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Grow Your Own Mint

There's nothing that says summer as much as a drink with a sprig of fresh mint. I keep a glass pitcher of water in the fridge with a handful of bruised mint leaves and lemon or lime slices. It's beautiful and tasty!

Mint is one of the easiest herbs to grow and works great in containers. In fact you don't want to plant mint directly in the ground or it will quickly take over the whole garden and then spread to other parts of the yard. You can plant it in a container and then into the ground if you really want it in with the rest of your garden.

All you need to start is a container with drainage holes, potting soil, and mint seeds or a seedling you buy from your farmers market. Make sure you buy potting soil and not top soil. Potting soil has extra ingredients that helps keep the soil moist and loose.

You can get some small plants from your local gardener's center too. What I like about growing from seed is the amazing variety that becomes available to you. I grow peppermint, spearmint, lime mint, chocolate mint, apple mint, orange mint, and pineapple mint.

I use a medium container about 1 foot across, but you can go bigger or smaller depending on the amount of space you have. If you only have a sunny window, you can drill holes in food cans that you've emptied. The sky is the limit.

Mint is great chopped up in a tabbouleh salad or a pasta salad filled with lightly steamed spring veggies. I like to make a light green mint yogurt dressing for my fruit salads and serve it on dark blue square dinnerware. Don't forget to make a few mojitos and fresh mint tea. Your friends will want to come over to your house every weekend!

Author: Kathy Hester

Posted: Saturday 3rd April 2010, 12:50 AM

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