Mint is one of the most popular types of herbs in a garden. This herb can easily take over your garden hence gardeners carefully choose their companion plants.
Although mint is frost tolerant, it also requires care to keep throwing every season. Growing fresh mint in your garden can be highly beneficial for your plants and all types of mint are fast-growing mints. Mints herbs need lots of space as they are spreaders and they make quite an attractive addition to any garden.
This herb is also a welcome addition to teas and beverages, it is also well known for its renowned aroma and flavor. Growing fresh mint is not as complex as it sounds and you only have to avoid growing it directly into the ground this is because it has strong roots systems that can easily hold on tight.
Mint legendary spreading is also one of the reasons it is best not planted directly in the ground.
To keep mint in check, you need to understand it and one of the problems with mint is that it can become invasive. Mint is very vigorous, easy to grow, and will do well on its own. Although mint is a hardy plant, it can also be vulnerable to some pests.
Does Mint Grow Back Every Year?
Mints are a perennial herb that is frost tolerant but often dies during winter and regrows in spring. This plant generally tends to take quite a lot of space so most gardeners plant it in a small or large pot before planting it in the ground. To prevent the mint from dying in spring, cover it with leaves or some old sheet.
This process helps keep it hard during the winter season. There are many varieties of mints and you can easily tell the family each belongs to by its square stem.
If there is no way to keep your mint protected during winter then it’s best to bring them in till spring. Frost can cause damage to mints and they are prone to some winter pests like coneflowers, wasps, and hoverflies.
How often should you water mint plants?
For a healthy mint harvest, keep the soil moist but not saturated to keep it from wilting. Mint in pots need to be typically watered every 3 days during summer and spring as well. If the top inch of the soil feels dry then give it a good soak and if the plant wilts, water 2 times per week.
Tips To Help Grow Mint Back Every Year
It is important to learn how to grow mint and keep harmful pests from destroying it. Mint practically grows on its own but to keep it from dying during winter, there are useful tips that can help keep this useful help growing for as long as you want. Below are simple dos and don’ts of the mint plants.
- Confine it to a confined bed or container to keep it from taking over your garden
- Best planted on a patio in a container
- Plant in a location where it can receive morning sun and partial afternoon shade to help it thrive
- Plant mint in super moist conditions where it won’t dry out often
- Trim mint plants regularly and have them located fifteen inches apart from each other
- Harvest mint sprigs before the plant flowers
- Plant near companion plants such as tomatoes, cabbage, eggplants, lettuce, and peas in pots to help deter insects.
Final Thoughts
Mint is not just a vigorous and easy to grow plant but it offers lots of assistance to a number of other vegetables in the garden.
Mint is a really great plant to have in the garden but often avoided due to its tendency to easily spread. It can become a weedy problem and affect other plants in the garden if care is not taken.
To make sure it survives winter and keeps growing back every year, remove flowers as they appear, and to make it shorter, pinch back the stems as well.
Read more: