Planting mint

Tldr Mint is invasive.
- How do you know I don't live in western and central Asia, east to the Himalaya and eastern Siberia, where we all know mint is native!?
  
  That's why I installed Arch instead!
  
  Not sure what you are talking about exactly. I'm stating this from the perspective of a gardener and forager.
- It's ok though, all the invasive grass people plant on purpose here out grows it and kills it like everything else.
  Fuck lawns.
  
  I don't want to eat the grass though.

Maybe plant some bamboo to help it
- I have some kudzu i could sell you
  
  I wonder what happens if you plant kudzu and bamboo in the same spot, endlessly climbing plant tower?
  
  BET YOU WANT TO SELL ME LOW GRADE COPPER INGOTS TOO Ea-nāṣir
- And some blackberry, too! We could have blackberry mojitos made with bamboo muddlers.
  
  Tbf it would be an awesome garden with endless blackberry and mint! can even smell.it
- Evil.
  
  bamboo is the most evil of all of them for sure lol
- Strawberries too. If you don’t plant them in containers you’re gonna have a bad time.
  
  The previous owners of my house did this and I’m so thankful. Wild strawberries where I live slowly replace the grass and never grows very tall so this means I don’t have to mow nearly as often.
  
  I could never get them grow tho
  
  I've got strawberries growing freely in my yard. I don't see a problem. It stays pretty low to the ground and doesn't out-compete everything like mint does.
  
  I've tried to plant strawberries and they just get smothered by other weeds.
  
  or a good time..
- I thought I finally killed mine but after about a year it's back again

I obviously don't know... :(
Edit: Thanks for the answers - now I know! Where I live it doesn't spread that easily, and often when it's growing well it disappears overnight or in a matter of days thanks to caterpillars or grasshoppers. I didn't know it would grow out of control in other places.
- Once it gets going .. it's hard to get rid of
- I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's weed.
  
  It's not weed, it's that mint is very aggressive in spreading.
  I personally like the mint growing in the yard it makes mowing the lawn smell great.
  
  Weeds don't actually exist. It's just a term we invented for plants we don't like.

One time I did that, and was horrified to see that the next day the gardner removed it and disposed of the body.
It was my baby and it was literally choking itself in every pot I planted it because it would just grow until the entire pot was roots.
I now know that it had to be done, this is what it means to be an adult. To know that sometimes murdering a baby mint is for the greater good T_T
- A lot of being adult is finding the justification and necesity of certain evils.
  They are not welcomed, but we find peace in embracing, acclamating them.
  I first learned this with pets. My brother in law, in his youth, would stone puppies to death. A cruel act but they would endanger the food rations. I am thankful I did not have to live that life.
  I am thankful more humane and proactive measures exist now.
  
  There are less cruel ways of killing a puppy than stoning it to death. Also, what's the difference between welcoming and acclamating?

Whats actually wrong with this? I feel like a lawn full of mint is infinitely better than the short grass suburb lawns that are so pervasive.
- The problem is not that it spreads. It is that it then suffocates other plants that can't handle staying near it.
  Of course having the ecological wasteland of lawns isn't good either. You want to create the conditions for a balance habitat to establish. Mint can be an obstacle to this and be detrimental to the biodiversity in your garden, if left unchecked.
- Trading one invasive monoculture for another isn't really an upgrade, though you may get more utlity from mint. And your neighbors may set fire to your property.

Meanwhile kudzu is over here like.. what trees?
- I've read that kudzu is nutritious, comparable with potatoes, and is cultivated in China.
  
  My dad used to cook it when I was a kid. Tastes like butterbeans.
  
  Huh, I didn't know that. Neat.
- Goats.
- Sweet home Alabama...

Also catnip, but with catnip there's a 50% chance neighborhood cats will show up and roll on it until it dies.
- Bees seem to love the catnip that grows in my garden at least. I think last summer I counted 8 different kinds of bees enjoying it.
- (Catnip is a type of mint)
- Thank you! Time to lure some cats to the yard.
  
  Catnip brings all the cats to the yard.
- I've had a catmint bush for a few years now, and it's topped out at about the size of an Australian spider.
  I think the neighborhood cats keep it pretty well groomed. It's very popular, even in the winter.

It's gonna smell really nice when you mow your mint lawn.
- The dryer at my parents house vented into a mess of mint. Laundry made the backyard smell great.
- I have a couple patches of apple mint in my yard, which doesn't seem to spread much. It legitimately does smell amazing while I'm mowing and has always grown back by the next time I mow.

You know what's also invasive?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houttuynia_cordata
The last people to own our house planted this stuff in the ground. It's also called fish mint, because it smells like fish when you cut it.
- I once bought fish mint at an asian grocery store thinking it was regular mint, and it was quite the surprise when I tried it.
  
  That must have been quite the shock.
- That’s what that shit is? I though it was some generic weed I had a hard time getting rid of. Great. Another invasive to deal with. Just killed a tree of heaven the other day, too.
- Your own private morsel of the sea.
- But fish mint is delicious.
  Wash the roots and snap them into little bits, toss them up with some diced onion and chili oil.
  The leaves go great in salad.
  
  I've tried it. Just not my thing. The taste is ok but I can't handle the aroma.

When we bought our house 2 years ago, the previous owners had planted mint in the ground, despite having a raised garden bad. My wife and I spent an entire afternoon taking back mulch and digging to remove the mint. We built a 2nd garden box and put it over the top of the mint spot, but I'm already seeing bits of mint poking up from under the box...
- Why don't you just...eat it?
  
  It strangles the other plants. And the underground root growth means it's really hard to get rid of after it breaks containment.

IDK. I like the wild mint patch in our lawn. Want some mint? Just go grab some mint.
- Yep same. I do drinks, drop in my water bottle, put in my coffee etc
  
  Coffee? I'm curious. How? Fresh or dry? When you brew your coffee, or after in the cup ?
  
  We had some that grew right under the faucet outside, and I'd share grab some and throw it in the tea when we were making iced tea. Tried it years later with dried leaves, it didn't compare.

Also ivy. A curse on whoever first brought English ivy to the Americas.
- Can confirm, I've been waging war on the Ivy in my backyard and I'm definitely not winning.
  
  It takes a real focused effort. Tear out as much rhizome as you can and cover the entire effected area in a smothering layer. I prefer cardboard or newspaper because inorganic root barriers were sent by Satan to destroy us, but it had to be a substantial layer. Hold it down with mulch and/or decent topsoil and watch it like a hawk. Sow native wildflowers the first year, something that will hold the layer together without requiring much maintenance because odds are high you're gonna be back in there tearing it up and finding more ivy rhizome and there's no sense destroying something you love. But you need something there because you're also being assaulted from the air.
  Birds spread ivy in their shit. They eat the berries, fly everywhere, and deposit noxious invasives wherever they go. You need aggressive natives to maintain the front line and keep those turd seeds from finding purchase. So you gotta be out there fortnightly to check for little English sprouts as well as hoping the subterranean menace is subdued.
  When you have a year with no ivy bring in even more good soil and bury it good, then do whatever you want but never grow complacent.
  This strategy applies to most horrible weeds but some cannot be reliably smothered and must be physically removed in their entirety so rent a Bobcat or something and try not to cry.
  
  Let's switch, I try to kill your ivy and you fight my bamboo
  
  Copper nail or a little hole in a thicker wood and inject some bleach in there. It will kill it down to the root.

I've planted mint, strawberries, and raspberries. But this is the last time I'll get to see how far they've made it. I planted them to go to war with the buffle grass, tumble weeds, and tree of heaven. I can still drive by in a few years and see how its going.
- This comment is a poem

If you want mint & don't care about other plants, then I don't see a problem. Some people might consider its low maintenance effort a good thing. 🤷
- So mint is highly invasive? I was wondering what the elite knowledge was. TBH my guess was that there's a hallucinogenic plant that looks like mint.
  
  There is actually a hallucinogenic plant that looks kind of similar to mint, but I think they're referring to the fact that mint chokes other plants out and just sticks around and keeps coming back.
  
  They spread and are really really hard to fully kill
  Source: I have no idea why my mint is still alive. It's waterlogged for half the year and neglected the other half
- Why are my neighbors mad? They have all the mint they could want now.
  
  Exactly: neighbors can stay mad. Mint is cooler than neighbors arguably (& chemically).
  
  Not to mention that mosquitos hate mint.
- Its ability to choke out the weeds at my rental, thereby reducing the amount of weeding i need to do, is much appreciated. Also goes well with roast lamb.

Mint
Mint everywhere.

My buddy warned me about the mint the pervious owners planted, and I pulled it right away. It was right by our basement entrance so I frequently peer in and inspect for mint shoots. I think there must be a buried barrier or something (like landscaping cloth) preventing it from spreading outside the bed it was in. I found a small sprig 4 years after pulling everything I could find.

Mint ~~plant~~ field.
FTFY

Pair it with raspberries
- Just put them in raised beds and then mow right up to that bitch, they wont make it out.
  
  I’ve seen it grow low. Like thyme.

I planted some mint in a large pot, at an off-grid shack on a New England beach... two decades ago. That shit is still thriving to this day, despite zero maintenance and/or care and numerous harsh winters!

I did this once. Only way to get rid of it was to sell my house.
- Tenants take note, give your landlord a lovely gift of established ground mint when you leave your rental!

Our soil is almost entirely clay and rock to the point that most grasses also fail to grow. I wouldn't mind something nice like mint or another invasive plant if it meant actually having something grow at all...
- It takes very little top soil for most grasses and sedges to thrive
  -on clay
  
  Well, "thrive" might be overstating it because they'll be much more susceptible to drought with shallow roots.
- Make some planters

I don't see the problem. Mint is delicious
- “ When we bought our house 2 years ago, the previous owners had planted mint in the ground, despite having a raised garden bad. My wife and I spent an entire afternoon taking back mulch and digging to remove the mint. We built a 2nd garden box and put it over the top of the mint spot, but I’m already seeing bits of mint poking up from under the box…”
  That’sthe comment beneath ypurs and it explains the problem

ENJOY THE MINT EVERYONE
Maybe add some white cover, some comfrey, sunchoke, raspberries, and you've got a permaculture paradise!
- Its funny I tried basically all those and none of them could survive or compete against my neighbors accidental thistle farm.
  Not even the mint.
- I didn't realize how raspberries propagated until after I'd planted it in my tiny bed. The fucker spends every spring plotting world domination.
  
  Fun fact: you can peel and eat young raspberry canes! Harvest when green and flexible, eat raw or steamed. Same for most blackberries and such, as far as I know.
- You expect them to survive in a mint-infested ground?

laughs in Bermuda grass
source: gardener

We put a few mint plants in a large concrete planter and it filled the whole planter in one season. It does keep mice, cats, and mosquitos away.

What if I want a lawn full of mint
- Maybe your neighbours don’t? 😄
  
  My neighbors can mind their own business
  
  It's a plant. It grows naturally too. Ain't nobody removing all the mint from forests and such.
  
  Fuck them, I should be able to grow corn on my front lawn if I so desire.

Depends on where you live. Mint does have limits. It really dislikes dry and cold. We've planted it several times here and it's quite difficult to keep it alive. Our growing season is quite short so it's a bit depressing to have it die so quickly.

Mint, not even once.

There is a reason why I planted my piperita in a pot, far off the ground.

Everytime I now the grass it smells minty!
So we moved.
- *mow
  
  Just nowing my loan so autocorrect can get a heart attack.

I planted a horseradish. Harvesting it often, don't see the issue.

I planted Achillea, by the way.

Don't worry just let my dad do the gardening. He killed the mint, the rhubarb, the blueberries, the redberries and the apple tree with his genius ideas!