Making a Mint With Herbs Is Not All That Difficult By James A. Duke Herbs are easy to grow, and increasingly easier to selL Cautious growers can supplement their incomes selling herbs, or grow a variety of herbs for home use including cooking and herb teas, or decoration. With a 6- to 7-month growing season, you can grow several perennial herbs that sell well at summer garden stands. My son made vacation spending money by selling herbs at an urban farmer's market. Thyme and chives were his biggest sellers. He started both from seed in pots and marketpacks in our small greenhouse. The chives in 4 x 6 inch peat market- packs sold for over a dollar, planted (at least 5 marketpacks) from a 35i seed package. Other herbs, including thyme, can be subdivided readily by cutting or root divisions. Chives, thyme, and other herbs are ready sellers, weekend after weekend. There is a big demand both for hanging pots and for herbs. Put the two together and you should have a money earner. Balm, corsican mint, orégano, peppermint, rosemary, savory, spearmint, and thyme have good hanging possibilities. Perennials more than annuals tend to drape themselves over the edges of pots, making them especially attractive for macramé plant hangers. Annuals like basil are less attractive to the macramé buyer, but still attractive to the adventurous cook. All can sell. Some buyers are more drawn to the decorative piece of art (pot plus plant) than to pot or plant alone. Some people will buy a hanging rosemary to look at, not to use. My wife, a botanist, spent more money last year on herbs she looks at than herbs she uses. James A. Duke is with the Medicinal Plant Resources Laboratory, Ptant Genetics and Germpiasm Institute, Beltsviile, Md. 218 Hanging Pots Hanging pots need to be watered and drained. Pots with holes in the bottom will drain into saucers also held in the hanger. A good mixture of potting soil and vermiculite, pre- mixed or mixed by the experienced at home, is adequate. Hanging pots can be started with seeds, but you gain time by starting with rooted cuttings or plant subdivisions. Seed and plant dealers advertise in many horticultural journals. Like ground plants, hanging pots require water, light, and protection from frost. Many herbs in hanging baskets can be grown in winter in a small greenhouse. Eventually fertilization will help, since constant clipping of herbs will eventually deplete the soil of nutrients. Bonemeal, well-rotted compost, weed-free manure, or a hght sprinkling of 5-10-5 commercial fertilizer can be spread near but not at the base of the plant, perhaps to a radius equalling the plant's height. Since most of my personal experiences have centered on mints and ginseng, I will emphasize them. Mints offer their magic touch to herbal tea, while ginseng attracts much atten- tion these days. We drink a lot of herb tea at my house, and I prefer a blend of several herbs to a single herb. Thyme, orégano, and savory are too overbearing to be used alone, but they can en- hance other interesting dominants like lemon balm, peppermint, and spearmint. Easy-Grow Mints Easy mints to grow for home consumption include apple mint, bergamot, lemon balm, lemon thyme, orangemint, pepper- mint, rosemary, sage, and spearmint. These are perennials, that come back from the roots in spring. If you plant mints, keep in mind that many are difficult to eliminate once established. Plan before you plant perennials. Whether you plant seed or plants, determine where you want your plants to reside permanently. To prevent herbs from spreading, set them out in sunken tins or pots, old tires, in the holes in cinder blocks, or be prepared to do battle with some of the more aggressive spreaders. Some mints are handsome enough in their own right to be commingled with the ornamental garden. Anise-hyssop, berga- mot, hyssop, and several sages (such as pineapple sage) have colorful flowers. Coleus is added to herb borders for its orna- mental foliage. 219 Colorful foliage *'varieties" have been developed in many mints. Leaves that are silver-, yellow-, and white-margined or variegated occur in the balm, sage, and thyme species. The purple foliage in various basils, bugles and sages adds to ornamental borders. At the outer edge of the ornamental bed, creeping varieties of mint or thyme can add aroma as well as color to your walkway. You may place favorite herbs strategically in the orna- mental bed, or in a formal **knot" garden. Land Needs The Primer for Herh Growing (issued by the Herb Society of America) indicates that an 8 x 10 foot plot of land will supply enough herbs for a family of four. The hobbyist can get by with an 8 x 12 foot greenhouse. A perennial grower can get by with a half-acre lot and no greenhouse. There are true and false tales of ginseng growers making more than $10,000 per half-acre [21,780 square feet). The true tales relate to cautious and serious growers. It is quite possible to lose money on ginseng. Good 3-year ginseng planting stock can cost more than a dollar per root. With good luck, and a simulated northern habitat, some will produce seed the first year. To a smart marketer the 20 seeds per plant may repay cost of the root in the first year. But even the cautious grower may lose all the roots to adverse conditions. Chipmunks, groundhogs and other animals may be nuisances in the ginseng garden, de- vouring the roots and/or tops. The cautious ginseng or mint growf^ can make some money on a small-scale farm. The best ginseng grower can survive on a few well-managed acres. The run-of-the-mill mint farmer will make less, unless the facts and/or fiction spread about ginseng could be equally spread about mints. What would happen, for example, if the world believed that bergamot, not ginseng, im- proved vitahty and intellectual acuity and made old men young again? Once land is prepared, the small herb grower has no spe- cial equipment need, but may want drying equipment. The small herb farmer will probably harvest by hand. We string up our herbs in a dry area out of the sunshine. Herbs dried in the sun tend to lose much of their flavor and color. Bigger growers of mints or ginseng may need drying racks that can provide ventilation and heat to prevent mildew during humid periods. 220 If the importance of a plant can be judged by the number of inquiries I get about it, ginseng is the most important herb, followed closely by the medicinal herb, goldenseal. As an herb grower, I would start with these if money were my main ob- jective. I now have a small patch of ginseng intercropped with goldenseal, hoping that the bitterness of the goldenseal will discourage rodents from frequenting my ginseng patch. Culinary Mints If herbal tea were the main objective, I would start with a selection of mints. Culinary mints I have grown include anise- hyssop, apple mint, balm, basil, bergamot, bugle, catmint, catnip, clary, horehound, hyssop, lavender, lemon basil, lemon thyme, marjoram, mint, mother-of-thyme, orangemint, orégano, peppermint, rosemary, sage, savory, spearmint, and thyme. Trying to start ginseng from seeds can be very frustrating to the beginner. Even if you have purchased seeds from reliable dealers, you may have to wait 18 months for the seeds to germinate. Seeds that dried out before you plant them may never germinate. Most mint seeds, on the other hand, tend to germinate readily. It's cheaper of course to buy seeds than plants, but time also has a value. From planting seeds to harvesting may take five to seven years with ginseng, and at least five months with most of the mints. Those fortunate enough to have a greenhouse or a cold frame can start mint seedlings to transplant later to permanent sites. Ginseng does poorly or dies in the ordinary greenhouse. It requires a shady situation, with highly organic forest floor soils recommended. Seeds or roots should be planted 12 to 18 inches apart in beds separated by walkways to permit weeding, mulching (with fallen leaves) and harvesting. Well-drained soils cleared of extraneous roots are recommended [See Farm- er's Bulletin No. 2201). Only two mints, peppermint and spearmint, are grown on a large scale in the United States. Planting and soil require- ments for these are discussed in Mint Farming (Agr. Info. Bui. 212). Many mints which do well in full sun can be grown in partial shade. Anise-hyssop, apple mint, balm, basil, bergamot, bugle, curly mint, lemon thyme, peppermint and spearmint have survived well in situations where they get only 4 to 6 hours of full midday sun. Mints will grow well in most garden soils, but the higher the clay content the more likely the mints will suffer from 221 waterlogging or disease during excessively wet seasons. As a rule, the brighter and drier the habitat, the higher the aromatic qualities of mints. Even so, shade-grown mints are quite satis- factory for fresh herb tea. Insect Repelléis Mints do not attract most pests. In fact many are insect repellents. Mint species may contain repellents or insecticides, such as camphor, carvacrol, citral, citronellal, eugenol, furfural, linalool, menthol, and thymol, and fungicides such as furfural, menthol, salicylic acid, and thymol. Diseases can wipe out mint monocultures, especially in heavy soils. Intercropped with ornamentals or vegetables, mints are less likely to suffer epidemics.