Cultivating mint from root

Cultivating mint from root or a shoot is something that I seem to do every few years or so at the allotment. I seem to plant it, it dies off and it grows back again but in a different spot – about a foot apart from where I originally planted it. Looking back, I should really start planting this in pots, to restrict their root growth and stop it from taking over.

When I was weeding my garlic and onion patches the other week, interspersed in between the bulbs were these lovely shoots of mint and I thought to myself – this is one of those times where a weed is not a weed, so I gathered them up and I planted them in decorative pots. They were so luscious and green and certainly too good to throw on the compost heap.

I’d previously lined up a row of decorative pots because this year I want to do a big push on pollinators and plant wild flowers, so I knew that I could spare a couple of pots to grow some fresh mint. I’m a little low on bags of compost at the moment so I filled the base of the pots with compost from the compost heap, before topping up the rest with handfuls of multi-purpose.

I then simply planted the mint roots in the pots and hoped (still hoping) for the best. I guess the key thing to take note of when cultivating mint like this, is to make sure that there’s an equal amount of root stock in relation to the top half of the plant. Also, it’s good to make sure that there’s a decent amount of growth that can with stand any frost that can still occur at this time of year. If frost is a concern, give them some shelter in a cold frame, greenhouse, porch or shed overnight. The worst thing is when dew droplets form and then freeze – I’ve been victim to this many times in the past.

In the end, I had three pots of mint, that were planted before the snow engulfed Britain for all of three days.

Once the snow had melted I visited the allotment and sadly, the pot that contained the smallest shoots had succumbed to frost damage, and were looking a bit worse for ware – but I’m hoping that as these were planted with a healthy amount of root stock, that new and fresh shoots will sprout.

I’m quite glad that the other’s survived as the mint I planted for my herb garden at home has yet to show any signs of life!

Are you cultivating mint or any other wild herbs in your garden? Please leave a comment and let me know your methods 🙂