Forgot to mention that the site only gets moon and afternoon sun for 4-5 hours. enough?

Enough sunlight--yes.

1--I would visit a herb shop that sells mint and do some taste testing to decide which to grow

2--Yes a 5 gallon pot would be big enough, But you wouldn't leave them in the same soil forever.( Make sure your pots have good drainage. Cover any large holes with a bit of mesh screening.) I would dig and thin them out every sptring and add a little new topsoil to the pot.

3-- No roots out the bottom-- not if you thin and transplant every spring.

4--Yes you can put the pots in the ground--but only if you keep them in check

5--The only thing you'd have to worry about in your garden is if you let them go to seed.

In other words if you thin mint the roots won't go so deep that the rysomes can escape from the pots. If you trim it back when it starts to go to seed and if you add a bit of new earth to your pots every year. Then your mint won't become invasive and will stay exactly where you want it.

Don't do this and you'll have mint coming out of your ying-yang

Hi oilpainter, thanks for helping. Sounded like the secret to prevent mint taking over is to thin out the roots yearly and prevent seeding.

For thinning out the roots, when should one do it? Winter? Seeding, how can one prevent that? By cutting of the flowers?

Thin it out to a small clump in the spring. That is not just the root but the whole plant. After 1 years growing you should know just how much to keep, judging by how much it grew the previous summer.

To keep it from going to seed don't just pick off leaves, give it a haircut a few times and use the leaves on the pieces you cut off. This is especially good when the plant starts flowering. This is easy enough to do with a pair of clippers. Don't let it set seed and no seed will be in the garden.

How about planting them inside as houseplant in something like a 1 gal planters? Can they take the stuffy indoor air? would just morning sun be enough?

I have Kentucky Colonel Spearmint. It makes awesome Mojitos.

I've tried to keep it inside, but it always dried out for me. I'm probably not diligent enough about watering it though.

tame91 - If you don't mind, what is a Mojito? Thank you...

Greg
Southern Nevada

Thinning the plants isn't difficult - just pull off a chunk of healthy looking roots when the plant starts to sprout in spring and repot it. You'll probably have more left over than you actually keep, so you could pot some up for friends or to give to plant sales.

You could grow some on the windowsill. It won't do as well as plants grown outside, but you could discard it when it looks unhealthy and pot up a fresh piece of root for a new plant.

A mojito is a Cuban cocktail featuring rum, sugar, water, lime juice, and muddled mint. Sounds good, doesn't it?

FataMorgana