Making a mint

A few weeks ago I was talking about my desire to have more mint in the garden, a plan which is still a work in progress. It’s hard keeping mints in small pots happy in a hot, sunny garden. Ultimately I’d like to plant them into bottomless pots, sunk into the soil along the fence, but work on that area of the garden has stalled whilst we take care of other things.

The mints I have (and the lemon balm plants) are all putting on new growth after their summer hair cuts, and looking lovely. A recent blog post about growing your own green thai curry reminded me that I wanted to add lime balm into the mix, but this particular variety of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis ‘Lime’) isn’t widely available. The author of that blog, Nic Wilson, told me that she picked up her plant from a stall at the Hampton Court Flower Show, and events like that are often good places to find unusual species and varieties for the garden.

A quick Google (including a look at the RHS Plant Finder) showed me that there aren’t too many online suppliers for lime balm in the UK. The most obvious is Hooksgreenherbs, from where you can buy a 1 litre plant for £5. Which sounds reasonable until you get to the postage charges – £6.50. It’s not cost effective to buy one plant from them (and one plant, and a packet of seeds, was all I wanted from their catalogue at the moment).

A slightly more extensive search brought me to Battlesbridge Mills at Newlands Nursery, which has quite a large range of herb plants, as well as chillies. They sell much smaller plants – the options being an ‘established starter plant’ (£1.05) or a 9cm potted plant (£1.55). Orders over £10 offer free delivery.

I can’t be the only person more willing to pay for plants than postage