Mint: the most spirited herb

Image Gallery PHOTO BY JEFFREY LEE

by RAND B.LEE

I'm convinced: Mint has got to be one of the most versatile herbs around. Indoors, you can use it to deodorize a room, wake up your skin, freshen your breath, create delicious hot (and cold) teas, lend zest to vegetable dishes, and spruce up otherwise-ordinary salads, juices, spreads, fruits, etc. And outdoors-in the vegetable garden—mint's highly aromatic foliage acts to repel ants, white cabbage moths, and other pests ... thereby ensuring healthy crops of cabbage, tomatoes, broccoli, and brussels sprouts.

No herb or vegetable garden should be without at least one of the 40 or so sweet-smelling members of the mint family (genus Mentha). These plants are simply too useful—and too easy to grow—to pass up!

WHERE TO OBTAIN MINT

If you live in the country, chances are good that you have mint on your property already. (if you don't, your neighbor probably does. Ask for a few plants or cuttings.)

Mint can also be purchased from most any plant shop, nursery, or mail-order herb outlet. (I've had particularly good luck with Well-Sweep Herb Farm, 317 Mt. Bethel Rd., Port Murray, N.J. 07865. Their service is fast and their prices—I think—quite reasonable. Send 25¢ for a catalog.)

HOW TO START A MINT BED

When transplanting mint, dig the herb up carefully—so as not to make hash of its roots—and leave a little soil attached to the plant's base. (You won't have to dig very deeply, since mint grows close to the surface.)

Choose a spot in your garden that's partly shaded and moderately fertile . . . then put the plants in the ground about a foot apart, firm the soil around them to its original level, water thoroughly, and keep the area moist. (Mints generally prefer damp places and won't produce strongly scented leaves in dry soil.)

Soon, your transplants will begin to send out runners—or stolons —both under and over the surface of the ground, much like strawberries. And before you know it, the empty space between the parent plants will be filled by dozens of new herblets. (Don't be afraid to uproot stray stolons if the plants begin to get out of hand. When I was little, my mother used to yank the weedlike foliage out of the ground by the handful ... and the hardy herbs always grew back.)

HOW TO GROW CUTTINGS

To propagate mints from cuttings, all you have to do is [1] detach a three-inch-long piece of stem from a parent plant, [2] remove the leaves from the lowermost inch or so of the slip, and [3] place the scion in a glass of water on a window—sill. In about a week—when the cutting's roots are half an inch long—the young mint will be ready to go in the ground. (Plant it in the manner described above, to a depth of 1/2" above the tops of its roots.)