Mint is an easy herb to grow in your garden and can add flavor to every meal.
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Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Mint
Growing
- Minimal care is needed for mint. For outdoor plants, use a light mulch. This will help keep the soil moist and keep the leaves clean.
- Indoor plants should be watered regularly to keep the soil evenly moist.
- At first, mints develop into well-behaved-looking, bushy, upright clumps, but they soon set out to conquer new territory with horizontal runners and underground rhizomes. Unless you block the advance, a peppermint plant can become a sprawling 4-foot giant in just 1 year. It鈥檚 not the stuff of horror movies, however. Mints benefit from picking and pruning. They are shallow-rooted and easy to pull out, so there鈥檚 no reason to worry as long as you provide physical barriers such as walls, walkways, or containers.
Harvesting
- Frequent harvesting is the key to keeping mint plants at their best. Young leaves have more flavor than old ones, and mint can be harvested as soon as it comes up in spring. Although fresh is best, and sprigs should be kept in water for a few days, mint leaves can be frozen or air-dried in bunches.
- Right before flowering, cut the stems 1 inch from the ground. You can harvest one mint plant two or three times in one growing season.
- You can also pick the leaves as you need them.
- You can grow the plants indoors for fresh leaves throughout the winter. If you want to dry them, it鈥檚 best to cut the leaves right before flowering. Store the dried leaves in an airtight container.
Propagating Mint
The best way to propagate mints is by taking cuttings from those that you like best. It鈥檚 easy鈥攖ake 6-inch cuttings of rooted stems and plant them horizontally in the soil. Mint stems will also root in a glass of water. Start with a small cutting from an established plant. Any gardening friend will give you a cutting of a favorite mint.
Cooking Notes
Serious cooks generally prefer spearmint for savory dishes and peppermint for desserts. Try apple or orange mint for a delicate mint taste in fruit salads, yogurt, or tea. Mint lurks in the background in Middle Eastern salads, such as tabouli, and does well with lamb. It also goes with peas, zucchini, fresh beans, marinades for summer vegetables, cold soups, fruit salads, and cheese.
Tip! Make flavored ice cubes by freezing trays of strong mint tea, then use the ice cubes for your drinks!
Catherine Boeckmann
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I've been reading a lot of these comments to figure out what I should do. I live in Nebraska. Have 2 mint & 1 chocolate mint outside on my apartment balcony. After this weekend's icy weather, I checked on my plant and all 3 look sad. Leaves and hanging down, some are brown, and stems look like something stepped on the plant and they didn't go back up after that (weight of the ice probably). I don't have a place to plant them since I live in an apartment (not on ground floor) & I know my allergies will be affected if I bring the plants indoors. Do I just keep the plants outside and hope they come back in the spring? Each plant is in a plastic pot with draining holes. Suggestions for any ideas/tips... I do like mint in my water & hot chocolate so would like to take care of them and have them back in the spring!
Spearmint and peppermint are winter hardy and will most likely survive outside on the balcony with some protection. The chocolate mint is more tender and may not make it. Put the pots close together in a cardboard box or some other bigger container. Add straw under and around the pots and cover the pots with straw. You can also add a blanket over the top of the box.
i have a mint plant outside my house but im not sure which one it is but i get lots of bees in it im not sure how to harvest it and it has soooooo many flowers on it i live in a zone 6 climate
also is it just me or does mint smell kind of skunky? is that smell normal?
My daughter planted a chocolate mint outside and we got it from a nursery so I know that's what it is. The pictures are the same, it's obvious. To me, it smells sort of skunky when people brush against it, not chocolaty, sweet, or minty at all. No one else in the family notices it, just me. And it's not as strong as a real skunk or as lasting (thankfully!) but it could be the chocolate mint. I also have bee balm, spearmint, peppermint, orange mint, and catnip planted and none of those smell skunky to me, but the chocolate does every time.
It could be a type of catmint (Nepeta). There are hundreds of kinds. Some, like catnip, attract cats and others, like your stinky one, repel cats and even insects such as mosquitoes.
I live in Minnesota and never planted peppermint before. Is it like rhubarb where you can only harvest it put to a certain time of the year or can you go to freeze?
Peppermint is hardy to Zone 3, but invasive. In Minnesota, you can plant peppermint in a weather-resistant container and sink it into the garden to its rim. Leave this over winter. You can harvest leaves throughout the growing season, or cut the plant back to just above one or two sets of leaves, just before the plant flowers (flavor is best then). Do this up to three times per growing season; it will grow back. You can dry or freeze the leaves, as well.
We recently have had mice in the house which we never have had before. I am wondering... If I planted mint in containers and placed them around my garden on the ground (or where I think mice have gotten into the house) would the potted mint plants deter mice or does the mint plant need to be actually growing in the ground in order for them to smell it and stay away. Please help because mice in the house is NOT acceptable!! Thanks!
Find all the holes and openings in your house and stuff them with steel wool. Mice hate this and will not attempt to get through. Look under your stove, air condition vents, dishwasher connections etc! The extra addition of the mint around the perimeters will work great. You should be in great shape as long as you find and stuff all openings!
Many folks find that peppermint oil will deter a mouse because of its strong aroma.
In gardens, plant herbs such as lavender around borders to keep pests out. This is a form of "companion planting."
You can try to make an herbal spray treatment to spray around plants or around your kitchen. Just add herbs to a jar of water and let it sit in the sun for a few days. Pour into a spray bottle and spray daily.
However, the mice are not likely to actually leave real shelter if they have nowhere to go. You also need to make sure all cracks in the house are sealed, especially rooms where food is kept. All food should be off the floor and keep a clean cleaning around the house including weeds or woodpiles. If you happen to live in a country area, the goal is just to make the mice manageable because they can fit under any crack less than 1/4-inch thick.
For the mice inside the house, you may need to resort to trapping if you feel strongly about living together; otherwise, they will die inside the house.
