We love using mint in our home and garden. Mint is great for repelling mosquitoes and adding flavor to dishes from savory to sweet. My husband loves homemade mint brownies, and I can’t get enough of a little fresh mint in my lemonade.
When it comes to plants for your medicinal garden you can’t go wrong with mint. This herb can settle nerves and soothe tummies. Mint is even great for helping to cope with seasonal allergy symptoms.
How to grow mint
Mint has distinctive toothed leaves and delicate flowers in pink, purple, or white depending on the variety. Mint is a perennial herb that makes a great addition to even your front yard landscaping as a green edging or as an addition to your favorite tea garden.
The fruity taste and fragrance from the mint will embellish your favorite dishes and leave your garden smelling beautiful.
Mint has many varieties all. Choose a variety that will accent grow growing space and cooking goals. Chocolate mint is a fun variety that even has a hint of chocolate flavor to it.
You can find mint in smooth or crinkled varieties. Mint has verities from fuzzy to shiny and even variations in colors giving you plenty of options to find one that you fall in love with.
Mint grows it’s best moist, yell well-draining soil and can be found near river banks in the wild. Mint can grow well in a pot on your patio to enhance your entertaining space.
Be sure to place pebbles on the bottom along with holes in the bottom of the pot to allow for proper drainage. One small plant will quickly fill a shallow wide planter making at a great option for filling your garden on a budget.
Mint spreads quickly and if left uncontained will take over an entire area. Contain or block your mint plants with walkways or walls to stop them from going to areas you do not want them.
Mint spreads quickly through runners but it is a shallow rooted plant allowing you pull them easily when they find their way into places you do not want them. In a relatively unused area mint makes a great ground cover due to it’s fast spreading.
Potted mint should be given a thin layer of compost twice a year to help it continue to thrive. When growing mint outdoors use plenty of mulch to help keep the soil moist. This is very important if you are prone to hot dry summers that may cause your mint to die from drying out.
Mint grows best when propagated from cuttings but can be grown relatively easy from seed. Mint cuttings will quickly root in a glass of water and begin to thrive or you can plant cuttings 6 inches apart in well-draining soil and water well over the next week or so to encourage rooting.
While mint likes sun it will thrive in the shade making it a great option for homes that have a lot of shade or growing indoors through the winter.
Harvesting Mint
Growing mint is easy for the beginner gardener and harvesting is just as easy. You can harvest leaves as you need them for the freshest flavor or opt to harvest in bunches 2 to 3 times in a season.
Cut down to 1 inch off the ground right before the mint flowers using clean sharp garden shears. Mints flavor benefits from regular harvesting as younger sprigs have more flavor and aroma than older plants.
Always make a point of harvesting before your mint flowers for the best flavor. after the plant has flowered the flavor and aroma will be watered down compared to young springs of mint.
You can store mint in one of several ways. For the best flavor, you want to keep your mint fresh. Sprigs will last a few days in a glass of water. You can use fresh mint to freeze into ice cubes perfect for tossing into water or sweet tea for a dash of flavor.
Mint can be dried by tieing into bunches and handing in a dry dark place with plenty of airflow. Dry mint makes a great soothing tea.
If you find yourself with more mint than you can use while it is fresh or preserved for later use most people can find friends, family, and neighbors willing to take a few bunches of fresh mint to enjoy.
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