Now that we’re safely past the last frost, hanging baskets cascading with bright petunias, fuchsia and ivy geraniums are appearing on light poles and under eaves all over Colorado.
Think differently this year, and create some green hanging baskets, with herbs of all textures and growth habits: trailing vines of Vietnamese coriander (Persicaria odorata), bushy tricolor sage and spikes of tarragon.
This idea came from a friend, travel writer Cynthia Barnes, who described a “mint chandelier” she made when she lived in Columbia, Mo.
“It was so nice to just reach up and pick some mint for your tea or your mojito,” she said.
A hanging herb display has a second practical use. It tames the perennial mint family’s tendency to spread. If herbs have escaped your kitchen garden and are threatening to take over the turfgrass, dig them up, pot a few into containers and divide the rest for friends.
suggests using retired sap buckets. We found metal pails in cheerful colors, 4 inches in diameter, with handles, at Hobby Lobby. Punch a few holes in the bottom and add pebbles for drainage.
Wrap a circle of floral wire below the lip. Cut a length of wire roughly twice as long as the length you want the pot to hang from above, and twist each end with its opposite ends on the wire circle. A slipknot over the handles of our buckets also worked. We made two sets of three, tying the hanging wires securely at the top.
Taking more of a McGyver approach, the English do-it-yourselfer website suggests hanging a shoe organizer on a pole firmly attached to a house or shed, filling the pockets with potting soil, poking holes as needed for drainage and planting chives, thyme, parsley and baby salad greens. (instruct -quotGrow-upquot-in-a-smal)
Echter’s Greenhouse offers a huge variety of mint flavors. Besides spearmint (mentha spicata “Swiss”), chocolate, apple, grapefruit and orange mint, and Moroccan mint for tea, we found ginger mint (Mentha x. gracilis) and lime mint (M. aquatica citrata) for our cocktail testing.
Mix up some simple syrup, lay in a supply of limes and pray that summer comes soon.
Freelance writer Lisa Greim gardens at her home in Arvada.
Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s Mojito
Morgenthaler tends bar in Portland, Ore. He prefers crushed ice and Bacardi Superior, “the closest thing we can get to real Cuban rum.” Leave the mint leaves on the stem and muddle (scrunch) with a wooden spoon. Serves 1.
Ingredients
1 large sprig spearmint
3/4 ounce simple syrup
Half a spent lime hull
1 ounce fresh lime juice (no less, no more)
2 ounces white rum
3 ounces sparkling mineral water
Directions
In a 16-ounce mixing glass, gently muddle together spearmint and simple syrup. Add the lime hull, lime juice, rum and mineral water. Top with crushed ice, stir with a straw and sip slowly.
