Mint is a delicious and fragrant herb but a bully in the garden. It will take over and crowd your other herbs out quickly; so grow mint either in a pot or far far away from your other plants. This is because mint grows by sending roots out in a network via their runners/rhizomes. They grow deep and spread quickly and can choke out just about anything in their path. It’s the same with weeds like quackgrass. Mint will also seed out when it flowers, making many new baby plants. Here is one of our mint plants that started flowering this week.
Don't worry! Unlike other herbs, if your mint flowers, it isn't bolting, and won't taste bad. It's leaves may taste a little weak, but it is still good. You can also always cut the blooms off, and the plant will keep growing just fine.
We have our mint in their own pots here at Everbearing Farm, hooked up to our drip system for low maintenance and easy care. It is also a perennial and will come back every year, sometimes where you didn’t know you planted it!
There are many types of mint, the more popular ones being spearmint, peppermint, and chocolate mint. There’s also orange mint, pineapple mint, calamint (a mint-oregano cross), and many more. Here we grow spearmint and use it frequently in cocktails, salads, in our water, and sauces. You can also use it dried in teas, dips, and stews. We also like to walk around in the garden and brush up against it just to smell the wonderful scent!
Harvest the young leaves for the best flavor and to keep the plant looking tidy. Mint can be stored fresh if you wash it well dry it, and put it in a glass with water in the fridge and cover it with a plastic bag, like produce bags from the grocery store. This will keep for 2-3 weeks.
You can also dry it by washing with water, drying with paper towels, tying the bunch together and hanging it in a dry place out of direct sunlight. Depending on the humidity, drying mint can take up to two weeks. Once dried, you store it in an airtight container. Mint is a great herb to grow and use in your kitchen garden, and we hope with these tips that you’ll grow it in yours! Let us know if this was helpful, and check out our other herb growing, using and storing articles!
~Everbearing Farm
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