Opportunistic Mint
Nurturing what nature sends my way and a killer recipe for strawberry mint tea
“What should happen to a garden once its creator is gone?”
— Amy Waldman (Travel + Leisure Magazine)
To me, the answer is easy; another gardener should take up the mantel.
Photos from home sale sites like Zillow and Redfin have helped me guesstimate who made the gardening choices at my home. And it wasn’t the family we bought the house from1; it was the family before them.
After analyzing the landscape for the last 4 years, I’ve come to the conclusion that they were curious to grow just about anything that would flourish in Zone 7b. This led to asymmetrical plant placement, encouraging an errant black walnut tree in a terrible location, and stuffing hostas in any strange, shaded nook they could find. And while I’m particularly unhappy with the poolside junipers,2 and really need to rid myself of that walnut tree, I’ve mostly kept to their scheme. It’s what feels right for the garden.
Though I will admit, I’ve introduced more repeated vignettes. To me, a little bit of repeating — even if it’s asymmetrical — is what transforms the mish-mash of plants from chaotic to curated. So when I do introduce a new plant variety, I usually buy at least two, like my most recent addition of heuchera.
2026 marks my first year with heuchera.
The heat and lack of rainfall in Los Angeles (Zone 10) means I never encountered heuchera before moving to the South. Now that I’ve been here a few years, I’ve seen them in garden centers and a few editions of Southern Living. And I love their pretty, saturated leaves.
After thinking about how we could elevate our steps/walkway, I decided two varieties of contrasting heuchera would be the perfect addition. They should thrive in the dappled sun of the boxwoods’ nooks and crannies.
Each year, I let as much as possible self-seed in the vegetable garden.
My favorite thing about a self-seeded garden is that I don’t control when things grow. The seeds decide by themselves when it’s time to germinate. And in a world of endless optimization, it’s nice to let go of the growing cycle. To not be in control. I think this is when “tending the garden” becomes truest. I am only its caretaker. I will make sure it gets water and do my best to prevent pests and weeds.
For the past three years, this has meant my lettuce, cherry tomatoes, basil, onions, and calendula have respawned (so to speak). However, this year it looks like I also managed cabbage, cucumber, green beans, and (an as-of-yet unknown variety of) peppers3. I’m thrilled because these plants should be hardier than indoor starters.
Continuing the Substack notebook of what’s blooming in the garden.
Thanks for following along with me!
Like the wild garlic that infiltrated my yard, I somehow found myself with an entire planter full of “wild” mint.
At first, it was an empty, unplanned planter. Then birds/wind/nature determined that it should hold blackberries, green beans, and mint. I decided to keep the mint, but with its long-reaching rhizomes, mint can quickly become a pest, so it seemed best to leave the mint confined to the planter. I relocated the blackberries to pots (to give to friends4) and moved the green beans to this year’s bean plot. Then, as expected, the mint took over the planter, and I suddenly had scads of unplanned mint.
Always an optimistic opportunist, I decided to weave mint into my spring syllabus for mixology studies. But I wasn’t really sure where to start until a Feeling! Magazine reader mentioned fresh mint iced tea. Suddenly, the first experiment was obvious!
Shout out to Megan Alexander for the iced tea recipe that inspired this week’s drink!
Not being a native Southerner, I don’t understand the appeal of sweet tea. Except… I may have just changed my mind when it comes to fresh mint iced tea!
Forbidden Fruit by Hallway Swimmers (2018)
Some She Wants Revenge post-punk vibes here. Though 1/2 the EP reads more Mew-adjacent.
Mission by Kellermensch (2022)
“Making meals to feed our children | while we worry what to tell them”
Little Miss Optimist by Imogen Valentine (2026)
Your dose of Indie Pop for the week.
Sundays in the Overachievers Club should recall the feeling of the giant Sunday Edition of the newspaper, hand-delivered with cartoons, film reviews, TV guides, and a big stack of coupons. What joy! So much to investigate. Promises and dreams for the week ahead.
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To be honest, I think they barely cared what grew where, and just paid for maintenance.
They notoriously die from the inside out due to our poor soil drainage. It looks TERRIBLE.
This is the biggest shock to me, as I was just telling Allyson at Fox Hollow last month that I had given up starting peppers indoors because of the effort involved. In my zone, you need heating mats and moisture domes to even make a go of it. Such a pain! But somehow, these seeds must have gotten the heat and moisture they needed from my compost bin. And two weeks after I added said compost to my garden bed, they sprouted!
I already have more than enough blackberry plants, and they also spread quickly!
Another beaut of a post, a feast for all the senses 🤗