Why Raised Garden Beds Are Best for Mint Herbs

We are starting to get into the super long hot 100° summer days here in Zone 8(b), so we are still planting seedlings. This year we started converting all of our garden beds (for veggies, herbs, or essential oil flowers) to raised beds, because of our super-sandy soil, and this time the Mint family was next up.

We are slowing adding these super long 14 foot to 18 foot beds out in a super sunny pasture area near our west side veggie garden. This one we built for the Mint is 16 feet by 4 feet wide. It took about 6-7 front-end loader scoops of our sandy soil, and then about 6-8 bags of raised bed soil, which we will amend over time with compost.

The reason for putting Mint herbs in a raised bed is these varieties tend to spread prolifically and can take over a garden area if it doesn't have some bounds, like a raised bed. The Peppermint in the very center was in one of our squash beds and was just starting to get unruly before we dug it up and gave it its new home. Below is a bit of a pictorial step-by-step of making this bed. If you want to see a quick video of the space, it's on the YouTube link below.

Photo Gallery of Beds

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