蜜桃恋人

How to Grow Mint Plants: The Complete Guide

Mint is an easy herb to grow in your garden and can add flavor to every meal.

Botanical Name
Mentha
Plant Type
Herb
Sun Exposure
Full Sun

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Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Mint

Catherine Boeckmann

Mint practically grows itself! This herb adds flavor to foods and tea and is also useful for aiding digestion. All you need to do is confine mint to keep it from spreading. See tips on planting, growing, controlling, and harvesting mint.

About Mint

Mint is a perennial herb with very fragrant, toothed leaves and tiny purple, pink, or white flowers. There are many varieties of mint鈥攁ll fragrant, whether shiny or fuzzy, smooth or crinkled, bright green or variegated. However, you can always tell a member of the mint family by its square stem. Rolling it between your fingers, you鈥檒l notice an aromatic scent and think of candy, sweet teas, or even mint juleps.

As well as kitchen companions, mints are used as garden accents, ground covers, air fresheners, and herbal medicines. They鈥檙e as beautiful as they are functional and foolproof to grow, thriving in sun and shade all over North America. Since mint can be a vigorous spreader, you must be careful where you plant it.

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Planting

  • Mints are vigorous perennials that thrive in light soil with good drainage.
  • Ideally, they prefer a moist but well-drained site, something like their native habitat along stream banks.
  • Most will grow in sun or partial shade; the variegated types may require some protection from direct sun.
  • For growing outdoors, plant one or two purchased plants (or one or two cuttings from a friend) about 2 feet apart in moist soil. One or two plants will easily cover the ground. Mint should grow to be 1 or 2 feet tall.
  • Mint is a vigorous grower and needs to be contained, or it will send out its runners and spread all over your garden. The key is to contain the plant鈥檚 roots. Whether it’s in the ground or above ground, plant mint in a pot; we suggest each mint is planted in a 10-inch pot that has drainage holes. You can then sink this pot into the ground or another larger container of soil. 
  • If you are fine with mint becoming a ground cover and understand that it may become invasive, plant in its own raised bed or separate area.
  • In the garden, plant mint near cabbage and tomatoes鈥攊n pots, again, in order to prevent it from spreading and stealing nutrients from your crops!

Check out this video to learn more about how to grow 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.
a basket of freshly picked mint
Photo Credit: Juta/Shutterstock

Types

  • Apple/Pineapple Mint: Mentha suaveolens
  • Corsican Mint: Mentha requienii
  • Pennyroyal: Mentha pulegium
  • Peppermint: Mentha x piperita
  • Citrus Mint: Mentha x piperita var. citrata
  • Spearmint: Mentha spicata

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.

propogating mint cuttings
Photo Credit: Joannawnuk/Shutterstock


 

Gardening Products

Wit and Wisdom

鈥淚f any man can name … all the varieties of mint, he must know how many fish swim in the Indian Ocean.鈥  鈥揥alafrid Strabo (c. 808鈥849)

Pests/Diseases

Recipes

Minted Fruit Mold
Mint Lemonade
Cilantro and Mint Sauce

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.

mint_ice_cubes_full_width.jpg
Credit: Anna Shepulova/Shutterstock

Tip! Make flavored ice cubes by freezing trays of strong mint tea, then use the ice cubes for your drinks!

Herbs
About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it鈥檚 not surprising that she and The Old Farmer鈥檚 蜜桃恋人 found each other. She leads digital content for the 蜜桃恋人 website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana. Read More from Catherine Boeckmann
 

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Comments

Marcus Green (not verified)

9 years 7 months ago

I have been looking for mint to grow, (in the Philippines), for 6 months, and finally i have found some plants, albeit a bit on the small side. I was wondering, as we have no winter as such, definitely no frost for sure, will the constant heat affect my plants in any adverse way? Many thanks Marcus

GOLAM AHAMAD MORTAZA (not verified)

9 years 7 months ago

I am a resident of Dist- Burdwan, Westbengal. I have a Farm here. I want to cultivate Mint commercially. where from I can get Seeds/ roots. Pls help.

louise hatchet (not verified)

9 years 8 months ago

I have a pet rat at home and she love to eat my mint when i wasnt looking (i looked back to see her munching on my mint through the bars on the cage)

Enlightened Enigma (not verified)

9 years 10 months ago

I planted chocolate mint in flower pots and put them outside to grow. It's winter time now. I am hoping that they spring back to life this season.

If the pots didn't stay frozen solid for more than a few days, I'm sure they'll be fine. In the future, it is best to plant mint in the ground if you expect a hard freeze or bring the pots inside.

You can plant mint in a ceramic pot in the ground to prevent the spread of roots, to make the plant less invasive. Just be sure to check for runners too.

Angelia Lim (not verified)

9 years 11 months ago

I have bought a potted mint plant from a nursery. I put it near my window which is directly under the sun. However, the plant withered completely on the second day. I watered the plant regularly and have shifted the plant near to my television where there is lesser sunlight. Do I have to throw away the plant? Is there anyway to revive it?

Hi Angelia,
Keep the soil evenly moist (not too wet) and cut off any dead stems and leaves. The plant may grow new stems from the roots.

Ahmed Ebeid (not verified)

10 years ago

Hello,

Would greatly appreciate if someone could offer some help with the below:

I have a pot containing a very dense network of mint roots lying a bit deep beneath the surface of the soil, although some of the roots point straight up--I shook the surface layer of the soil up a bit to see how they're doing.

My question is what can I do to have that network give off stems and eventually leaves? Because those roots have been dormant for a little over a year now, although they used to support a shrub with branches so long and entangled I had to cut it off completely.

Thanks,

Ahmed

Becky Lou (not verified)

10 years ago

My mint has been great all summer, but now is bitter and not good at all. I have it planted in several different areas pots and in the ground and all are nasty tasting. Any suggestions?

Hi, Becky, Just as everything has a season, it sounds like that of your mint has passed.
When mint begins flower and then go to seed, the leaves鈥攖he harvest鈥攂egin to become bitter.
Mint is a perennial, however, so hope鈥攁nd this herb鈥攕pring eternal.