Tldr Mint is invasive.
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Maybe plant some bamboo to help it
I have some kudzu i could sell you
And some blackberry, too! We could have blackberry mojitos made with bamboo muddlers.
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.
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.
Oh, so it's not weed, but it's a weed.
Not weed if you can make mojitos with it
It can still be a weed if you can't make enough mojitos to keep up with the growth.
Weed as a classification is bullshit anyway. Iirc, it's whatever broad-leaf plants got killed by roundup, Monsanto declared 'weeds'.
Clover used to be a common part of American lawns
A weed is something you don't want to grow right there. It just means undesired plant life and changes on a whim.
Monsanto tried to categorize clover as weeds in their advertising because the plant killer that was used to kill broadleaf plants that interfere with grass lawns also kills clover. They demonized clover because it was collateral damage!
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
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.
Meanwhile kudzu is over here like.. what trees?

Also catnip, but with catnip there's a 50% chance neighborhood cats will show up and roll on it until it dies.
Thank you! Time to lure some cats to the yard.
Catnip brings all the cats to the yard.
And they're like: meow and purrs
The dryer at my parents house vented into a mess of mint. Laundry made the backyard smell great.
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...
IDK. I like the wild mint patch in our lawn. Want some mint? Just go grab some mint.
Also ivy. A curse on whoever first brought English ivy to the Americas.
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.
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.
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.
Pair it with raspberries
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.
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...
I don't see the problem. Mint is delicious
ENJOY THE MINT EVERYONE
Maybe add some white cover, some comfrey, sunchoke, raspberries, and you've got a permaculture paradise!


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