Mint Gardening

One of the first herbs I truly loved as a kid was mint. My sister and I used to crush it and added it to our water bottles that we took with us while exploring the creek down behind our house. I even occasionally took some in my water bottle to soccer, but didn’t tell the other kids because I was afraid I would be made fun of. I have totally out grown my fear of being made fun of and have embraced my mint passion. I love to eat mint in mint sauces for dipping homemade Naan , in my fake pho, and fruit salads. I love to drink mint in hot tea, chocolate mint coffee, home brewed sweet tea, and those summer mojitos. I LOVE MINT! With loving mint comes the responsibility of growing mint. I chose the word responsibility for a reason. Mint can be a weed as such it should be planted with caution. You may LOVE mint, but the person that lives next door or the person who buys your house will most likely curse you and your mint forever. I have a personal collection of 17 different kinds of mint. Each one a little different from the next. You can either plant mint in a confined area such as a parking strip or cement surrounded area. Or mint can be planted in containers. (I have even seen it in old bath tubs.) In a container, I recommend that in late February or early March that the container be tipped out. The root mass cut in half. One half of the root mass needs to be placed in the trash and the other half placed back into the pot. Then refill the remaining half of the pot with fresh planting soil. You will have a much happier mint plant. I have my plants in confined in the ground.

My mint garden is about 12’ X 12’.  My husband sunk 12” drainage pipe into the ground about 18”. He left a rim above the ground about 2”. Here is a picture of a piece of the pipe.

We used the drainage pipe because it is extremely heavy duty. I have seen it done in buckets and the mint burst the sides. We sunk them 18” because I have mints’ roots do not go deeper than that. We left a rim that was 2” above the ground so we could see the side runners from the mint plants.

We have had these in the ground for nearly 10 years. The only time that I have had escapees is when I have not removed the flower heads (the bees love the flowers) before the seed was mature. But the escapees were easily removed once we noticed them. Once you get your mint growing you need to do something with it.  Here is a link to my Minted Sweet Tea recipe: Sweet Minted Iced Tea .  I have been working on this for a while. I am not a Southerner so I don’t like super sweet tea, but this is plenty sweet for me.  

 Now go grow!

One of the first herbs I truly loved as a kid was mint. My sister and I used to crush it and added it to our water bottles that we took with us while exploring the creek down behind our house. I even occasionally took some in my water bottle to soccer, but didn’t tell the other kids because I was afraid I would be made fun of. I have totally out grown my fear of being made fun of and have embraced my mint passion. I love to eat mint in mint sauces for dipping homemade Naan , in my fake pho, and fruit salads. I love to drink mint in hot tea, chocolate mint coffee, home brewed sweet tea, and those summer mojitos. I LOVE MINT! With loving mint comes the responsibility of growing mint. I chose the word responsibility for a reason. Mint can be a weed as such it should be planted with caution. You may LOVE mint, but the person that lives next door or the person who buys your house will most likely curse you and your mint forever. I have a personal collection of 17 different kinds of mint. Each one a little different from the next. You can either plant mint in a confined area such as a parking strip or cement surrounded area. Or mint can be planted in containers. (I have even seen it in old bath tubs.) In a container, I recommend that in late February or early March that the container be tipped out. The root mass cut in half. One half of the root mass needs to be placed in the trash and the other half placed back into the pot. Then refill the remaining half of the pot with fresh planting soil. You will have a much happier mint plant. I have my plants in confined in the ground.

My mint garden is about 12’ X 12’.  My husband sunk 12” drainage pipe into the ground about 18”. He left a rim above the ground about 2”. Here is a picture of a piece of the pipe.

We used the drainage pipe because it is extremely heavy duty. I have seen it done in buckets and the mint burst the sides. We sunk them 18” because I have mints’ roots do not go deeper than that. We left a rim that was 2” above the ground so we could see the side runners from the mint plants.

We have had these in the ground for nearly 10 years. The only time that I have had escapees is when I have not removed the flower heads (the bees love the flowers) before the seed was mature. But the escapees were easily removed once we noticed them. Once you get your mint growing you need to do something with it.  Here is a link to my Minted Sweet Tea recipe: Sweet Minted Iced Tea .  I have been working on this for a while. I am not a Southerner so I don’t like super sweet tea, but this is plenty sweet for me.  

 Now go grow!