Many lessons of mint

One of the things I love about gardening is there's always something to learn. Mint is certainly no exception.  Mints mission in my garden is to keep me humble.
The first couple of times I tried to grow mint it died.  Yup didn't last a month .
Lesson 1 I needed to baby it until it's established.
Lesson 2 mint is invasive!!!  Because I had a hard time getting my mint to stay alive in the beginning I disregarded the it's invasive warning ⚠️.  At first I would pull a bunch out and plant other veggies. Mint doesn't play nice with others, and crowds them out.  Thank goodness it was a contained raised bed. I had to remove everything and start over.
Lesson 3 mint must be divided.  This is what I'm dealing with now.  I thought I finally figured it out.  I had a nice size nursery pot. Planted it in the garden so the top was a couple inches higher than soil level.   This has worked very well for me for a few years.  I'm not sure if it's time, or the uncommon amount of rain we have been blessed with this spring, but the mint blew out the side of the pot, and waisted no time planting itself.  I suspect it's both.  I removed the pot. Dug down trying to remove every little piece. Was I in time? I hope so because this is a huge beet.    I learned that the mint should probably be divided every couple of years to keep it contained. Most plants suffer and often die when root bound. Not mint to brakes the pot.
You may wonder why I keep growing mint. I love it. It makes a great tea. It's a super companion plant. Most critters and lots of bugs don't like it.  Like I said it keeps me humble.

I like to grow the mojito mint for tequila mojitos, otherwise spearmint and peppermint don't grow well in Florida. Patchouli is in the mint family and thrives here though. Chocolate mint is another that can thrive in my zone.

Invasiveness can save one from mistakes if some of it gets neglected. If it's not a plant you love, invasiveness might be saying "pay me more attention!".

I had the wrong variety of passionflower planted, the one that doesn't make fruits, and to this day, every single day, I have to pick up sprouts from the mother plant I removed months and months ago. I do not have any idea how it still spreads all over the yard, dozens of feet away they pop up from dry sand.

I love mint. I have many varieties- peppermint, spearmint, strawberry mint (really smells like strawberries), lemon mint, chocolate mint, etc. I just bought mojito mint to add to the collection. I grow them in pots in an isolated bed that is in a secluded insert corner of my house.

You are so right about them breaking the pots to get out! I have a little pile of clay pot shards next to my mint garden from that very reason. 😂

Also I learned that while peppermint is a sterile hybrid of spearmint and watermint, spearmint will easily seed itself. That was a surprise to me when it started showing up across the cement walkway in dry hard soil under my covered porch (in other words, a spot that gets no rain and no sun!) But what surprised me even more was finding a vigorous clump growing on my raised bed that is not anywhere close to the mint garden. You can't even see the raised bed from there!

Also learned: horehound is in the mint family and is a HUGE perennial. It's going bye-bye this year as it is trying to envelope a 4x8 bed after only two years. It also attacks we with sticky seed pods whenever me walk by.