Mint Mint Water
I love mint water. It rekindled my interest in growing plants.
Two weeks ago, I don't know why but there was swelling in the gum under one of my teeth. I told my mom about this, and she invited me to try the mint water which is made from the mint she grew. And OMG, I totally fell in love with it! (ˊᗜˋ*)
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Ever since I was little, I've mostly only drunk soy milk and milk, and I've rarely had tea. I have had some herbal tea before, but I just felt so-so about it. So it's really surprising that I'm so fascinated with mint water this time. Though I guess I've drunk mint water before — like the restaurant I visited with my family last weekend also served mint water — the flavor was too faint. I could barely taste that distinctive minty aroma. That might be the case for almost all the mint water I've tried.
I did some research on mint online and found that some people are allergic to the menthol it contains. However, I only drink about 250ml of mint water a day at most, and I haven't noticed any allergy symptoms so far, so I can keep enjoying this drink. :3
(btw, coconut water is another drink I absolutely love, and it's even the most recommended drink to have during the final bowel-cleansing stage before a colonoscopy. I'm so lucky!)
Because of my love for mint water, I started to imagine what if I also plant mint and "mint" mint water anytime...
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These two pots of mint were planted by my mom.
She's already given me permission to take care of the one on the right in the photo.
I used to plant pothos in the office. I'm only brave enough to tackle plants slightly harder than devil's ivy. Mint feels like a good test. And luckily, my mom is good at planting, so she just propagated her healthy mint by layering. The mint mama will accompany the mint kid until it's strong enough to fend for itself. (☌ᴗ☌)八(•ᴗ•)
Hedi's Planting Mint Checklist:#
- Grow in part-shaded spot (I'm in Taiwan, in subtropical zone)
- Grow in a container to prevent it from spreading (We use terracotta with holes)
Daily Care for Mint:#
- Keep the mint hydrated, but never overwater it
- Feed sparingly to keep basic nutrition in potting soil
- Frequent pinching back helps the mint bushy while delaying flowering
- Watch out for snails or slugs 🐌
- Repot and prune when it's necessary
Our mint water is just pure mint and water without any sugar. We cherish the mint leaves, we always re-steep it for three times. So I can steadily mint mint water, get some magic from the mint in my daily life.
And I also planted plots of mint outside my digital room. I have superpower there, so the mint are all ready to be harvested by default. Though there's magic in this digital room, it still takes 5 min for mint to be served again.
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As for the issue with my tooth, there's actually a slow-developing cavity that can only be detected via x-ray. I told the dentist that some of my teeth were also damaged in the car accident years ago. (I lost many teeth in that accident) And the tooth with a cavity in the x-ray is one of them, but neither the dentists nor I noticed the damage to the part of the tooth that was under the gum.
It was rather a rare case that dental interns were gathered in my treatment room. The dentists discussed and told me they might try to extract my tooth to do the filling, then replant it. (I guess it's so-called Intentional Replantation?) I don't feel scared about the coming treatment, but I really wish the cavity wasn't caused by my bad habit. One time, I tried using a fork to get the enoki mushrooms out from between my teeth... I felt so annoyed at that moment...(ಠ_ಠ) Of course I never did that again, and I actually didn't try hard that time.
Whether it was caused by the car accident or my dangerous action, it is what it is. What I need to do is to be more and more careful. The human body has strong self-healing ability, but it's also very fragile.
Hope we can all stay healthy!
Wish me luck for both planting, the mint planting and the tooth planting! :>