Thanks - Steve

I strongly recommend that you read past posts on this forum about mint - and how difficult it is to contain, how far it can travel etc. I think you could be in for a shock!

In short - mint has a yen for world domination. And you have no fewer than 3 of them - Chocolate Mint, Mint (which I assume is spearmint, or common or garden mint), and Lemon Balm.

They will do OK in partial shade or full sun. The soil must be kept permanently moist (never allow to dry out completely, never soggy). And LOTS of room for those aggressive roots to fill up in no time flat.

Thyme needs as much heat and sun as it can get.

Mint deters White Cabbage Moth, aphids, fleas, ants, mice, flea beetles. Attracts earthworms, hoverflies and predatory wasps.

Thyme deters Cabbage Worm, Cabbage loopers, Whitefly. Attracts bees.

Lemon Balm attracts bees. Dried and scattered over garden, will deter many pests, including Squash bugs. Accumulates phosphorus.

I've never grown Russian Sage, but I found it quickly by doing a Google search. It is NOT a true sage at all, and is regarded as mainly ornamental. (The herb we know as Sage is Salvia officinalis, a member of a large family of which only a very few are edible.)

I don't think Russian Sage has culinary uses, but it is quite attractive. Regular garden sage is what you probably want. It is sort of gray-looking, and would be quite happy in a pot. It, too, prefers full sun, but I have had it grow unenthusiastically in part sun, and even flower the following year.

The chocolate mint, mint, and lemon balm will all grow fine in individual pots on the same table if you keep them clipped.

Lemon balm otherwise will grow straight up to about two feet and then produce seed, which is totally viable and may spread all over your area if it can escape your porch. I have not seen it spread by runners--it took over an entire little herb garden I had, and then spread through my whole backyard, though (admittedly, I was distracted by having and caring for my two toddlers at the time). If you use it--and it is very useful to make cooling teas--this will not bother you, though. It's probably the best summer herb tea there is.

Chocolate mint, in my experience, is much more sensitive to conditions than regular mint. It is more sensitive to drying out, and may be less inclined to winter over in a pot. I have one I recently planted directly in the ground, in a fine mulch, and it is adjusting better there than it ever did for me in pots with more clayey soil.

Both mints will send out runners and try to take over the others' pots eventually, if they are happy on your table, but that's not really a problem if you keep them clipped. The larger the pots you are able to provide, the more mint you will get.

If you use potting soil, add a moisture-holding amendment so they will not totally dry out between waterings. I always purchase bags of humus, topsoil, and sand, and mix my own (outside) so the plants have more natural nutrients.

If you have any rooted offshoots, consider also planting those around your apartment foundation if that is a possibility. My theory is that the bees and other creatures are helped when they have mint and other herbs available to them.

:o)

I'll probably have the Thyme in my full sun area. I just have to find something to put it in. It's a slight baby now, so I have thyme to figure out what to pot it in. ;-)

daisy: Great info about the pests they repell! Makes me love my herb garden even more. =)

eibren: Very good to know about the watering. They'll probably end up going in some MG Moisture Control Potting Mix with some Canadian peat lining the bottom to hold in the water a good bit. My Basil Tree (I say this cuz it was huge! Gotta love Basil) I grew last year was kind of the same way.

Thanks y'all! I'll post some pictures of the plants on here sometime soon.

Peace - Steve

I get the impression (rightly or wrongly) that you have very little idea just how aggressive mint can be! You have seen the Lemon Balm giving you a teensy hint of it, however you ain't seen nothin' yet! So I urge you to use the Search button at the bottom of the forum page and read through all the many threads about it. Truly, it can be an absolute thug!

That doesn't mean you couldn't try it; maybe you will start a new fad!

Sometimes propagation is done by fastening a moist medium to the joints of some plants, covered with a moisture-resistant covering such as a baggie. You could try that if you do the trellis thing and want offshoots. It also might make it happier to be trellised.

Lemon Balm:

Mint:

Russian Sage:

Thyme:

Chocolate Mint:

A plant is only as healthy as its root system. If the roots don't have the space to spread out, they can't get at the nutrients they need, and they die - either of starvation or of choking themselves to death.

I recommend an immediate repotting!

What you have is not definitely a LemonBalm but it is lemon verbena I think.
Lemone balm's leaves do not look like That.
I have just bought and planted a lemon verbena? in my HG few days ago. It has 3 or 4 leggy shoots laying down.
Lemon Balm grows upright and bushy with strong stems even when small.

From what I have heard lemon verbena can grow and become a bush. Although aged lemon balm can get bushy two but its top would die in winter(in zone 8 atleast) and grows back next spring.
The point is that Lemon verbena by itself needs about a 12" pot, maybe bigger.

Cyrus: In it's shown form above, the Lemon Balm is a few cuttings, not an actual plant yet. It's one step further on that road now due to being potted up. I got it from a local master gardner, so i'll need to see wikipedia-based proof that it's not Lemon Balm, if you have some links available. =)

- Steve

That picture looks just like my lemon balm - well, the shape of the leaves, that is. It's definitely not lemon verbena, whose leaves are pointy, and quite rough to the touch when you rub your finger from tip to stem. Lemon verbena leaves are narrow and pointy, and they have a very strong lemon-y aroma when crushed.

Lemon Balm looks very like spearmint - much more rounded-shpaed leaves, and an almost-yellow, pale green colour. When crushed they smell like a lemon-mint combination.

Lemon Balm:
http://www.risc.org.uk/garden/plants/lemonbalm_600w.jpg

You are right. I was wrong.
I had the impression that what is in that pot is a single plant. But it was several cuttings. Lemon balm is so easy to grow from seeds that I woner why one will use cutting. Also it seeds like crazy. Again, I have never seen a lemon balm with such long thin branches. They become real bushy even without pinching off. But aparantly the cuting lacked light and grew leggy and thin. Anyway, I was mistaken. I have had lemon verbena just for a few days and cannot even picture its leaves shape at the moment. The sources show that it has long narow smooth edged leaves. I will look more closely tomorrow morning.

Cyrus

Daisy, I disagree with keeping the soil permanently moist. This may be so until and only until the plants are established, once the roots have developed enough that the plant is thriving allow to dryout between waterings. Many an herb has died from over watering, herbs prefer the soil to dryout between watering.

I know it well.

:o/

I am quite aware of how to find cheap pots. My strawberries are growing in a large wicker-like basket I bought at a yard sale for 50 cents. Another 50 cents got me two beer buckets, which i'm using for pepper plants. No need for the advice on how to find these...lol...as poor as I am, I can find them quite well myself. Regarding the potting mix to use, thanks for the suggestion, but I am no newbie to gardening. I have my own potting mixes I use (a few different ones depending upon the plant it's for).

Your comment about things growing up instead of out reminded me of a vertical container garden I saw recently (link below). I haven't tried it myself - I just thought it was neat. I imagine it as a wall of strawberries... yum :)

I figured I'd post it in case you or anyone else found it useful. :)

How's the lemon balm doing? I'm off to search this forum for info on mints. I love them and they don't seem to be at all invasive up here. I was actually surprised to see so many people saying they are! I'm hoping to find out if it's just that they're more controllable in this zone or if it's something else...

Peace - Steve

Steve's Garden