What You Need to Know About Growing Mint and About Mint Varieties
If you are thinking about growing a herb garden or have just started one, one of the most useful herbs you can grow is mint. Mint has been used for hundreds of years to help obscure bad smells, assist recovery from illnesses, repel insects and to prepare flavor-some food and drinks. These are just some of the very different ways to use mint, and the applications are just as relevant today as they have been throughout history.
If you are thinking of growing herbs outdoors or indoors or already grow them but don’t grow mint, you need to start including mint in your herb growing plans. It’s not difficult grow. You can grow it from cuttings and seeds, or you can buy mint plants for just a few dollars.
Here’s my quick guide to growing mint and some suggestions on ways to use it at home.
It covers the following areas:
- Types of mint
- Growing mint from cuttings
- Growing mint from seeds
- Harvesting & preserving mint
- How to use your mint
Types of Mint
A 16th Century monk carried out a lot of research on mint plants, and managed to identify over 600 different varieties! You would have difficulty tracking a lot of these mint varieties down today. Here’s a list of mints that are fairly easy to get hold of today (it’s very easy to find suppliers on the internet):
The following mints can be easily purchased as plants or seeds: Corsican mint, spearmint, pineapple mint, chocolate mint, and ginger mint.
And these mints can be purchased as seeds – cat mint, pennyroyal, lemon mint and wild mint.
I’ll not attempt to describe all these different types of mint here. I suggest you do some research and find out more about the mint plants I have named. They are the ones you are likely to coma across most frequently.
Towards the end of my article I have described how you can use spearmint, peppermint, apple mint and penny royal in and around your home.
Growing Mint Herbs from Cuttings
Of course this assumes that you already have some mint plants or have a friendly neighbor willing to let you take cuttings from his or her mint.
Make cuttings from the root or stem or divide the mint plant into two or more smaller plants. You can do this in the spring or the autumn. Most mints grow very vigorously and are easy to propagate from cuttings.
Growing Mint Herbs from Seed
Use the internet to find suppliers of mint seed (Amazon is always a good choice). Sow your seeds in seed trays using a suitable soil-less potting compost.
I get on best with seed trays that have multiple separate sowing compartments and plastic lids (go to my article on growing herbs from seed for more information). One or two seeds can be grown in each compartment, and the lids help to keep the compost moist.
Whatever type of container you choose to use make sure you have a layer of compost about one inch deep. Make it really moist and then sprinkle the seeds on top. Cover them with a thin layer of the compost and then put a piece of clear plastic or glass on top (the seed trays I mentioned include a plastic cover).
Cover your container with a newspaper until the seeds germinate (just a few days if its warm), and keep the soil moist. When germination has occurred remove the cover and keep the young seedlings in a fairly warm area – but not in direct sunlight.
Harvesting and Preserving Your Mint Herbs
Harvest your mint leaves before flowers appear (start in early spring if you already have plants). Try and do it in the morning when the essential essences of the mint plant are at their most intense. Cut a handful or so of leaves each time, but leave sufficient leaves on the plant so that it can continue to grow and produce more leaves for future harvests.
Use your mint fresh whenever you can, but it’s also possible to preserve it by drying or freezing the mint leaves, or by preserving them in oil or vinegar.
Using Your Mint
As I mentioned above, there are lots of uses for the mint you grow. Some you’ll know about, but others will be new to you. I suggest you experiment with all of them in order to discover what a useful and beneficial herb mint is.
In Cooking:
- Make mint (spearmint) sauce (it goes well with roast lamb)
- Add mint (spearmint and apple mint) leaves to new potatoes and peas
- Make mint and chocolate ice cream and mint sorbet
Drinks:
- Make mint (peppermint) tea
- Make mint julep and raspberry and mint yoghurt drinks
Medicinal:
- Use mint (spearmint) oil on a handkerchief to help with colds.
- Make herbal poses and invalid bouquets.
- Macerate mint (peppermint or spearmint) leaves and use them as a rub for migraines and other aches and pains
Garden:
- Grow mint (spearmint) near roses to deter aphids
- Grow mint plants near dog kennels to repel flies.
Get Started with Mint Growing Now
My list of the uses of mint is far from complete. In it I have only introduced you to the uses of just a couple of types of mint. Start your mint growing with the mints I have mentioned above, but build up the collection of mints in your herb garden to four or five types, and experiment with different ways of using them.
Once you have started growing mint alongside the other herbs in your herb garden and using it around the home, you’ll not want to stop growing it. And I can almost guarantee that you’ll soon start giving mint to your friends to try out (once you have enough for yourself that is!).
Happy herb gardening,
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