Mints

[Lemonboy]

I'd wait until you put out your tomatoes. A freeze wouldn't kill the plant, but it might cause the foliage to die back. Plus, warmer soil is easier to work and you want to create a good bed for it, not just dig a hole and pack it in.

[Whwoz]

I currently have these two mints on my window sill - a Mojito and a Kentucky Colonel! When would you typically transplant these out to the garden?

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You may want to limit there spread somehow. Mints can be vigorous spreaders under the right conditions

[Cranraspberry]

@Whwoz my husband spent a good chunk of last year trying to get rid of leftover mint that was trying to take over the plot, so we learned that the hard way! These guys are going in a grow bag.

[Cranraspberry]

@Lemonboy thanks! I have a rosemary that should also probably be planted out around May, so I’ll do them together.

[SpookyShoe]

Yerba Buena or Mojito mint.

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[Cranraspberry]

I’ll have to get a picture, but our Mojito mint is coming back like crazy! It’s 2x the size of the Kentucky Colonel next to it. I’ve been adding fresh sprigs to my morning tea all week and it’s such a delight. Mojito might be my favorite of the two.

[karstopography]

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I put Kentucky Colonel mint to good use yesterday evening. The plant seems to be happy since I gave it a treatment of spinosad a few weeks ago. Before that, some mystery caterpillars were eating the spearmint faster than it could grow.

[Stitchingmom]

Oooh. Anyone know where to get orange mint? Actually, anywhere to get a bunch of the mentioned mints. I have a ton of basil varieties, but mint, not so much.

[Cranraspberry]

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Mojito on the right, and Kentucky Colonel on the left. I’ve harvested Mojito several times over the last couple of weeks, and KC is untouched thus far.

[JRinPA]

We bought mint once, what a mistake. Took years to get it back out. We already had the good mint. I had pulled it all out of the bed because I wanted to grow other things there...and then we wanted mint again, and it seemed like I did a very thorough job of removing it. So we bought some -peppermint, applemint, spearmint, and a second fancy spearmint. Someone mentioned moldy flavored spearmint - I concur. Anyway, of those four, peppermint was nice and crisp but slow growing, the applemint was most like our old mint, the two spearmints were disappointing.

LUCKILY the next year the original mint come up around the other side of the house. I didn't know it was up there. That got put in back in the original spot. Comparing all for a year or two, we concluded to pull everything else except for the peppermint. And that took years to root it all out, and eventually I just pulled the peppermint too, to be safe and sure.

So now it's back to just the good stuff. Around here it is called woolly mint. Compared to the store bought applemint we had it is darker, hairier, and I think, a lot more flavor. Most of the old families around here will make mint tea, which consists of a big stock pot of mint leaves boiling on the stove until it is very green, and then a lot of sugar added to make it very sweet. I prefer making sun tea with it and not as sweet, and I use stalks and all.

With this dry I am actually running out so I plan to expand the mint bed. But have plans to install 3" pvc cut lengthwise and dug into the top soil...inside of the curve facing the mint patch so the runners can't advance past.

I have tried choc mint, that is pretty good in ice cream. Grew that in a pot last year, what a mess trying to spread, even in a pot. I had that and the very last of the peppermint that I pulled from the bed and rooted in another pot. They just grew into each other and dropped seeds, such a mess that I dumped the entire contents in the trash last fall cleanup.

There is a lot to be said for growing local stuff. Oftentimes it is local because it is well adjusted and deemed to be the best by generations that have come before. I was so disappointed by those purchased mints, and so happy to find the original again. It came the farm my dad grew up on. I can't say for sure whether it is truly native or brought over long ago, but it well spread locally and nothing you need to buy at a store, let alone online.

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[Tormato]

Mint will likely sneak through the cracks of any defense.

Depending upon the size of a "patch" that someone wants, cutting off the bottom of a tall round container and burying it so that a bit of it is above the soil line, works best. For a large patch, it's getting one continuous length of material, and burying it with just one overlap. The area just outside of that overlap needs to be monitored for a small invading army.

Would the wooly mint, or any exceptional tasting mints that you have, be available for trade?

I make black peppermint tea, or a combination of cold brewed iced tea and adding some mint tea, made of mint leaves from the garden, that's been steeped. And, I use granulated stevia instead of sugar. With the heat wave starting on Tuesday, and the garden still in it's planting stage, I have 2 gallons of cold brewed tea, just made overnight. I'll likely pick one cup of mint leaves to steep tonight, and add that tea to one of the gallons.

[karstopography]

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I had wondered about mint’s reputation for taking over a bed since my previous experience was that mint struggled and always eventually died in my raised beds. Well, my Kentucky Colonel spearmint seems to enjoy the in the ground bed. The patch started off in March as a 4” starter plant. I’ve plucked and hoed the edges a little, but the mint continues to advance. Be nice if it blooms. Not too worried about the mint taking over. I can think of a million worse things.

[Seven Bends]

I had wondered about mint’s reputation for taking over a bed since my previous experience was that mint struggled and always eventually died in my raised beds. Well, my Kentucky Colonel spearmint seems to enjoy the in the ground bed. The patch started off in March as a 4” starter plant. I’ve plucked and hoed the edges a little, but the mint continues to advance. Be nice if it blooms. Not too worried about the mint taking over. I can think of a million worse things.

I can't make any predictions about mint in Texas, but here in the mid-Atlantic, mint on the loose in your garden will make you re-evaluate your choice of hobbies. Hopefully it won't be quite as happy in your climate.

[bower]

One thing about mint, I heard it repels rodents. Wouldn't mind a mint expansion around the place where I park the car....
I got another local river mint last summer, from a friend in South River. I had it side by side with the Broad Cove River mint on my kitchen windowsill all winter. I thought there were some differences but those disappeared, they seem identical. Planted them together yesterday in a shady spot near the driveway.
Another friend just gave me a new peppermint - I haven't tasted it yet.
So far I haven't found any peppermint as good as the pale green one from the pond... it's the best.

[pepperhead212]

As always, the mint has taken over the bed, with little attention from me - basically all I did was put that drip line in, like I always do, before it starts growing, and eventually, when it stopped raining around here, set it to water every 3 days.

Something I'm going to try using the mint against this year is that spotted lanternfly - a pest that has become a serious problem around here. It is even attracted to basil, which is unusual, for insect pests. So I might blend some mint with some water, then strain it, and use this to water and/or spray with, to see if it repels it from the basil, okra, cucumbers, eggplants, and anything else I find them on. I never found a single lanternfly in that mint bed.
As usual, the mint had taken over by early June, much of it 18" by now. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

On the shady end the peppermint - the larger leaves - gets a few more growths every season, but the spearmint is still the strongest. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[karstopography]

I had wondered about mint’s reputation for taking over a bed since my previous experience was that mint struggled and always eventually died in my raised beds. Well, my Kentucky Colonel spearmint seems to enjoy the in the ground bed. The patch started off in March as a 4” starter plant. I’ve plucked and hoed the edges a little, but the mint continues to advance. Be nice if it blooms. Not too worried about the mint taking over. I can think of a million worse things.

I can't make any predictions about mint in Texas, but here in the mid-Atlantic, mint on the loose in your garden will make you re-evaluate your choice of hobbies. Hopefully it won't be quite as happy in your climate.

I’ve yet to meet a weed in the garden that I couldn’t bring under control with a very reasonable amount of effort. Maybe this mint will be the one, but it really doesn’t seem to be all that scary to me and nothing I think that a hoe, shovel, hori hori knife and some elbow grease won’t take care of.

But, even if mint is truly the devil I have read about, I’ve got 9 beds total, all separated by expanses of St. Augustine lawn grass, concrete pavers, concrete driveway, and/or cedar framed raised beds. So if the one bed gets an issue with mint, I don’t see where the other beds will be at risk. St. Augustine grass, now there is something to stay on top of. In a battle of St. Augustine grass versus any mint, my money is on the grass.

[JRinPA]

Mint runs out into the lawn, not really a big deal. If it is good tasting mint. MInt runs out into the next garden patch, also not really a big deal, but annoying, I lost some...bronze fennel a couple years back. I thought it was too cold maybe, that year got down toward zero a few nights, and bronze fennels is not considered cold hardy. So maybe it it died off, but, maybe when I pulled up a bunch of mint runners cleaning out that spot and uprooted the offseason fennel along with it.

I thought it would better in a pot, but at the end of the season it was a total mess. But that choc and peppermint, and I just didn't use much of it. And I think the pots were too hot as well, getting a lot more sun. I just know afterwards there was seed everywhere and I had toss all the potting soil rather than reuse because I didn't want the mint roots to keep growing.

It doesn't really like the heat so I wouldn't think you'd worry about it down in Texas. It grows very well where it has been as long I can remember, right behind the house in the morning sun, until an hour before or so, then it is house shade. At times it has been around the west side as well, and I want to get some transplanted over there now, rather than ALM infested garlic or rogue bittersweet. Mint will get used at least. Just so hot and dry right now to do it.

There are a few old timey things around here that the locals get excited about, once we are old enough to appreciate it. Guys start talking at a gun club pond, trout fishing after long winter, fish aren't biting. Mint. Ramps. Mushrooms. Berries. Fiddleheads. Tomatoes. Scrapple. You know, the important stuff. Syrup, don't forget syrup.