Mint is a perennial with very fragrant, toothed leaves and tiny purple, pink, or white flowers. It has a fruity, aromatic taste.
There are many varieties of mint—all fragrant, whether shiny or fuzzy, smooth or crinkled, bright green or variegated. However, you can always tell a member of the mint family by its square stem. Rolling it between your fingers, you’ll notice a pungent scent and think of candy, sweet teas, or maybe even mint juleps.
As well as kitchen companions, mints are used as garden accents, ground covers, air fresheners, and herbal medicines. They’re as beautiful as they are functional, and they’re foolproof to grow, thriving in sun and shade all over North America. In fact, mint can be vigorous spreaders, so be careful where you plant it.
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Planting mint
How deep do you plant the mint?
Planting mint depth
Sow the seeds just ⅛ inch deep, barely covering with fine soil, and keep moist. Seeds will germinate in 10 to 20 days. Mints are slow to develop during the first year, but be ready to fight them back the second year. If you’re worried about their growth, plant in their own bed!
Companion planting
Lovely article, thank you!
I was wondering if there was any more information regarding companion planting? I see that you stated to plant mint next to tomatoes and cabbage, but will mint do well alongside other plants? Why only tomatoes and cabbage?
Xx
Companion Planting
Mint’s main feature is its potent smell, which is said to deter common pests such as cabbageworms and cabbage moths, ants, aphids, and flea beetles. Generally, mint can be planted in pots alongside any veggies that are affected by these pests, like peppers, broccoli and cauliflower, and other leafy greens.
For more about companion planting, see our articles on the topic:
What to do in the winter?
Hi. Thank you so much for these articles, very helpful.
Over a year ago, myself an my wife planted a fruit tree and guild. The guild has many perennials from lavender to hibiscus, thyme, yarrow, sorrel and others, but also mint, spearmint, mountain mint.
I can find plenty of information online about planting a guild with perennials but nothing about what to do when fall and winter arrive...how to care?
Do I just leave the mint and others to die, fall and rot, or cut away the stalks for regrowth in Spring?
I would love if you could help or even point me in the direction of something online or some books for caring for a fruit tree guild through winter.
Thank you so much.
Stephen.
Maintaining a Fruit Tree Guild
Creating a fruit tree guild is a wonderful way to promote biodiversity in a small space and to work permaculture into your garden. Generally, it’s recommended to allow nature to take its course and let the perennials die back themselves, as they will eventually break down and feed the surrounding soil. However, if the garden is planted very tightly together, you may want to cut and remove some of the larger perennials as they die back (like yarrow, for example) so that they do not end up suffocating out the others.
You should also keep an eye out for any signs of pests or disease—fungal or bacterial spots, mildew, pests, and so on—and remove infected material from the garden. This helps to prevent it from building up in one location and perpetuating the disease in the following growing season.
Red leaves?
I recently brought a peppermint plant indoors to be grown under artificial light, since I had to bring my succulents in anyway, and noticed its leaves have started to change from its normal green to more red/purple, is this an indication of too much or too little light, or completely unrelated?
possible typo
you said stem anker. did you mean stem cancer?
oops
stem canker
Cankers
Stem cankers are patches of dead tissue that appear on a plant’s stem. The canker may be caused by an infection of bacteria, viruses, or fungi, and they generally expand slowly over time. Depending on the plant and the cause, stem cankers may be lethal to the plant.
canker
ok
climate & mint
it's my firs time to have a plant and i don't know where should i keep my Mint and Basil plants ? indoor or outdoor !
i live in Hungary so , outdoor is cold & rarely sunny and indoor ,we turn on heaters... so , i am confused about the most suitable environment for them .
Basil and Mint
They both do better outdoors, in the sun. Note that basil is an annual (it lasts for one growing season) and mint is a perennial (it should come back every year, if maintained properly). Everybody starts somewhere. Congratulations on beginning gardening!
Flowering
How do I get my plant to flower? Is it a seasonal thing?
Mint in containers
what would be the right container size for growing mints? If I would like my plant to grow tall, does it mean I would need a tall container? also I wonder if I can mix 3 different types of mints in one container.
Thank you,
mint in containers
To grow mint outdoors in containers, you might want to select a pot that is at least 8 inches wide and 10 to 12 inches deep. A larger width might be good if you’d like to plant a variety of different mints together.
Nutrients in soil
What nutrients present in soil are necessary for mint to grow healthy?
mint's nutrient needs
We dug deep for this answer. Here’s what we found: OSU Mint Guide
We hope this helps!
Mint
Does the spring growing of mint come from the old woody stems or up from the roots/ground? Thanks!
Mint plant flowering
what happens if your mint plant starts flowering? will the flowers produce seeds that I can plant and is there anything special but I have to do with the seats before planting them
mint plant flowering
To harvest mint, pick leaves just before flowering or cut the stems to keep from flowering. Plants will often grow new branches below the cut.
Mint definitely spreads quickly otherwise. If this is fine with you, let it flower. If you have different mint varieties, however, and you want to keep them true, you need to remove all flowering stems to avoid cross pollination.
Growing Mint
This article is a real sweet anecdote but what I want to know is how to grow it. Sow seed when, How deep, Germination time, How close to last frost???? This article answers none of these questions. You need to title it, I Love Mint.
You cant grow mint from seeds
You cant grow mint from seeds, you use cuttings. Its a very easy and fast grower, and spreader. plant spring/summer/fall, it will die back every year but the roots live and keep growing each year and it grows back bigger and bigger. Best bet is to buy from a garden center or wallmart or something. Easy to grow.
You can grow mint from seeds
I grew all my spearmint from seeds...
Mint dried suddenly
I am in Colorado. I had potted mint on my window sill and it was doing well. All on a sudden this past 2 weeks, all the leaves have gone dry and brown. The stems are dry.
Is this their dormant season in February? Will it grow back?
mint needs water
I have mint inside in Colorado also, I had it above a heat vent and a couple times found the leaves dry and crumbly. I very quickly gave it water and it revived, except the dry, crumbly leaves.
mint
does the same thing apply to spear mint?
Mint
Yes, spearmint is listed in the varieties!
Light
For growing a mint plant indoors, how much light would I need?
Growing mint indoors and light needed
You’re right in saying that the biggest challenge is the amount of light. Herbs including mint do best when grown in a very sunny window that receives between 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight each day (typically a southern or southwestern exposure). When growing herbs under natural light, be certain to rotate the pot every 3 to 4 days to ensure uniform growth of the plant. If your windows do not offer enough sunlight, you can supplement natural lighting with fluorescent light. In general, for every hour of required sunlight, expose the plants to two hours of fluorescent light. Herbs grown entirely under fluorescent lights will require between 14 to 16 hours of artificial lighting. Place herb plants no closer than 5 or 6 inches and no farther than 15 inches from the light source.
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