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habitat_gardener · March 23, 2011

I grow my chocolate mint and moroccan mint in containers. When it starts to overgrow the containers (or escape from the holes at the bottom), I trim the roots and compost them (and haven't had an invasion yet), and I dry the leaves for tea. It dies back in the winter, so I'm surprised there was enough of it to fill a bushel in the land of snow.

I had mint tea tonight from mint I dried a year or two ago. My plants outdoors are just starting to come back and don't have enough foliage for tea yet.

My lemon balm has stayed in one place for at least 5 years. I don't water it, and we get no summer rain. I cut it to the ground at least 3 times a year (just before it starts to flower), and it comes back beautifully. I get a few seedlings here and there, but I know what they look like and can pull them when they're a quarter-inch wide. The first couple times I trimmed it, I dried the leaves. But then I realized it comes back so fast, I can almost always pick fresh lemon balm, so now it just gets composted.

March 23, 2011	#61
habitat_gardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: California Central Valley Posts: 2,540	I grow my chocolate mint and moroccan mint in containers. When it starts to overgrow the containers (or escape from the holes at the bottom), I trim the roots and compost them (and haven't had an invasion yet), and I dry the leaves for tea. It dies back in the winter, so I'm surprised there was enough of it to fill a bushel in the land of snow. I had mint tea tonight from mint I dried a year or two ago. My plants outdoors are just starting to come back and don't have enough foliage for tea yet. My lemon balm has stayed in one place for at least 5 years. I don't water it, and we get no summer rain. I cut it to the ground at least 3 times a year (just before it starts to flower), and it comes back beautifully. I get a few seedlings here and there, but I know what they look like and can pull them when they're a quarter-inch wide. The first couple times I trimmed it, I dried the leaves. But then I realized it comes back so fast, I can almost always pick fresh lemon balm, so now it just gets composted.