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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Elia- Thanks for the great tip!
Pineapple mint - Grow it for the Hummingbirds! They LOVE it!
I love my mints. I have them everywhere. Don't forget to add some Catmint to your variety. Pollinators are highly attracted to it as well as the fact that it provides an attractive flower most of the summer. Spearmint was one of the first plants, if not the first, that I planted almost 40 years ago when we moved into this house & I still have it growing (although I suspect that it is not the exact same plant but an offshoot thereof). I have a couple of areas where I have not been able to grow anything so mint will be the last resort.
As for the Catmint, Our cat said, "Thank you," to which I answered, "Don't Mint-tion it!"
Too cute!! I love this idea too! I didn't know they had Cat Mint!! I have Cat Grass and Cat Nip for my cat and he LOVES it, I'll have to find the Mint now! Thanks for the great idea!!
We have a large rock (3-4 ft wide/tall) near the corner of our rural driveway, with mint planted around it. The mint not only takes care of not having to mow close to the rock, but I always save that section to do when I'm half done with the lawn, so when I mow that circle around the rock the smell of the cut mint is so refreshing. Just the regular lawn mowing seems to keep the mint contained in a 2 to 3 foot circle around the rock. When they were still small enough, the granddaughters used to spend a lot of time sitting on that rock surrounded by the smell of mint.
Hello,
I have spearmint growing in my garden and I would like to add summer and winter savory. I have heard that they are members of the mint family. Will they cross pollinate with my spearmint? Thank you for your help.
It grows higher and usually mint grows wider, but not this.
1. What type of mint is typically used in iced tea, and found in the grocery store?
2. If I grow it in a pot, is it better to move pot outdoors in summer, or leave inside year-round?
Peppermint and spearmint are the most commonly available, and one source suggests that spearmint is the one most often found in grocery stores. One way to check: peppermint is 40 percent menthol, while spearmint is less than 1 percent menthol. This means that peppermint will have a more intense flavor and possibly an aftertaste, while spearmint will be milder tasting.
If you are growing mint in a container, it will do better outdoors in summer. See above for more specific info.
For some reason my mint plants do not bloom. They don鈥檛 appear to even produce buds that would eventually bloom. I guess I don鈥檛 have 鈥渢rue鈥 mint? I鈥檓 not sure.
How deep do you plant the mint?
