How To Grow and Use Fresh Mint

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Mint is a well-known and widely grown herb. It is a hardy perennial that is often invasive. For this reason it is often grown in containers. As mint prefers its roots to be cool and moist, the growing containers are usually sunk into the ground. Mint will grow in part or full shade.

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It is best to remove the flowers before seed is set, to avoid the plant spreading.

To raise new plants, simply divide a young plant or break a piece of root from an established clump and pot up. Young plants of the most usual varieties are sold in garden centres.

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The familiar flavour of mint is enjoyed in mint jelly or sauce, raiti (a yoghurt dip) herbal teas and to add flavour to new potatoes and fresh peas. Fresh leaves are used. Mint may be preserved by chopping it finely and packing into ice cube trays, then topping up with water before freezing. Mint sauce keeps well.

It is also possible to pot up small pieces of root and over winter on a windowsill to provide a supply of fresh leaves.

The most common garden mint is Mentha spicata or Spearmint, almost as popular is Mentha piperata the Peppermint. Extracts from both of these are used in toothpaste and confectionary. Black peppermint is a darker colour and often used in peppermint tea.

Two very decorative mints are the white variegated pineapple mint Mentha rotundifolia variegate and ginger mint Mentha x gracillis ‘Variegata’, which has splashes of gold on the foliage. Apple mint has large felted leaves and is the best variety for mint sauce. Pennyroyal Mentha pulegium is the smallest, this creeping prostrate plant is very strongly scented and used medicinally, rather than eaten.