Growing Mint

Mint

I believe I first came in contact with mint on a trip to Hyderabad. In a traditional south Indian cooking, we never used mint. Mother used to purchase tender amla, new tamarind shoots, wood-apple, and vakkayalu (karaunda, Carissa carandas) at our door step. Once a week, I would lug a bag full of vegetables from local farmers market. But I strictly obeyed her instructions and preferences. Come to think of it, very rarely we used to buy separately either curry leaf or coriander in the village. Either we used to grow such herbs in our kitchen garden or we would get it free from a neighbor’s garden. In some places (Maharashtra or North India), coriander used to be thrown in as a freebie with vegetables. Where and when? The reader may ask. Not so, here in US– certainly neither coriander (cilantro) nor mint. Of course there are some freebies here also. When you go to strawberry or apple picking, you can eat as many fruits as you like on the farm. They are the best berries and apples, I have ever tasted. Very rarely big stores stock such fresh delicious (except apples in the fall) items. In supermarkets as well as farmers markets, I come across a peculiar problem with fresh herbs here: often all the herbs (coriander, mint, parsley, or rosemary) are packed in the same box or placed very close. This leads to mixing of all the flavors. Thus you end up with a coriander bunch smelling like some other herb (rosemary) – a sheer total waste. So, nothing like picking up fresh mint, coriander, or curry leaf from your own kitchen garden.

Mint is a nice addition to any kitchen garden. It brings lush green color and strong flavor to the patch. Through home gardening, children can learn and appreciate natural flavors from home gardens. Very easy to grow, anyone can do with a minimum effort. Normally, in most (I mean strict vegetarian) dishes, certain things are avoided: garlic, mint, and onion. In North India, I came across garlic, onion, and mint vegetarian dishes. In moderation, these three items are good for health. In fact, mint extract (pudina-ark) is sold over the counter as a remedy for stomach disorders. Of course, all these have strong flavors. Chewing a bit of cardamom or clove bud alleviates any lingering after effect.

Here, in northeast, mint grows in the wild. I do not know who planted this herb in the wild. I witnessed it growing vigorously in dry loose fertile soil on hilltops, near flowing streams, and in the shade (spear mint, its leaves are pointed). All green leafy vegetables share one common feature. Sunlight is essential and beneficial for plant growth. But, too much strong scorching sunlight makes certain (ex: lettuce, mint, coriander, fenugreek, and spinach etc.) leafy vegetables grow into skinny tall plants with hard fiber. Bright sunshine also promotes extensive flowering. Thus, mint grown in early summer, spring, and fall seasons is more bushy, with full of closely spaced leafy nodes. But late in the season (hot summers), you get a bit skinny mint with flowers. Some farmers use thin cloth (cheese cloth or plastic woven cloth) to provide light shade for leafy vegetables. We can also grow mint in a shady location next to a wall or under a large tree.

The wild varieties of mint are a bit too strong for Indian cooking. In a local store, I came across apple mint, candy mint, and other varieties. Such flavors are good for cough drops, candies, or other confectionary dishes. Recently, I brought a bunch of mint from an Indian grocery store. The leftover stalks are utilized for growing mint. We can grow it in a container or in the ground. I have not used any special soil for this plant. I just packed a few bark chips, pine needles at the bottom to block drainage holes. Then mixed a bit of ordinary top soil with peat moss.

Since I did not get time to plant the mint shoots immediately into soil, I left them in a bit of standing water (in a glass). Did not add any rooting compound. In a couple of days the shoots developed (white) roots (rooting is a bit easy in spring or fall here). I transferred the rooted stems into a 6 inch plastic pot. Probably I placed the pot in a cool shade for a week. Right now it sits on a sunny deck, gets about 5-6 hours of bright indirect sunlight. It is growing rapidly into a nice compact lush green mint. Whenever I look at it I am tempted to rub its leaves for that fresh mint aroma. But, my Cornell plant scientist once advised me not to pinch or rub leaves. It harms the plant and may make the plant susceptible to disease or pest. Many leaves contain essential (and protective) oils and compounds; they protect the plant from disease and pest. So, I leave the mint to grow till we decide to harvest. I do not know what I’ve fed this pot, but the large green mint leaves (photo) do indicate that the plant has got plenty of rich nitrogen. We can visually observe the leaves contain oily compounds; rain water drops just roll off from mint leaves. Of course, all leaves have this hydrophobic surface property (the best classic example, lotus leaf). But with some leaves this property is more pronounced – for example, rubber plant, mint, mango, etc.

Mint is one of those spreading plants. It can quickly run to the edges of your garden and cover entire field thick. Thus, it can be used as a spread under big trees. Often trees have circular barren patches around their trunks. Such spots can be filled with herbs like mint, coriander, sweet basil, ajwan/vamu, or methi. Periodic pruning and cutting back is the only solution to this wild uncontrolled growth. It can withstand prolonged periods of cold, frost, or drought. Even though the plant looks dead outside, its roots are always in good health underneath the soil.

Where do you get good soil or quality soil ingredients? Like all those skilled farmers in my village, I believe in efficient gardening. In India, I used to get help from local horticultural department or farmer friends. Here too, once I got valuable decomposed manure from a local farmer. Our local city has a compost facility, for a nominal fee one can get plenty of compost for house garden. Other materials like bone meal, perlite, fertilizer, etc., I buy them when they are on sale. Usually, garden supplies are cheaper at the end of growing season. Earlier days, gardening supplies used to be relatively inexpensive. Now, inflation everywhere – fresh vegetable prices are going through the roof. So are the prices of soil, fertilizer, seeds, and seedlings. In the farmers market, a shopper complained (it speaks volumes about prevalent times!) about the exorbitant cost of tomato seedlings. About tomatoes, later.

In the village, on couple of occasions my mother ran into difficulties with kitchen gardening. Once, she found the soil to be too alkaline. The soil looked a bit like wheat flour – loose flakes. Nothing would grow, neither beans nor spinach. She approached our farmer friend for a solution. He readily agreed to haul and unload two carts of rotten cow manure. That invigorated the entire garden; soon, it produced abundant crops of snake gourd, beans, bottle gourd, white pumpkin, and of course, plenty of marigolds, jasmines, and hibiscuses. Another time, she found our bananas growing a bit slow. She was worried whether they would ever produce a flower, forget about seeing hundred fifty ripe bananas in her backyard. Again, another farmer gifted her a few shovels of super phosphate fertilizer. Soon, our bananas produced the sweetest fruit. I have never tasted such delicious bananas anywhere else, not in India, not in US. I was lucky to taste a tree ripened banana twice – once in our own kitchen garden, and then later in Matla Palem on a summer vacation. Be it guava, custard apple, or banana, you got to taste it when it is ripe on the tree.

Pudina (mint) is used in pudina-pulav (పుదీనా పులావు), pudina chutney (పుదీనా పచ్చడి), pudina-pakodi (పుదీనా పకోడి). Copyright by the author 2010