The smell is nice, and you can make a great cup of tea, however...............its everywhere.
I love mint, but.............
OMG! That is unbalievable
Yup! Looks just like mine did last year! Invasive little devil.
I had to build a "perimeter" around mine, Then I excavated as much surrounding soil as I could a little bit at a time and ripped the roots out by hand. This also meant I had to take out about half of my Artemisia Silver Queen too because the roots were so intertwined.
Anywhere I saw it starting to come up I dug it up and ran the roots like a wire back to the main plant and ripped them out too.
Around the perimeter I sunk shingles down 7 or 8 inches around it, overlapping to prevent roots from sneaking through and backed up the outside of the shingle tops with big rocks to hide them and to keep the overlapps tight.
My sister had the same problem until she ripped the whole thing out and replanted it in a big plastic pot w/drainage, then sunk the pot in the ground to contain it.
I love mint too, my grandparents always had it, but when I put it in 4 years ago I had no idea it would grow to be such a monster. I think I'm going to need to take the same approach with my oregano this year too - it gets invasive as well, just not as quickly as the mint.
One thing I did discover is Chocolate Mint. It smells great but doesn't seem to spread very much - mine has grown into sort of a small shrub - its a bit better behaved than its cousin.
-Christie
Had to look at that pic again, unbalievable
LOL I won't beg you for that one. :) My first year gardening, I traded for lots of mints because everyone was offering them. My second year I dug up tons of it and potted it and still pull out some here and there. My lemon balm looks about like your mint, still! They both smell so nice! Too bad they are thugs.
Wow! You can really grow mint! I have several varieties, and all of them grow in large pots sunk into the ground. Large DEEP pots. I leave the rim about 4 inches above the soil line and they stay contained nicely. They particularly like those old pottery crocks with no hole in the bottom. The one I have does have a crack, however, so it lets moisture out slowly.
Pixydish
Looks similar to my mint 'patch'....don;t know where it came from, but have been battleing it for 3 years now. Seems for every root I pull up 2 take it's place....does make great mint jelly though :-)
I've heard if you grow them in pots they are less likely to spread. I am growing almost all of my herbs this year in pots. I'm not going to do chamomille again, ever - the seeds from the flowers were blown from the wind EVERYWHERE - and I have enough chamomille on my property now to last a lifetime. lol.
check this out rylaff
think you got it bad hey! LOL
this is apple mint I have a patch twice this big of pineapple mint, and a huge patch of lime, and a huge patch of peppermint, I have to weed eat the flowers so they don't cross polinate, and some mints I let grow in the grass and mow them down like grass, smells wonderuful LOL still all in all, I wouldn't trade them for anything well, maybe other plants LOL.
Wow, it really does spread. I took someone's good advise a few years back and put mine in pots. I have thought about sticking it in the ground and won't now. There just isn't enough room in my garden!
yes, it does take over, I have l0 acres, so I don't really mind it taking over
LOL, I've got 2 acres and thought about planting it by the barn to fight it out with the goatheads!!
what's goatheads? goats? they'll eat it down to the nub LOL probably not goats though, ha ? some kind of plant , LOL I"m dumb
kathy
hmmmm does mint grow well in shade and sorta dry? Itll get stepped on by dogs mostly but they would come in smelling pretty good. Ill have to consider using it in the lawn, DH might have a problem with that.
kathy - goatheads are the nastiest, most evil plant in the universe!!! They're also called puncturevine, they spread like crazy and then develop seeds that that are rock hard with very sharp points.
The seeds get everywhere! We had to put carpet down in our garage to catch the seeds to try and keep them at least out of the house. They puncture tires, go through thin footwear - ugh - they're awful!! -Christie
I love Mint too but just cant seem to grow it..in pots,in the ground? No matter where I put it it dies on me...I want some for tea but ohhhhh well... LOL
Karen I will send you all the mint you want..........email me if you want LOTS :-)
Marc
KarenMG, don't feel alone.
I've been trying for 3 years to get mints to take and grow. They do okay the first year, then don't come back the second year. I have no idea why they hate me so, when everybody else has mints taking over and they are calling them thugs! LOL
I've been planting mine in big pots buried in the ground. I cut the bottoms out so the roots can sink, but not spread. From now on, I think I'll just plant it directly into the garden. I've got 5 acres and willing to give an acre of it to mints. Love them! When I'm working in the yard, I pick off a leaf to suck on. Yummy!
Our mints flourish in the ground. They die when they are in pots. Our mint plants hate pots...in the ground, out of the ground, partially in the ground, good soil, bad soil, lots of water, very little water, it doesn't matter. I know others make it work, but we can't make it work.
They do try to spread, but then we just transplant them to pots and share the wealth or simply hoe them off. My wife just brought me a wonderful glass of sun tea with two nicely "bruised" catmint leaves yesterday. Yummy!
Jefe
hostile takeover.
I am having the same problem with Lemon Balm, It's everywhere now. All the way across the garden!
Mobi
Yeah, I was smart enough to keep my chocolate mint in a pot, but not smart enough to kill that first patch of Creeping Charlie! Two years and lots of weed killer later, it has pretty much taken OVER my back yard. Anyone got any surefire cures, other than RoundUp?
I have a box 4' X 8', last year I planted lots of herbs and some different mints. The mints have taken over now so I removed my herbs to another area. But I can't tell the difference between the mints. I also planted lemon balm in there, does it come up in a nice round ball?
Peg
The Lemon balm comes up on a spreading clump but has rounder leaf in comparison to the mint. Pretty dark green plant. It's part of the mint family as well. I think mine has just seeded everywhere.
Mobi
We recently moved into a house where the lemon balm has completely taken over. It is crowding out all the other nice plants that were put in. It looks to have orig been put in on purpose. tsk tsk. I've been told it will take me several years to get rid of it. I guess I'll go pull some more right now.
Gwen
Now here's a strange one: I grow all my mints in crocks and they do well, but the lemon balm just kind of putters along! I took some with me from my old house and thought I'd grow it in a pot at this house, since it had become Gangster Balm at the old house. It just doesn't seem to like it much, but I'm too chicken to let it out!
It's just waiting for you when you are weak then when you do let it out it will take over!
I am thinking of planting a plot of mint because mine hates the pots too. Will we ever learn.
Mobi