When I was growing up, my parents put some mint along side the vegetable garden and it grew like a weed! we would pick off leaves and eat them whenever we felt like it and it was good to eat. I bought a mint plant back in May and have let it grow over the summer. It is now robust and healthy but when I sample the leaves they are fairly bland. I don't bother chewing them, because the flavor is so short-lived and the taste is bitter once the mint flavor is gone. I sampled the leaves before I bought the plant and I thought they were ok. Now I'm wondering, are there different varieties of Mint (spearmint, not peppermint) that have different qualities? would the introduction of Miracle Gro contribute to the watering down of the flavor? Any recommendations or am I expecting too much? A friend brought some mint into work last year and it was very good, not like what I'm growing. thanks!

5 years ago I planted a River Birch in a corner of the yard which frequently was wet due to being a low spot. I selected the River Birch because it survives frequently wet areas. Two years ago the tree was doing fine but suddenly the leaves turned yellow and most of them dropped during late summer. My neighbor had recently rerouted his gravity feed house drainage to that area of the yard. I suspect the Birch was in too wet of soil for too long. We have since diverted most of the water away from that area. The tree had three trunks and one trunk died completely. Two trunks leafed out the next spring but only on the lower half of each. The top half was dead so I pruned them off. This year the two remaining "half" trunks again are growing well. My question is: Will one of the branches become a leader and continue growing tall or do I now have a River Birch bush?