Growing Mint

Mint’s a popular fresh herb that’s worth growing.

Whether you love mint tea, using fresh mint for mojitos, or mint in your culinary cuisine, mint has many uses.

This post will cover:

How to grow mint
Containing mint so it doesn’t spread
Planting a mint rock garden bed

Unique mint varieties

Mint Growing Conditions

Mint prefers moist soil with sun or partial shade. Loose soil will help it thrive better than clay, but it doesn’t need rich soil.

Mint is a very easy going plant, in fact, mint is invasive which is why so many people don’t want to grow it! You can buy mint seeds, but they do take many weeks to grow before you can transplant them into the garden. You can also buy mint plants from your local nursery. I’ve done both, but it’s much easier to buy the plant.

If you know someone who has mint in their yard, take a plant cutting and place it in water until roots start to sprout. You can then plant these propagated mint into soil.

Growing Mint from Seed in Containers

If your mint is flowering and goes to seed they might scatter and end up in places you weren’t expecting even in a container. Mint can be harder to grow in containers than in the ground though. Some people struggle with this, others find mint super easy to grow. If you live in a location that’s super hot, keep your mint in partial shade.

Mint is resilient & will try to grow anywhere it can!

Mint can take over an area quickly because it spread by underground with rhizomes, and creates mint seeds after flowering that can self-sow.

In fact when we planted our herb spiral, we made the mistake of growing mint in it. 3 years later, our herb spiral looked more like a mass of lemon balm and mint! Raised beds or rocks can still help keep mint a little contained for a couple of years, but weed out the rhizomes as they come up.

A bonus to ‘weeding’ mint is that it smells amazing.

Mint Growing Tips

You should harvest mint before it flower for peak flavor & taste

Mint however will keep growing the whole summer and until fall and winter. Ours gets pretty and frosty!

Plant a Mint Rock Garden Bed

I decided to plant 5 mint varieties into a rock garden bed. Within 2 years, I know this bed will be overflowing, but for now it will make a nice mint garden and I’m fine with the mint taking over this area long-term.

First I put down cardboard to suppress the grass underneath.

Then I layered the rocks on the outside edge before adding organic top soil

Then I planted 5 mint varieties

Voila! A mint herb rock garden bed

Growing Mint Varieties

The first time I grew mint it was directly sown English mint and I was disappointed. It didn’t have that refreshing minty taste I was hoping for. Later on I learned how many mint varieties there are, and some have a fresh mint taste instead of the earthy one I was experiencing. Mint varieties have a lot to do with how they taste. It’s also important to harvest before they flower for peak taste and flavor.

There are some absolutely amazing mint varieties out there!

From pineapple mint to chocolate mint, here’s a list of yummy mint varieties:

Mojito mint
Apple mint
Chocolate mint

Pineapple mint
Spearmint
Sweet Pear mint
Peppermint
Grapefruit mint

Korean mint
Ginger mint
Lemon mint
Wintergreen

Do these mints actually taste like these flavors?

These mints have that minty taste with the flavor undertones. This is natural flavor, not artificially created. There are even more mint types than I’ve listed. Check out Richters list of mints for example. I just recently came across Sunrise and Midnight Mojito mint and they have stunning pretty flowers!