Not sure if this qualifies as a bona fide LPT but mint will take over everything. If you want mint in your herb garden take it from me, don’t! I’m digging up my entire herb garden again this spring hopefully to get all the roots from the spearmint and peppermint that I planted three years ago. If you want mint, plant it in a pot as it is super invasive. Don’t even get me started on lemon balm!
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Bamboo has entered the conversation
I keep reading this but every time I plant mint that shit dies
Catnip is the same- also part of the mint family.
Thought it would be cute to grow catnip. Now there’s so many damn cats in the yard.
Yeah it’s spread through all my desktops and laptop. I haven’t been able to contain it!
Put it in a pot, put the pot in a pot, and put that pot on solid concrete not near any cracks. And pick it up every few months to make sure the roots aren’t escaping.
Horseradish has also entered the conversation. Cannot get rid of it in my veg garden.
What I do is buy a roll of copper mesh that I form a bowl with in the hole before I plant anything invasive. Roots won’t grow through copper, they recoil from it.
I guess I’ve been lucky. I had mint growing. I dug some out to give to my father in law. And the rest of it died and never grew back. It’s been 7 years. Now my wife is asking for more to keep the deer out of our garden.
I planted mint in a pot on the porch and a year later it was growing in the yard.
So, mint can be brutally murdered, but you have to actually be highly trained in plant murder and highly motivated to murder it. My mother planted some mint cuttings she got from her mother, I think (might have been her sister or other close family friend).
It did what mint does, and escaped the bed it was in, and started invading the yard. That made mowing the lawn near the house quite a treat.
She eventually decided the mint had to die because it was crowding out her flowers, so we dug it all up. And then we dug up the dirt and removed as many roots as we could find. Then if one of those little f*ckers showed its face, we dug them up. It took a year or two, but it was dead and gone and that was that and Mom stopped drinking mint tea from mint growing in the yard. She also never planted mint ever again.
Oregano will also multiply and spread everywhere. There was a small patch in a planter when I bought my house. Now I have a planter of oregano. I let it stay just because the bees love it.
I’m a newbie at gardening this spring! Any tips on keeping lavender and rosemary alive?
I, too, am a mint farmer now.
Mint is absolutely weed-like and should be in a separate area. Same with raspberries as they expand both above and below ground.
We had to dig out our entire planter 3 feet deep and throw the dirt away to get rid of the mint.
You just have to give lemon balm a few haircuts during the growing season before it goes to seed.
Good call. I had some in the backyard of a house that previous owner planted…I think I like mint less because of the ordeal it became. That stuff will straight up take over the land if you let it. I was in wayy over my head with that.
When I was a kid, we had a detached garage, well away from our house, and far from the garden. That’s where the mint was. I always wondered why I had to go all the way to the garage to get the mint when my mom asked me to get it, but now I think my mom was more clever than I realized.
My cilantro is taking over everything it’s growing straight up trees
English ivy has entered the conversation.
Mountain mint…. Lol. Same
I’ll take whatever you need to throw out!
Here I was expecting a rant against Mint Mobile
I was about to hop to Ubuntu for a moment
LPT: drink more mojitos.
I’m so deepfried I thought you were talking about linux for a second.
I thought you meant mint the finance app
Absolutely true!
I learned the hard way too, now it’s strictly pot-only for mint and lemon balm!
Promises, promises. I keep buying more, all full of hope. Eventually it all dies out, even if it appeared well established.
I read all the warnings about mint with great interest, cause everything else I’ve tried as ground cover in my back yard has died. So I planted mint. It also died.
IF you want mint in ground, bury a plastic tub up to the brim in ground and fill with dirt. Plant in that and it will contain the spread.
I grew spearmint in a 15-gallon tree pot to keep it contained. It rooted through 15” of soil and started growing out of the drainage holes at the bottom.
I’m kinda with you on the mint thing, but as someone who learned the hard way, mint is way worth it. Tame it with a pot or plant it on its own plot, like you said. There’s nothing like fresh mint for summer drinks. One summer, just when I was showing off my gardening skills, I thought I’d be clever and plant mint with my other herbs. Fast forward, and yeah, mint jungle everywhere! But those mojitos I made while standing in my mint forest? Legendary. Now i just plant it in a big container next to my barbecue. Works perfect. So what I’m saying is maybe enjoy the ride first, before the ripping-up part. Keeps life interesting, right?
Pro-er tip: embrace it and just make a lot of mojotos
I planted mint in my herb garden a few years ago. It got loose into the flower beds and is now creeping into the lawn. I tried covering the top flower bed with heavy black plastic to kill it but it just grew up around the edges. It won’t die!!!!! The ones in the yard just get mown with the grass and keep spreading. At this point I think I’m going to have to completely dig up the flower bed and the herb garden……. Mint is delicious. I love it but it is also kind of scary and invasive.
Grows wild in my yard. Spearmint, peppermint , and mint in different clusters. Very prolific in spring and summer. I love it but certainly can’t use it all.
Put it in a hanging basket
LPT: plant catnip in yards of neighbors you hate to attract stray cats
Mint belongs in a pot. A pot with a saucer. 100%
I thought you meant the mint gym I’m currently chewing was going to kill me
I laid down mulch today and noticed how much mint I have popping up already. I love the look and smell, but it is VERY invasive.
My dumb ass thought you were talking about the financial planning app at first
Haha! You can’t deter me! I have fucking Bermuda grass that I THOUGHT I had destroyed before putting in beds and paths, so I planted mint in the hopes of a Battle Royale where only the mint survives.
I had a raise garden bed with like six different herbs and I planted a little plant of mint it is now all mint no other herbs just mint nothing but mint I’m making chutney and sauces all the time because I have so much mint
I spent an hour ripping it out of a flower garden last week. In one year it had taken over.
lol mint really does have that main character energy, quiet at first, then suddenly everywhere, taking over like it owns the place. i learned the hard way too… so, planting it in a pot is like setting gentle boundaries
Same for Aloe Vera
Jerusalem artichokes too. I re reckon they’d grow in the dirt on your boots if the could.
This 100%! It’s been 10 years and it’s still popping up every where.
Also see: catnip
If you have mint, you probably have beetles, too… if that bothers you.
Garlic chives joins the chat. Just buy some at the grocery store. It will not be nice to have them in the herb garden.
Everyone says this , but I can barely get the dam stuff to grow.
Yep, e had to dig it out of ours also. We threw it over the fence into one of our pastures, now we have a nice crop of mint in the pasture.
Grow it in a container
I’ll also add that mint in recipes is also SUPER powerful. I really recommend going a measure less than the recipe recommends the first time you make it just to be safe. Too little mint still gives some flavor. Too much can make the dish inedible.
Makes cutting the grass smell good
<looks at trumpet vines>
sendhelp
Odd side tip: if you just want to pick it up cheap, go to the Oriental grocery stores. Many have it in bundles for just a few bucks rather than the sprigs in a clam shell sold at a lot of chain grocers for $5-6.
They aren’t kidding. Mint grows all over my yard, including the cracks in the concrete. But I actually kind of like it
I tried this with mint, and it died. The trumpet vine, however, is popping up all over the property. At least the humming birds love it.
Try to contain it in pots.
Learned this the hard way myself.
9 years later, a little still crops up every year.
This goes for catnip/mint too. Same family and it’s a beast at hanging around. Has lovely little purple flowers on it though.
Yep!!! I love it as a ground cover in my raised bed, but yessssssssss!!!
A warning is not really a tip… the real tip would be;
If you want mint in your garden then just poke some holes in the bottom of an old plastic bucket, bury it, fill with earth and plant your mind in there. Just make sure theres half an inch of the bucket sticking up all around your plant, that way youll be able to tell very easily when its trying to expand its empire and grow out and over.
I wish someone had told me this before I planted it in my garden. I’ve been fighting to remove it for years. The roots creep and spread under everything!!
I did the opposite I planted mint in hopes it going to take over this corner of my yard that I hate. this is year 2 and we are in upstate NY and just had snow, the Mint don’t care, its coming.
I put mint in a pot, somehow mint is growing between the bricks in my patio and my garden.
ULPT – Consider mint!
I wish. I have been trying to get my mint growing again for like four years. Last year I got a special chocolate mint that legit smelled like an Andes mint I was so sad when it didn’t make it I tried everything and it just wouldn’t propagate. There is a wild relative of mint that grows where I live but it isn’t minty so it’s basically useless and probably not even edible.
That really depends. I planted mint on the lawn edge warnings be damned thinking it would be great to smell when I mow the lawn sometimes and… it never really spread. It’s pushed out a foot after a decade.
It’s doing just fine with neglect and I always have plenty of mint but it won’t outcompete the grass – just don’t plant it in a garden you plan to use for anything else. Did out a square foot or 2 along the edge of some grass and you’ll be fine.
At first I thought you meant the financial institution Mint, not the plant lol
Strawberries too! My grandma always grew strawberries and would block them in their own section because otherwise they’d pop up all over her yard
Same with Oregano. Shit has taken over half my garden plot.
What if I plant it in my yard to choke out the grass? I don’t enjoy mowing.
If I live in a wooded area, is it beneficial to have mint to ward off wildlife? Or simply just pests/insects?
I had mint in my hydroponic bed, it fucking went everywhere. When it froze here I thought it would die, nope kept chugging along. I finally snapped one day and ripped everything out. Months later we move and set it up again and a few weeks later I see mint popping up, bits of roots somehow survived for months.
I thought this post was about Mint Mobile lol
If you grow mint or lemon balm, do so in a pot. But your pot will have a drainage hole at the bottom and propagation roots will go through the hole. Just move the pot often enough to break that root.
We have not a had a problem with catnip, though.
What the hell keeps eating all my mint every year then?!? I can’t get mint to last outside it just gets chomped. (Salt Lake City, for climate.)
Same thing with wild basil and wild garlic
Search any gardening sub for “mint” for endless horror stories.
I used to live across from a vacant lot. My roommate and I joked we should plant mint in one corner and bamboo in the other and see who won.
And here I thought you were talking about Mint Mobile. Phew!
Lemon balm is the same. Maybe worse.
Aldo dill. There is a very solid reason it is called dill weed. We grow mint in a container, only need a little for Christmas candy.
Boo! I can’t get enough of mint. I love it when it takes off growing. I will eat it by the handful during its peak.
The previous owners of my house planted mint. I had someone remove all the mint / completely gut out the little patch of soil. It was 5 giant garbage bags worth.
Every single one of those motherfuckers grew back in a month.
I have had chocolate mint in my garden for 6 years and have had no issues with a hostile take over. I keep an eye out for runners whenever I’m harvesting in that area of the garden and usually give it a strong pruning about twice a season and dry it for tea.
Ramps but also is sometimes called garlic mustard,wild leek, spring onion, or ramson is my nemesis. The nasty neighbor who also feeds the wildlife (different issue but equally problematic), also grows ramps & nettles to eat & to make tea. They have completely invaded my garden, despite regular daily weeding. I give up.
Why not keep it in a pot above ground and trim it when it starts to go over the edge of the pot?
I was really worried this was about the phone company for a second!
And here I am TRYING to grow mint in a pot but can’t