something better. Just squeeze an orange and a lemon in a gallon of tea. During Mint season, I still have to make the orange-lemon for my wife (she is not a fan of Mint tea.).
Andrew that is awesome man. Wonderful. Happy to know we return to warm, gorgeous conditions in a few weeks. Mint from the garden; nothing like it. The lady we house sat for 2 months ago had heaps of fresh mint in her garden, along with a good 20 fruits and veggies. Impressive set up.
Well I have some spearmint so I should try making some iced tea with it. It usually grows pretty aggressively, but sounds like yo harvest yours pretty aggressively too! So I guess you’re safe from it getting out of control. I use rock powders like Maury’s Minerals on my garden- probiotics for the soil which make it drought-proof and all around hardier crops.
I just moved and am getting my stuff going late this year. We’ll see what happens. Good luck!
Great advice on the fertilizing. I will try it. Nothing I have tried before has done much. The tea has been great this year though!