SPEARMINT (Mentha spicata)

One always hears how easy Mint is to grow and that once you get going it will take over your garden.  I wish!  It took me several years to get a decent Mint supply in my garden and I learned a few lessons along the way.  One day I was at a garden center, and I could hear a lady telling the store attendant that her Mint kept dying on her.  So....I was not the only one having problems with the plant.

I am just going to call this plant Mint even though the proper name for the common Mint used everywhere is Spearmint.  Most of us just call it Mint.  There are many varieties of Mint that are similar although they have different scent and flavor.  Mint is native across Europe and the cooler parts of Asia with a long history of use by many cultures.

Mint needs to be grown in rich, well drained, but moist, soil.  Compost added to the soil is very important and give it an extra sprinkling at dirt level every few months.  Low release fertilizer is good too.  In Hawaii I make sure that the Mint is shaded from the hot afternoon sun.  The key is to not let the plant dry out so make sure it is watered at least twice a week.

If you have strong healthy plants Mint can get aggressive and spread beyond its boundaries so it is wise to grow it in a container.  It also can get quite leggy and bushy so sometimes it needs a good haircut that lowers it down to 3 inches or so to promote new lush growth with stronger leaf flavor.  Give it a feeding at this time with a light layer of compost and mulch.  Although a perennial, in the hot summer Mint can go dormant to protect itself.  I am not sure if my plants were just dormant in the past and I thought they were dying.  Maybe if I had just mulched and watered, they would have come back. On the other hand, maybe I was just not watering enough.  Either way I ended up buying a new plant.  My Mint is so much happier now that it is under the light shade of the curry leaf tree.  Just picking leaf sprigs for kitchen use keeps it trimmed most of the time but every several months I give it a haircut.  Harvest the leaves in the morning when they are fresh, and you can keep them perky by standing the sprigs in a glass of water.

Mint is easy to propagate.  The easiest way is to just divide up a mature plant.  You can cut through the root ball with a knife like you are cutting up a cake then easily plant up each of the slices. It is good to divide up your container plant every few years.  Mint naturally spreads by sending out root runners that send out new roots at the nodes (joints). Find healthy growing runners of several inches that you can cut off and plant in potting mix to get started.  You can also get cuttings rooted first in a jar of water before you plant them up if you like doing it that way.  It is possible to buy Mint seeds online, but I have never known anyone to propagate Mint from seed in home gardens.  Cuttings are the way to go.

Mint is not just a garnish for your fruit salad but a nutritional green leaf we can use in our daily diet.  I love it in salads or in spring rolls.  It can be blended into plain yogurt for a dressing.  The leaves can be used fresh or dried to make peppermint tea or just add the fresh leaves to your black tea as they do in the Middle East.  In Nepal I was introduced to a homemade green lemonade where a hand full of Mint leaves, lemon juice, ice water and sugar were all thrown into a blender. The result certainly hit the spot after a hot day of exploring and I love making it a home now.  My childhood memory is the very Kiwi mint sauce that you could not eat roasted lamb without.  Home cooks made it from minced mint leaves, vinegar and sugar.

Aloha

PS  July 2024

Mint being sold in Essaouira, Morocco  medina which
is mostly used for adding to hot tea.