Balcony Mint Garden

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Dontello and I have a good-sized balcony that becomes another room for our small apartment in the summer months. We have a barbecue and a white plastic patio set and regularly use the balcony to entertain. I was really excited to have plants when we first moved in, after having lived in a windowless cabin on a cruise ship for four years. Although we have tons of light pouring in our bay window during the winter, the summer months are bit different. We live on a tree-lined street, which is beautiful and keeps us cooler in the summer heat, but it also casts a shade on all the balcony plants. I tried growing tomatoes and peppers last summer, but only harvested a sorry two item crop late in October. Pathetic!

On the wise advice of a fellow balcony-gardener, I invested my horticultural efforts in a mint garden this summer. Mint plants are said to prefer morning light and some afternoon sun, which is perfect for our east-facing balcony.  Instead of just one plant, I chose five different versions to keep it interesting and test out which variety survived best in our balcony garden. Mint is a hardy plant that tends to take over the garden, so all the gardening books and sites that I’ve looked at recommend growing mint in pots anyway.

Here I have orange mint and lemon balm, which is also part of the mint family.

Chocolate and mojito mint. These two will be the stars of many future cocktails!

Good ol’ peppermint rounds out this quintet of herbs.

I plan to test my harvest with these recipes:

Zesty Mint Virgin Cocktail

Mint Iced Tea with Pansies

Flavoured Waters: Cucumber Mint Water