Growing Mints in Pots

If you are new to gardening, starting to grow microgreens or herbs would be the best way to start gardening especially if you are interested in vegetable gardens. I love herbs for multiple reasons:

1. You don’t need a bigger space to grow herbs, even a small pot is enough
2. It grows quickly and easily with less supervision
3. It has good resistant to pests and insects because of their distinct smell
4. Once you start growing herbs you get hooked to gardening

Many people have asked me whats the best way to grow Mints when I show them how much Mints have grown in my pots. Trust me, its very easy and you dont need to even spend anything like seeds or plant cutters from Nurseries. All you do is:

1. A small pot
2. Red sand (if you are based out of Chennai you can source that easily from the nearest nursery which is mixed with Manure too) or any sand which can be suitable for plant growth
3. Mint stems (When buying Mint from stores, I use the leaves for cooking and keep the stems for growing)

Make sure you select the thick stems out of the bunch and have few small leaves left for planting. I use the other stems for my Cockatiel birds who loves chewing on mint stems and leaves. Check the picture below for the stems I have used for planting.

Fill the pot with the sand with 3/4th of the pot covering sand since you need place for the stems to grow upwards. I already had few planted in the pot and the above stems were planted in the same pot. Make sure the leaves are facing upwards. This is how it will be after planting.

You would start seeing smaller leaves sprouting out from the stems in 3 – 4 days. Keep watering the plant every day. And this is how it will start growing after a month.

After around 45 – 60 days your mint would have grown fully and occupy the pot as shown below. It would even start growing out of the pots. Initially I started growing in small pots, once I knew it was growing well and the techniques to grow I started planting them in bigger pots like this. Mint will start growing and occupy the spaces fully. If you are lucky to have a good lawn or area where you can grow plants in the ground you can plant these and see how beautifully it will grow. Nowadays I don’t often buy Mint often from stores rather use from own pots. It does taste and smell better than the ones bought from store since its fresh. Do try and let me know how if you were successful. Happy Gardening! 🙂