Must-have herb with a can-do enthusiasm
Mint is an unruly herb. Give it a hole in the ground and it takes over your garden. But in spite of its colonial tendencies, mint belongs in every herb garden. The leaves of no other herb, none, not one, match the fruity pungency of its menthol notes.
The plant’s noble chemistry means that the leaves smell divine when cut or trampled. Add to that, mint is just plain pretty. Left to bolt, it produces a fabulous array of white, pink, lavender and purple flowers.
Ignore advice to grow mint in shade as a way of constraining it. The botanical explanation for its wiliness is that mint is a rhizome, meaning that it spreads through its root system. So creeping along underground, the roots will spread toward the sun and one morning you will wake up with a crop of mint that only a toothpaste factory could use up (which is exactly where most of the mint grown in America goes).
The only sure-fire way to keep mint roots in their place is to grow the plant in a container. It’s pretty and happiest in a relatively large one. It will need a sunny spot and, during summer, daily watering. You can sink the pot in the garden, to help stem evaporation. Or, for a bit of artful jumble a la Laura Ashley, you can place a large pot in the center of the herb garden, plant it with a selection of mints -- spearmint, curly mint, chocolate mint -- and then plant other flowering culinary herbs around the base, such as dill and fennel. There will be enough for you to snip for the kitchen, and plenty left to flower for the bees.
Gardeners are so intimidated by mint’s vigor that it is not a big plant with seed companies. Most only list spearmint, or Mentha spicata, the lush green variety with spring green, elegantly serrated leaves.
It became dominant for good reason. It germinates in about two weeks, grows to about 2 feet tall, and has a rounded, fruity flavor that can serve well in everything from mint tea to Greek salad to tabbouleh. A variant, called English mint, is not quite as delightfully ruffled and has a sharper flavor.
But shop in nurseries or at farmers markets, and one can run into a tantalizing variety of mint. At the risk of defoliating the merchandise, do always try to sneak a taste before you buy. Peppermint, Mentha piperita, has a particularly penetrating flavor. By contrast, the citrus mints, lemon and orange mint, are relatively mild and taste like a basil-geranium cross. Other mints, such as curly mint, silver mint and pineapple or variegated mint, are downright pungent and should be used with discretion. Chocolate mint has a high, clean flavor, perfect for chewing on your way home from a bar.
However, keep in mind that the herb’s flavor is not just a question of variety. It can be intensified by stress on the plant, either attack by pests or by lack of sun or water. Always taste before you cook.
But if you come across pennyroyal, or Mentha pulegium, a mint used so artfully in English gardens for ground cover, don’t eat it. Its charm is its usefulness as a natural pesticide. It’s said to keep fleas at bay. Organic gardeners also use it to deter cabbage moths and to attract ladybugs. But eaten by humans in large doses, it can be poisonous.
