Growing Mint or for that matter any herbs is very easy and you do not need much space. A small balcony is enough to start a herb garden. As mint is easy to grow, you can start your own herb garden with mint. Homegrown mint is fragrant, flavorful, tastes better than what you get in the market and of course pesticide free. Today we will learn how to grown mint easily at home in pots/bags.
How to start
You do not have to buy mint plant from the nursery. I personally feel, it is a waste of money. Get a bunch of mint/pudina from the local vegetable market. When buying mint from the market, select mint with thick stems as seen in the picture below.
Use the leaves for making dishes like mint pulao, mint thuvaiyal or mint chutney and reserve the thick stems.
The best time to plant is late in the day or in the evening after sunset. So in case if you are not planting them immediately, keep the stems in a glass of water as seen below.
Mint needs good quality, rich and well-drained soil. I used the same potting mixture, I used for
growing vallarai/brahmi.
Before planting wet the soil. Then plant the stems in a pot/container/grow bags with some spacing between the stems. Sprinkle water well after planting. Make sure that the pot or container you are using has holes for proper drainage.
Ensure that the soil is moist (not wet nor dry), so avoid over watering.
Keep the mint plant in a place where it will receive morning sunlight and partial afternoon shade. Within a few days, you will find new leaves coming up. Add vermicompost once in 10 or 15 days.
As Mint spreads fast, make sure the pot/bag is broad enough.
Once fully grown, you can harvest mint leaves and enjoy using it in your dishes.
I love to flavor my buttermilk, lemonade, iced tea etc with homegrown fresh mint leaves. I also make many dishes with mint leaves. Check out my Mint Recipes. Mint tea is good for digestive problems. If you suffer from cold, blocked nose, headache, steaming with fresh mint leaves helps to alleviate the problem.
If you like gardening, check my Organic Kitchen Garden.
View Comments (13)
is that we need to pluck the leaves by hand or cut with scissors and then use the stem for planting
Thanks for sharing very useful info... inspiring
Useful and important information. Thanks for sharing it.
Wow beautiful...where do you get the grow bags?
Ramanathan - You can pluck the leaves using your hands.
Madhoo - I got the grow bags from Coimbatore.
hi padhu iam great fan of all your recipes all north Indian dishes side dish for chapathi it looks yummy and tasty i tried it and my kids and my family loved it thanks padhu
Nice to know about grow bags,great inspiring post. Thanks for sharing padhu.
you are awesome..
Thanks for the views on growing our own herb garden. Very nice a thought.Will surely try this weekend.
Very handy & usefullll