Runners plants are a popular and easy way to incorporate more vegetables into your diet. Growing your own veggies is simple and a breeze compared to purchasing prepackaged veggies at the grocery store. In fact, it may be the easiest part of vegetable gardening! Simply locate a good spot in your yard with plenty of sun (but not too much, if you live in a country with a lot of rain). Start growing your runner garden in spring, and enjoy fresh new greens and tasty snacks in no time.

To start, pull your new plants out of their containers and if possible, trim all of the old growth back so they are easier to handle when transplanting. If you do not have a large yard, dig a hole that is one to two feet deep and then place the container inside. The soil should be slightly moist but not overly wet. You can purchase a special starter fertilizer online or at most garden stores for runners plants.

Once you have established a good soil base, the rest of the process is fairly simple. Choose a variety of runners that grow well together and plant them in the holes you’ve dug. Mint and thyme work well together because they love the sun, but mint will grow much faster than time, so you may want to plant mint in the winter and thymes in the summer. You can harvest both varieties of mint easily by picking off the tops. Keep mint in your garden to add fresh, aromatic flavors to your dishes, and you’ll find yourself eating more mint!

There are other mint plants you can use to spruce up your garden if you don’t like the smell of mint in your yard. An assortment of cleavers and rhizomes will fill your yard with delightful aromas that you’ll enjoy as much as the taste of mint! Try planting cleavers in a circular pattern around your perimeter or try growing them as taller plants and using the taller ones to screen in cool breezes. If you are short on space, growing cleavers in containers on your deck or patio will give you a great alternative. The same principle applies to growing rhizomes such as oregano, jasmine, Rosemary, or thyme.

To keep your mint from spreading out too quickly, tie a stem end on the plant at the base of the plant and pull back on the stem, removing the entire plant. This prevents the young leaves from spreading out too quickly. Be careful, though! Some species of mint can actually eat their own leaves, so keep some cuttings on hand for emergency use. Other plants are best planted right up to the base. Lantana, creeping phlox, and creeping ivy are all grown that way and will produce beautiful blooms if pruned correctly.

When it comes time to pick flowers from your runners, you have several options. Most hobbyists prefer using stolons as the method of picking. Stolons are simply branches of the plant that still retain their leaves and blossoms. If you are growing more than one plant per stem, then you will need two stolons. If you are only growing one or two, then you can trim the stem at the base and use one stem.

Once you have established new plants from your runners, it is important to prune the runners frequently. Paving new plants over the old can cause the new plants to crowd out the roots of the old. Also, check the new plants regularly to see if they are growing properly. Check for signs of blight, which are brown spots forming on the underside of the new stems. This is a common problem and usually indicates that the new plant has not been pruned properly. You may need to re-pave the runner if this happens.

Pruning your runners is not difficult, but it should be done regularly. Remove too many of the leaves or roots, and pinch back the remaining stems so that the new plant has room to grow. You will also want to cut away excess growing media such as latex to prevent the plant from drying out. Use your best judgment and practice, and in time, you will have a beautiful flowering carpet of roses and other flowers.