Mint Horror Stories?!?

[HawkinsHollow]

I bought some mint at the farmers market this weekend because I want to start getting some perennial herbs growing my my yard. Now I new mint grew aggressively but I did not know the extent of it i guess. People have some mint horror stories out there. They basically say that if you plant it in the ground you will never get rid of it. Does anyone have any mint tips, tricks, horror stories, etc. At this point I will probably plant it in containers because Reddit has me scared.

 

[Jstpssng]

For anything you don't want to spread, bury a short piece of old plastic culvert in the ground and fill it with compost.

 

[MossRoad]

We've had a small patch of mint outside our back door for about 30 years. As it creeps into the lawn, I just mow it or weed eat it and it has never gotten out of control.

It's nice to pull a couple sprigs off in summer crush it a bit, and put it in a jar of sun tea to brew for the evening.

I keep an eye on it in summer and pick it before it flowers, dehydrate it, crush it up and keep it in a zip lock bag for tea in winter.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

We've had a small patch of mint outside our back door for about 30 years. As it creeps into the lawn, I just mow it or weed eat it and it has never gotten out of control.

It's nice to pull a couple sprigs off in summer crush it a bit, and put it in a jar of sun tea to brew for the evening.

I keep an eye on it in summer and pick it before it flowers, dehydrate it, crush it up and keep it in a zip lock bag for tea in winter.

Ok, good to know. The spot I plan I planting this is in the far corner of my lot near my figs and blueberries. If it gets a little unruly it shouldn't be an issue IMO. But people be talking all crazy on Reddit like it has taken over their lives.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

For anything you don't want to spread, bury a short piece of old plastic culvert in the ground and fill it with compost.

People say it will come out the bottom, come over the side or seed itself. It is really quite comical how people talk about the aggressiveness of this plant.

 

[ponytug]

Yes, my collective family experience with mint and multiple locations over multiple generations is that, yes, if mint can get out, it will. So, for allowing for doom mongerers and chicken littles, I'd be inclined to believe most of the mint horror stories.

Mom had it growing in a 2x3' patch of soil surrounded by a concrete patio. It never got out. Her mom, and her grandmother both battled their patches. The good news is that it is easy to kill, the bad news is that it grows like a weed, so if it were me I would expect to be pulling it as often as you mow, rather like @MossRoad.

I have two varieties growing in 5 gallon buckets sunk into a garden bed that is encased in concrete. Yes, it occasionally escapes over the bucket tops as the soil level is only about 3" below the rim, and also out the drain holes in the bottom of the buckets, but the solid barrier keeps trimming the escapees down to a once or twice a season clean up. I keep great-grandmother's mint growing as it is an especially sweet and flavorful mint, and a more standard mint that was sold to me as a "chocolate" mint.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Needville]

I enjoy an occasional Mojito. I planted mint 5-6 times at various locations in the yard. It has died every time.

 

[MossRoad]

People say it will come out the bottom, come over the side or seed itself. It is really quite comical how people talk about the aggressiveness of this plant.

Yep. It will spread if left unchecked. Like if you put it in a rock garden, there's no way to mow it, it's going to creep everywhere.

It doesn't spread by seed as far as I know. I think it spreads by rhizomes under the surface of the soil. So, you might be able to contain it in a barrel or something like that. Or just mow it. It doesn't like to be short and grass will overtake it if mown regularly.

Worse comes to worse, roundup!

 

[MossRoad]

.... I keep great-grandmother's mint growing as it is an especially sweet and flavorful mint, and a more standard mint that was sold to me as a "chocolate" mint.

All the best,

Peter

Nice!

 

[MossRoad]

Mint is heavily grown around here commercially. It's really nice in late summer when they harvest it and put it in the stills to extract the oil, then dump the boiled plants in piles at the corner of the fields. Mint smell travels for miles. A great childhood (and adult) memory for sure!

 

[nyone]

What's the problem with it spreading? It smells nice and isnt poison ivy. When mine use to over take areas i would just weed back it back a bit. Not any more though I have a child that loves to eat it like its ice cream. My mint now dosnt stand a chance. I fact we planted 6 more plants in different areas.

 

[sixdogs]

Wife planted some and it became so invasive I had to get involved. She was trying to cut it back but that just encouraged growth of runners and made things worse. It was overtaking everything.

Finally I just sprayed it with Roundup and a few days later sprayed it again. Problem solved.

 

[ponytug]

Mint is heavily grown around here commercially. It's really nice in late summer when they harvest it and put it in the stills to extract the oil, then dump the boiled plants in piles at the corner of the fields. Mint smell travels for miles. A great childhood (and adult) memory for sure!

Lucky you!

As a kid, I remember once being driven by a commercial mint harvesting / still amongst the mint fields; I thought it was amazing.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Mi-Troll]

When I was a kid, we had mint growing in the back yard and I remember when I mowed the lawn, the smell of mint was everywhere. As an adult, I often thought of those days and considered planting mint, had no idea that it was so invasive though.

 

[AntiqueIron]

I bought some mint at the farmers market this weekend because I want to start getting some perennial herbs growing my my yard. Now I knew mint grew aggressively but I did not know the extent of it i guess. People have some mint horror stories out there. They basically say that if you plant it in the ground you will never get rid of it. Does anyone have any mint tips, tricks, horror stories, etc. At this point I will probably plant it in containers because Reddit has me scared.

If you want help getting it under control, have me try to garden it.

It will be dead in a week.

 

[rontaki]

If you want help getting it under control, have me try to garden it.

It will be dead in a week.

Brown thumb, eh?

 

[CalG]

We have a patch of mint that thrives at the end of the under drive culvert. The area is several very small pools defined by a few stones placed to inhibit soil erosion. There are roses above the patch, a cedar tree just to the north, and a grassy slope on the south side that I mow.

The patch has been there more than 30 years. Some years it is vigorous, some years not so much.
It has never "escaped".

Fresh mint, cubed watermelon, and feta cheese is about as refreshing a summer salad as one could want!

 

[Jstpssng]

People say it will come out the bottom, come over the side or seed itself. It is really quite comical how people talk about the aggressiveness of this plant.

You aren't burying a deep enough culvert in that case. Or keeping it trimmed.

 

[rumwrks]

Peppermint tends to spread mostly by runners.. it's fairly aggressive about that but they often don't go down ridiculously deep maybe a couple of feet. Many of the spearmints and lemon balm will definitely spread by both runners and seed. The seeds don't breed true so you can end up with some less delicious mints in the offspring in the mix if you don't contain the roots/manage that (imho a good reason to containerize it right there to keep "pure" varieties if you like the flavor of specific ones).

I have some peppermint that grows wild in the creek here, interestingly (surprising to me) it's a variant that doesn't seem to want to run past where it's really wet so it hasn't been a real problem.

A few houses back we had some spearmint variant (of the non-delicious kind) that had taken over a garden spot and I endeavoured to remove it.. it was in a pretty dry/sandy area.. and as I started digging and sifting roots.. they were down well over 3' when I decided that was deep enough and filled it back in. I probably missed a few nodes on the sifting or it was working it's way up from 3' down (both likely) cause we had re-appearances over the next few years. Every root node that survives has decent odds of being a new plant. Spraying is an option in ome cases of course...

If you do plant it in pots it also likes to be taken out, chopped into quarters and replanting (one quarter in the same size of pot) with fresh soil for the remainder every year.. otherwise it chokes itself out pretty bad. It's also a fairly heavy feeder and the flavor suffers if it doesn't have enough nutrients.

 

[sixdogs]

On the plus side, I believe dried mint is a mouse repellent. It might be only certain varieties of mint but I know the mouse repellant for my cab tractor had dried mint in it.