VIDEO: Cutting mint and properly caring for it

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mint is not the same as mint. There are many types of the aromatic herb. English mint sauce is made from spearmint (Mentha spicata). Another variety, Mentha x piperita, is used for the classic peppermint tea. Mint often grows so strongly in the garden that its runners have to be tamed.

Grow and cut the popular herb

  • Plant mint in your garden in a location where it can spread, or limit it with underground root barriers. You can easily get young plants in nurseries or from your neighbors, who simply give you some root runners.
  • Mints like things a little more humid and do well in partial shade. The soil should be rich in humus. The plants are grateful for an annual compost.
  • Once mint has grown in, it can grow a lot. But that also means that if the space is available, you will never need to buy mint tea again.
  • There are several ways to cut mint. You can cut fresh leaves for tea all summer long. Cold mint tea is a pleasant, thirst-quenching drink in the heat.
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  • Around September, just before flowering, you can cut the plants completely to dry. Leave about 8 inches. The cut stems are hung up in an airy manner. When the stems are dry, you can easily peel off the leaflets. You can simply leave thin stems in the dry material for the tea.
  • Since flowering mint is a valuable pasture for bees in September, beekeepers and some nature lovers cut their mint earlier and let it bloom in September. You can always cut a little all summer and always dry something so that there is enough for tea in winter. Then you have your mint harvest and the bees have the nectar.
  • Whether in July or September, it is best to cut in the morning. Then the morning dew is dry and the plants are not limp from the midday heat.
  • In winter, the stalks of the mint die off. They sprout again abundantly in the spring.


Different types of mint

  • The best known types are the two types mentioned above: peppermint and spearmint.
  • Apple mint (Mentha suaveolens) has a distinctly pleasant apple smell in addition to the mint aroma.
  • The Mentha x piperita citrata is known as lemon or orange mint. Their aroma is reminiscent of Eau-de-Cologne.
  • Ginger mint (Mentha x gentilies "Variegata") has a very strong aroma and is characterized by oval, yellow-speckled leaves.
  • To list all types and cultivated forms of mint here would go beyond the scope of this article.
  • Strawberry mint, Japanese mint, various mint bushes and many more seduce the gardener.
  • One species, the pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), was used against vermin in the Middle Ages. It is poisonous and not suitable for consumption.
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