While maintaining a large garden, or growing all of your own food may seem like an impossible or overwhelming task, the key to getting started in gardening is to start small, and pick a plant that will give you rewards. There is no point to growing tomatoes if you can not stand to eat them or are allergic to them. However, a little experimentation will help you discover a plant to get you started, even if you have never gardened before!

One of the easiest plants to grow, and one that almost everyone likes, is mint. Mint now comes not only in the standard peppermint and spearmint, but has many subtle and delicious varieties: chocolate mint, apple mint, lime mint, lemon mint, and others. Besides adding a leaf to iced tea, consider making iced or hot tea from mint, adding a chopped mint leaf to your salads, making a mint sorbet, or adding some mint to a dessert, whether chocolate pudding or a lemon pie. Because mint is so adaptable, you can find many good uses for it!

Mint will tend to take over space in a garden, so don’t just plant it somewhere, but find a space in an easement surrounded by concrete, or grow it in a large pot. If you harvest the leaves regularly, the mint will attempt to replace the leaves; otherwise it will grow roots and spread. By judicious harvesting, you can keep mint under control and enjoy the flavour of mint in drinks, desserts, salads, and more. And you can chew mint as a breath freshener, too!