Do I need to panic about my bed of mint?

We planted a 10x10 bed of peppermint last year because we were tired of mowing it (it's a STEEP hill, over 45 degrees) and liked the idea of having something useful. The mint was nice, we made plenty of iced tea with it.

We knew before we planted that mint is treacherous, but we did it anyway. Should I regret it? Should we pull it up? Should we put a tarp over it all year next year in hopes of killing it? How badly do I need to panic?

Well, what's next to it that you want to keep the mint out of? Are you prepared to weed a lot of little mint plants out of the nearby beds? How much water does the patch get? Most mints won't run rampant in dry areas.

If you're really worried, you could try sinking a barrier around the mint bed. I've seen this have limited success—that is, success was limited by the mint's ability to get around, over, under, or through the barrier. Still, with the right barrier it could work.

All that's next to it is grass. Lawn. We're not picky about the lawn. If an errant mint plant pops up every now and then, I'm happy to just pull it out. But some of the things I've heard have kind of scared me Like our lawn would become literally overgrown with mint no matter what I did. I've heard you can't kill mint. Not even rototilling will do it, or so I've heard.

I do hope to plant more on that hill - my goal is to get rid of the majority of the grass and grow something useful. I have my work cut out for me though, since the slope is so steep - I'll need steps of some sort to reach things. Add a few neighborhood children and dogs (that already tear up that part of the yard) and I'll want to take it VERY slowly.

I love my mint.  I have never really had a problem with it growing too far out of bounds, but I go and cut sprigs of it all the time.  did you know mint tea is good for an upset stomach?
I would certainly not try to kill it! If you have a farmers market in your town, dig individual plants up, pot them and sell them in the springtime- lots of people will buy mint!

Eyes Wide Open wrote:
All that's next to it is grass. Lawn. We're not picky about the lawn. If an errant mint plant pops up every now and then, I'm happy to just pull it out. But some of the things I've heard have kind of scared me Like our lawn would become literally overgrown with mint no matter what I did. I've heard you can't kill mint. Not even rototilling will do it, or so I've heard.

I do hope to plant more on that hill - my goal is to get rid of the majority of the grass and grow something useful. I have my work cut out for me though, since the slope is so steep - I'll need steps of some sort to reach things. Add a few neighborhood children and dogs (that already tear up that part of the yard) and I'll want to take it VERY slowly.

you're probably worrying too much.

i have a patch of mint along my border garden.  it does spread, but it's not like some sort of infestation.  i weed it by hand just like i do with other weeds that are in places that i need for something else and into the chicken coop they go.

if the other areas near the mint are sensitive, i'd try some of the methods described by others, but it may not be as big a deal as you think.

Mint does make a good ground cover. You can always solar bake it with a sheet of plastic and that will kill it off (that kills kudzu too). Test it over a year or two to see how the mint grows before deciding to remove it by baking. (I hope you keep the mint for all the good things it gives back to you.) Oregano may be a good plant to use as a border around the mint to keep it in check.

Thanks, that was all helpful. I'd rather just keep it. It's nice to know I don't have to panic So from what it sounds like, it's not a big deal and maybe I'll have to pull something out of the grass every now and then but that's pretty much it - and if I change my mind and don't want mint I could probably cook it. That's all I need to know.

Look on the bright side.  If you mow it, it'll smell fantastic! 

I put a mint bed into my parents house when I was little and 20yrs later it really hasn't gone much more than a few feet away from where I planted it.  Mind you dad runs over it with the lawn mower in the summer because he loves the smell.  It's not as rampant as you think. 

I have mint planted all over my place.
it's a great plant for beneficial insects and bees.
it does replace some grass but to me that's a good thing.

it is a pioneer sunloving plant. so control would be by shading it, plant trees or shrubs to control.
come to think of it, this patch of mint would be a good place to start a forest garden.
you already have the ground layer started and grass under control.
good work, you were doing permaculture without realizing it.

I agree with Duane.  I think it competes well with grass but doesn't smother things.  It won't move into shady spots.  It really does like that sun.  There are arbor vitae bushes planted next to my parents mint bed and it has never grown under them.  Way too much shade for mint to be happy. 

Containing the mint is not terribly hard.  Just get some kind of edging material that you can pound/press into place all around the bed and Bob's your uncle.  I have contained mint very successfully in a raised bed for several years with one piece of hard plastic edging I bought on special somewhere. 

I have three different types of mint and none have been horribly aggressive.  I wish they would be.  As a matter of fact my curly mint (my favorite for tea) is quite picky.

The chocolate mint has spread the most - it makes mowing a real joy in that area.  When I run the mower over it the smell of chocolate mint fills the air.  I am thinking of raising the mower blades in that area to encourage it to come out into the yard a bit more.

duane wrote:
I have mint planted all over my place.
it's a great plant for beneficial insects and bees.

We hung it in bunches on our porch last year as a fly deterrent. I've also heard of planting it around houses where ants are an issue (as a repellant). Mint also contains antibacterial, antiviral, antiemetic (stomach settling), and muscle relaxing/analgesic (pain relieving) properties.

I was going to ask about putting mint into a lawn. seems it would grow tall slower than the grass? I have a lemon mint I think would be great.

I would be very careful about where you try to pare down your mint. Mint works much like my mustache. If I shave it a bit at the edges the next day I wake up with handlebars.

On more than one occasion I\\\'ve been woken up to find something crawling up my leg and low and behold, MINT!

Seriously though it\\\'s a pain but I just chuck some hummonia that\\\'s been sitting around for a while onto the areas that I want to curb and it usually burns it away.

Note: with this method temporary burnt areas will grow back even stronger and thicker like a handlebar mustache!

I think how hard mints are to get out depends a lot on the kind of soil.  In my garden beds it's pretty easy to yank up runners from under the mulch but I imagine being in a mowed lawn could make it more difficult to pull them without snapping and leaving a bunch of root cuttings in the soil due to compaction.

I unleashed apple mint, spearmint, and orange mint into my garden last year and potted up all the newly rooting offsets this year.  There's still some spearmint growing - wasn't sure if I wanted to pull it or not and decided to disturb the soil a little later on.

The mint that I probably couldn't get rid of very easily but unleashed into the garden a couple of years ago is corsican mint.  They're commonly sold around here as "steppables" since they're tiny-leaved mints and give off a great smell when walked on or otherwise crushed up.  They seem to seed vigorously to the point where I'm not sure if they come back from the roots at all or just act like annuals.  I first encountered one in a large yard/garden that had it growing spontaneously in the pebbly paths and wondered where the great smell was coming from (though it was a bit overwhelming to work around for hours).

Anyway since we're talking about mints I thought I'd post pictures of the mints I potted up.  They're adding a nice green to part of the concrete in the back yard here

It depends on your soil, I suspect.

I had sandy soil on my previous property and had a potted plant sitting on the grass. I spent the rest of the summer and spring pulling shoots that took off from under the bottom of the pot across the lawn and garden beds.

Mint runners need to be completely removed, or they spawn new plants, so you could have your hands full.

I just want to get some clarification if anyone knows... if I plant mint in its own "mint island" in the middle of some grass that will be mowed, I understand that it may make its way into the grass a bit. What I want to know is, if it is mowed regularly, would that keep it to that area, or is it one of those plants that would then send its runners further to pop up in your gardens elsewhere?

We can keep our raspberries pretty much contained by mowing around them, even though they pop up in the grass a little... does it work the same way for mint? I've had a great fear of planting mint except in pots :0)

Sandy soil here. Thanks for any thoughts you have on this.

I don't think it would make it more than a couple of feet without coming up for air.  BUT, the risk with surrounding it with lawn is that you mow off the runners and don't spot them, so it gets further than if it was surrounded by something nice and soft like mulch and you could pull up the shoots every time it made a break for freedom.

I think that depends on how often you mow your grass, if it looks like a golf green it will probably kill any runners, but if you get it get 6 inches each time before mowing I think mint could make a break for it. I grow it in old concrete drainage rings. the type you see on top of a septic or field drain for access. they are about 1.5foot deep but open at the bottom, so far no escapees.

Thank you both... that's very helpful!

I had my mint in a raised garden bed, and two years later I had to redo the bed from the ground up because it was crowding out all other plants.  I now live with mint in the walk ways.  It will creep up into the veggie beds if I'm not careful.  Now if I want to plant mint I use an old large sized black pot like when you get a plant from a nursery, I cut the bottom out.  I plant the pot so all but about 3 inches is sticking up from the ground.  this has worked for me. I was going to say if your worried about it put a barrier up, but I was thinking about pulling lots of mint, and I love the smell of mint, but in large doses it can be overwhelming.  If it does get into your grass it could make mowing the lawn quite an unpleasant experience.  Best bet is to put up a barrier.  If you want something that grows like grass you don't have to mow, try Chamaemelum nobile. It's a nice little plant that is short green, and you can walk on it, and never need to mow.  Good luck to you.

I had a spot where nothing grew.  On the east side of the house, but shaded by another house close by and a big tree in the neighbor's yard.  But no weeds would grow there.  I decided it was the perfect place to plant mint.  And it was!  The mint filled up that side of the house over a period of years, covering the exposed soil.  It looked lovely.  It didn't spread aggressively where other plants were growing.  I moved away.  I wonder if that's still true?

I'm having the same idea (with spearmint for mowing reasons), so I'm planting it along the edge of the creek hoping mint takes over the yard in about 10+/- years (perimeter of 3 mowing acres), and planted the whole plant after folding it up. Does this work since you're normally not supposed to cold compost entire mint plants.

Kevin I'm not sure what you mean by folding it up.  I made a mistake with mint a few years ago, and it took over everything.  I now have it under control. It will still pop on the path edges, and I don't mind it there. I have pulled it up like a weed, and repotted the ones with roots. As long as I keep it watered until it's established itself, it grows great.  I'm wondering about using it as a lawn. If you try to mow the smell may be quiet overwhelming. I love the smell of mint, but even brushing up against it is quite strong.  Also we have very mild winters. Last year I think our lowest temp was 30, and only a few days. Even so my mint dies down each winter, and comes back in the spring.  Maybe in some places it will be green all year long, but not N California zone 9 b.  My other thought is if you grow it and decide you want to grow something else, removing it may be quite a challenge.
I have always wanted to try English chamomile.  It's a shorter version of the German chamomile.  I tried it once, but was unsuccessful, but it was my fault for planting it in the wrong area.  It seems like it would make an amazing lawn substitute.  Good luck to you.

I'm in USDA 4A (Minneapolis/St Paul MN), and our grass turns brownish in the summer on 4 acres. We live on the edge of a flood plane, next to a vegie farm, so the more beneficial insects the better.

Make a business selling mint plants on Etsy. That will keep the mound in check.

I have grass growing in places I don't want it. Is mint a good way to get rid of grass I don't want?  I don't have anything nearby that would be a problem if the mint spread. Also I'm in the desert. I can control the mint by simply not watering it. The grass is more persistent.

Welcome to the forum.

To me the grass would still be persistent and will out compete with the mint though I don't know so why not try the mint to see if it works.