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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Mints are perennials. While they might survive the winter in your greenhouse, it is also possible that they will be 鈥渃ooked鈥 (die)鈥攁ssuming like most glass structures your greenhouse heats up in the sunlight. You would be better off putting the plants, pots and all, into holes in the ground, surrounded by soil. (If the plants are pot bound now, consider transferring them into larger pots them before setting them into the ground. That way, if they do set roots, they will do it within the pot first.) That way, they will experience a 鈥渘atural鈥 winter: rain, snow, snow melt, etc. If you lift the pots in late winter/early spring before roots start spreading out, you should be able to avoid introducing the plant into the yard or garden. Then continue to care for them as potted plants, including putting them back into the smaller pots if you like (clip the roots, if nec to get the plants to fit).
I believe I have Artic Mint, with tall stems & small purple flowers. Is this mint edible??
I recently bought a spearmint plant and planted it in a pot indoors. it seems to be doing very well but i notice it keeps growing taller and sprouting new leaves but the leaves dont see to grow very much and the big leaves i do have are spotting brown a bit at the tips. Any ideas?
Hi there,
I've been finding on some of my mint's leaves these odd, snaky tracks, almost like burns, but in a narrow, windy strip. They're on both my spearmint and peppermint, and I've found some on oregano as well. What causes these, and what might I do about them?
Thanks!
That sounds like the work of a leafminer. Barriers and repellents, beneficial insects, biological pesticides, and soaps and oils are recommended. It is not a pest that will necessarily compromise the plant’s health; it is more of an aesthetic nuisance.
What can I do with the flowers of my mints plants?
If you want to continue harvesting mint, you need to cut off the flowers. If you want the seed, you can keep the flowers. Bees will also enjoy the flowers if you’d like to keep them.
Hi. Thanks for all this information. I have a "sweet mint" plant. Is there a difference to the peppermint or other mint plant or is it the same?
There seem to be several claims. Mentha x piperita (peppermint), M. spicata (spearmint) , M. suaveolens (apple or woolly mint), and M. arvensis (wild or field mint), have all been called sweet mint. Best guess, the name commercially might usually refer to some form of spearmint. M. arvensis grows in the wild, but not as common to find commercially. One vendor sells sweet mint but separates it from basic peppermint and spearmint - unfortunately, no botanical name listed.
I live in Michigan and planted some mint taken from my parents garden into a well drained planter. They did well last year, but I haven't seen any sign that it will come back this year. When does mint typically start coming back for my zone?
