Mint & lemongrass

Mint and lemongrass share one rule, bags only, for different reasons: mint escapes, and lemongrass just gets enormous. Both go out in late May and earn their keep in drinks and the curry pot.

Growing

Buy mint as a plant, not seed, and give it any bag in almost any light; the single instruction is never let it touch open ground, since one rooted runner is a decade of weeding. Lemongrass can start as a grocery stalk rooted in a glass of water a few weeks ahead, then goes into a big bag after mid May and eats heat and water all summer. Before frost, pot up a lemongrass division for a windowsill winter; it is a true tropical and stays wherever it is warm. Both drink prodigiously; if either bag feels light when tipped, watering is overdue.

Varieties

Spearmint is the drink mint and peppermint the tea mint; Kentucky Colonel is the julep pick.

In the kitchen

Mint covers tea, mojitos, and anything with peas or lamb. The swollen lemongrass bases go into curry and tom kha, and spare stalks freeze whole.