Freshly minted

Mint is a versatile herb to grow and it comes in myriad flavours, colours, sizes, shapes and textures. Many mints are edible but also have medicinal or health benefits and some yield essential oils.

The best known is spearmint, used to make mint sauce or jelly as a traditional accompaniment to roast lamb. Though spearmint (Mentha spicata) is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to mint, it’s a great introduction to growing the herb.

Spearmint grows as a groundcover and spreads via runners or stolons (underground stems). It produces short square stems of tasty green leaves, which grow through the warmest parts of the year but can die back completely in cold