Plant Wars!

*The ruthless peppermint plant.

I started a patio garden during the summer. A small, yet respectable, collection of herbs as well as a couple Thai Chili plants. The plants flourished throughout the summer and I was able to enjoy their freshness (and insane spiciness from the peppers) in my cooking. Then fall started to approach and I was left with a dilemma.

I knew that my plants would not be able to survive life outdoors in the harsh winter that was fast approaching. But I also knew that the amount of light in my apartment wouldn't be enough to sustain them either. So I did some researching and a little hunting and came up with a solution. I brought the light indoors with the help of some cheap Ikea shelving and small flourescent fixtures scavenged from work (previously scavenged from a, now cancelled, game show set).

Now I have a new problem. My plants have been going through a sudden growth spurt and their leaves are now fighting for space among the shelves. My peppermint plant is particularly ruthless. It grows in any direction it can, greedily pushing though the other plants. When I go to harvest some herby goodness I frequently have to untangle plants from each other just to make sure I don't mistakenly put mint in my pasta when I meant to use oregano. The only real solution to the problem is to just keep on hacking away at the plants until spring, when I will be able to repot them into larger containers and let them run wild!