Back in April I bought a fresh mint plant from the supermarket. The normal pattern with these store bought plants then follows:-
- Water the plant
- Pick the leaves to use in different ways
- Water the plant
- Pick more leaves
- Water the plant
- Unless you have a garden…
- Plant has barely any leaves left, doesn’t really recover and gets thrown away
Not this time. I was fed up of buying plants to use but then not having them last longer than a month tops.
Living in an apartment is limited when you want to keep your plants healthy, alive and a long time but having good weather most of the year certainly helps them stay around a little longer if not more work to keep them happily watered. If I’m hot then the plant certainly isn’t going to feel any cooler.
In the past I’ve had mint in the garden. It takes over patches year after year, gets stronger no matter how much you cut it back and always returns with a vengeance. It can quickly get out of control but smells amazing so you put up with it anyway.
I decided to tackle looking after this potted mint plant a different way. He’d already survived being grown, popped into a plant pot, travelling to the store and then coming home with me. It had even survived me plucking its minty leaves so I could at least help him survive a bit longer!