Plant Your Own Mint !!🌿

                                       

Do you want to try your hand at gardening, but don’t have any outdoor space? Perhaps you’d love to grow your herbs, but think this is impossible in an urban living environment?

                              

Never fear! Mint (aka Pudhina in Hindi) is an easy-to-grow herb indoors. A small balcony or a window is enough to start a herb garden. So even if you live in a flat without so much as access to a patio area, you can still exercise your green thumb. You just have to get creative with your space. If you want to learn how to grow mint, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s very easy. All it takes is little time and some easy steps to starting your small herb garden and before you know it you will be harvesting fresh mint in no time.

          

  Home-grown mint is fragrant, flavourful, tastes better than what you get in the market    and of course pesticide-free. Growing new plants is usually about planting seeds, but the best way to grow mint is from clippings or cuttings.

  You do not have to buy a mint plant from the nursery. Get a bunch of mint/pudhina from the local vegetable market. When you are buying mint from the market, select mint with thick stems and fresh leaves as shown in the picture. 

                                         

  Clean the pudhina with water and start plucking leaves, leaving only 2 leaves. Or, you can place a root cutting or even a sprig of mint. The mint plant has roots called "runners" that tend to grow out of control and make the herb quickly take over your garden. So it is important to plant the mint in some sort of container to prevent the roots from spreading. Place it in a half water-filled container.

                

  Keep the mint plant in a place where it will receive enough morning sunlight and partial afternoon shade.

  When growing Mint in containers – once the root system has filled the pot or container then the plant can be lifted out of the pot and then divided into 3 or 4 plants and then each plant re-potted in the center of a new pot with additional compost to back-fill the container.

                                            

  Before planting wet the soil. Then plant the stems in a pot with some spacing between the stems. Sprinkle water well after planting. Make sure that the pot or container you are using has holes or voids for proper drainage. Ensure that the soil is moist (neither wet nor dry), so avoid over watering.

                                                    

  You might be wondering how often to water mint – but it’s an intuitive process. Place the containers in your balcony or window and water whenever the soil looks dry. Mint needs to be kept moist, but not saturated with liquid – so test the soil by touching the soil with your fingers before watering. You can also rotate your containers every couple of days to ensure your plants are soaking up sunlight on all sides. As your plant grows, regularly trim the top of it to contain its height and promote growth in the surrounding stems. This will produce more of the herb.

                                           

  If you’re wondering how to harvest mint – it’s very easy! Mint takes about 50-60 days to reach full maturity, but you can keep pinching off leaves as the plant matures. You can even harvest the entire plant, leaving a couple of inches for regrowth. It’s up to you.

  Mint is a flexible and resourceful herb that can be used in limitless dishes.  I generally use it to flavour my buttermilk, lemonade, iced tea, mojitos etc. with home-grown fresh mint leaves and many other dishes too. Plus, as a bonus, there are other mint plant uses besides cooking; for example, you can use mint leaves for medicinal use and skin conditions such as acne!

 Here are pictures of my Home-grown mint.

             

  Do you want to try it out? If you do so and got any success with growing mint indoors?Let me know in the comments section!👇