planting mint

[simple life]

I am going to plant a mixture of herbs in a bed, would I be better off planting all of the mint varieties in a container?
I heard they can be invasive, and while I do like them I don't want them to take over. I have, calamint, corsican mint, ginger mint, orange mint, mountain mint, spearmint.
Did I hear lemon balm does the same thing? I have that as well and a few others I should probaby keep in line.

 

[Tutter]

I would always suggest containing mint.

However, I do grow mint near my house, not contained. It started with a small piece I liked, and we now keep my patch at around 5' x 4'. If we turn our back on it, it's at 25' in no time, but it's not been difficult to keep cut back.

So the question is, do you want to chase it down and hope the conditions are such that it will allow you to crush it out easily? I would vote to contain it!

I don't grow lemon balm, perhaps Reinbeau or someone else can tell you more, but I've heard it can be invasive.

Good luck, mint is fun, and relaxing, I find, to smell. I'm currently making mint jelly, and enjoy the leaves in tea. In the case of spearmint, when my children were small, we'd sometimes make summer "tea", if they wanted it, by putting a fresh leaf in each cup, with hot water, nothing else. I was surprising to most people to learn that, drunk that way, it was on the sweet side.

Enjoy!

 

[SewingDiva]

We gave our mint a spot off by itself in the yard at edge of our yard so it can just go crazy - it can be invasive in a bed. Also, there are several different kinds of mint, and some are not really good for culinary use as they can taste a bit harsh. I first planted peppermint and it was too strong and medicinal, and replaced it with spearmint, which is heavenly. The plants are not always well labeled, so you might want to avoid one just called "Mint".

I love Mojitos in the summer, and I like being able to go out into the yard for the mint!

~Phyllis

 

[Rosalind]

Yes, keep the mint in a container. I say this from hard experience. Mine is in a sort of contained rock-walled bed on the side of the house, where it gets only morning sun and not a whole lot of water. This manages to restrain its enthusiasm such that I can distinguish the apple mint from the chocolate mint and pick only as much as I'll actually use.

I mean, unless you really wanted to start a mouthwash factory in your kitchen. That's the other option.

 

[simple life]

I am glad I asked, I had a hunch. I was just talking to my neighbor about this and she said she planted her mint in a pot and buried the pot in the ground.The pot broke over time and she didn't realize and her bed is now overrun with mint. I found a post on lemon balm and it says the same thing about it being invasive.
I am going to definitely plant it all in containers.

 

[calee]

Be sure to keep any mint-family herbs from going to seed if you're worried about them becoming invasive. Once the seeds germinate, you really have to keep on them to keep them in control.

 

[simple life]

Here is a stupid question, how do you do that?

 

[scrapmom5]

I planted chocolate mint and spearmint in my garden next to the tomotos and have had little problem with it. I do cut it back every few months to keep it where I want it. I actually have given starts to several of my neighbors. I allow it to contain an area covering 1 sq foot. My kids love to go and pick it fresh and enjoy.

 

[patandchickens]

Another thing that will help keep the mint patch from becoming too vast is to plant it in fairly dry, mostly sunny conditions, or in extremely dry total deep shade. It will taste as good as ever but spend more of its energy staying alive, with less left over for taking over your entire property. It will still try, but the battle will be on a more even footing


Pat

 

[calee]

To keep it from going to seed, keep it pinched back.

If you WANT to let it go to seed, leave a few seed heads, wait until it gets close to dropping the seeds, and tie little paper bags around the seed heads. After they've dropped (light rattling sound when you shake the bag), cut off the stem below where the bag is tied and take it inside to sort out.