See also: Alder and willow
Its not a weed if its useful. It may just be a little “unwanted at the moment”.
That’s why I planted mine in a plant box instead of into garden directly.
I used to have them in plant boxes on the balcony when we lived in a ghetto in a bigger city and the only reason they ended up eventually dying after a reign of Terror in every single plant box on my balcony for a couple years, was because I got depression and forgot to water them during a particularly toasty summer. We are talking three months of scorching heat and no water before they finally admitted defeat.
There is no plant I fear and respect more than mint.
Got to know a gardener lady who lives far outside of the city. She usually gives me dried mint for a tea since she has it abundant. That is how I know.
I’ll plant it next to my invasive english ivy and see which one wins…
Let me get in on this. The previous owner of my home planted Garlic. There’s no grass in that corner of my yard now. Just garlic. It escaped the garden bed.
I’ve got privit, onion weed, rust weed and bamboo all fighting it out in gladiatoral combat
And winners reward will be acid ans fire followed by a salting of the earth after which the soil will be evacuated to the clay level before it is dumped in my neighbours yard (where all of these fuckers came from
Don’t forget the Lilly of the vally, 3 way cage match ( or uncaged in this case )
Thank you for acknowledging my pain
See also horseradish, amaranth, native sunflowers, and in my case, tomatoes.
Planted once, 10 yrs later still finding them in every nook and cranny of the neighborhood.
I think most people would be happy with your luck with tomatoes
I got a weird twist of that: the cherry tomato plants were spreading like crazy, but the tomato fruits couldn’t be eaten because they were all full of worms. (I think they were fruit fly larvae, not sure. Not a single one was fine.)
True, but I credit the environs being just right Enough sun, not too much moisture, decent soil, and also the specific variety. Probably a bunch of tomatoes I wouldn’t be able to grow.
Glad y’all warned me about mint! I’ll just plant some nice snow-on-the-mountain in a small little patch over here.
Somebody planted mint in one of my raised beds before I lived here and it’s a constant battle to keep it at bay. At least I get refreshing mint tea out of the 20% of it I harvest.
My wife planted some lemon balm in one of our raised beds “accidentally” and she’s lucky I love that shit. I cut a strategic handful or two out every day and it’s still not enough to keep it controlled.
My house smells fantastic tho
I have no idea what I’m doing
I don’t understand why people act like having a lawn of mint is worse than grass. Seems like it requires less maintenance.
You are closed in on three sides. This is a good spot for mint. I recommend putting 30cm/1ft of woodchips/mulch as a barrier to keep it all in.
Well they’re not dead so you’re already doing better than me.
Yet.
They’re not dead yet.
I had mint on my balcony. This spring I saw mint grow around the corner. In my doormat!
This bamboo grove is really taking off!
So I’m. Gardener who doesn’t know. What is it that i should know?
Mint is extremely hardy, isn’t picky about soil type, spreads quickly, strangles and overtakes whatever is growing with it, and reproduces from the roots. If mint ever goes into the ground, your entire yard will very quickly be overtaken by it even if you start ripping it out as soon as you see it. It’s basically an invasive weed that happens to taste good. Anyone who intends to grow it will keep it in above-ground pots instead. But even then, all it takes is a small sprig landing in the grass, and suddenly your entire lawn is starting to smell minty when you mow.
My grandma’s garden got a mint infestation, and I simply rip some up and make fresh mint tea whenever I visit :)
It’s really really, good
Well I know what to do if my gardener buddy ever pisses me off
Toss Dandelion’s in there too. Also very hardy, spreads well, almost entirely edible.
I had a potted mint in my parents backyard years ago. It grew through the bottom of the pot and started to invade the flower bed. Since then, my parents have drowned the entire bed in weed killer, pulled up everything they could find by the roots, and then put down a tarp and bark chips. Every year, some more mint pops up through all that.
Not a gardener, but I’ve heard people say it grows like a weed and we should plant some on mars
We have minimal grass in our backyard. Whoever owned the property before us loved mint lol
If it likes your climate it’ll spread fast and be hard to keep in check because it spreads underground
I seem to have the same problem with wild strawberries
I want to go to there
Trade you wild blackberries
Sound like you need to plant some mint and spend the summer enjoying all you can drink strawberry mojitos.
i’m now thinking I should infest one of the drainage areas a bit away from my house with blackberries, wild strawberries and mint and just go farm it over there.
I have a mint plant in my house, in a pot, that I simply cannot seem keep alive. It has a single stem left that’s trying its hardest to die every moment. I’ve taken it as a personal challenge to nurse it back to health (I need an easy win these days)
Last time I mowed, I noticed a new weed in the yard, popping up all over; this one smelled different, pleasant even. Fuck me, I’ve got a yard full of mint that showed up on its own, I’m guessing to mock my black thumb.
If you bought a supermarket pot you need to separate it and put it into a bigger pot. Otherwise it will cannibalise itself.
In fairness, if I were made of mint, I would also cannibalise myself.
Already done. It was actually a freebie supermarket plant my son picked up. The local store has a section where the ugly and dying plants are free. So we picked up a chocolate mint, and are trying to bring it back to life.
I had it nearly there, so I gently moved it to a bigger pot, with fresh new soil, and it promptly died. There was one single stem that was left that had gotten buried when I replanted it. Everything behind it died, but it must be trying to put some roots down at a buried node or something. It was floppy and I thought dead, but then decided to come back to life and is growing new leaves. Fingers crossed, I’m too afraid to touch them t right now, so I’m just keeping it watered and sunny and hoping it comes back.
I can always go get some from the yard :).
I have chocolate mint and I find its not as hardy as other varieties.
It does really well with fairly wet and shady conditions (I had it under my elevated rain barrels and it did great, but didn’t spread beyond that) and poorly otherwise (since moving the rain barrels and exposing it to constant sun, it doesn’t want to grow much at all, much less spread).
Idk how much that’ll help your quest, but perhaps it will :)
Haha! That’s such a stupid thing to do. That’s why I’ve only planted a blackberry in my garden.
I planted a blackberry plant 2 years ago, and it’s grown maybe a couple inches since I planted it. I’m annoyed - I wanted blackberries! The raspberries took off, so that’s nice. I just planted them all in the yard so I can mow down any that grow where I won’t want them.
It’s ALMOST worth it for fresh Blackberries that actually taste like blackberries. Not that trash in the grocery store.
Wait…
Hahaha. You poor soul.
Wait, do blackberries also grow like weeds? I’ve never had much interest in gardening, but like the one plant I’d genuinely like to have, due to loving the fruit, would be blackberry
yes, and they have sharp thorns, makes removal them very difficult. apparently is the himlayin blackberry is the notirous hard to kill weed.
the himalyin blackberry is capable of regenerating from root fragments, even if you pull out the whole plant, a small part of it can regenerate.
Blackberries grow in thick brambles with nasty thorns. It also has a hardy root system that allows it to regrow if you just cut it down. They also spread a few feet per year, so keeping them contained is a constant (and often painful) battle. If you go too long without paying attention to it, your entire yard will be a mess of thorny brambles that are nearly impossible to kill.
or you can put them on wires like grapes. idk if it’s unusual luck or skill issue, but my blackberries get stem rust every couple of years and they have to be cut down, they do grow back from roots but it keeps them from spreading too far
Blackberry is evil.
If it is not native to your country don’t plant it! Nothing eats it, grows extremely quickly and is very hard to get rid of.
I mean tell that to all the birds eating my blackberries.
They are spreading seeds… That is the point of the berries.
Nothing eats the plant.
Even goats, which famously will eat blackberry, will eat anything else first.
If I ever did get one, I’d probably want to grow it indoors anyway, if that’s even possible. I’m more a city person and dont especially desire living somewhere with lawn space to maintain
Sounds like you’d be interested in hydroponics.
The bramble types do. They’ll spread out a few feet every year and new plants will pop up everywhere. They’re hard to prune because of the nasty thorns, and as long as there’s roots, they’ll grow back.
You can get a thornless variety that’s much easier to contain. I have one in my front yard that hasn’t spread at all.
They grow as brambles and grow thick.
It will take up any and all space it can.
You won’t have to worry about kids playing in your yard, but they’ll be in it for berries
Make sure to try to find a thornless variety. Blackberry thorns will wreak havoc on your body and your clothes
Extremely hardy, hard to kill, and spiders love them. But the fruit is delicious!
They are evil incarnate
Oh no, I planted Bamboo trees to avoid issues
“A species of bamboo”
Personally I love https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolvulus_arvensis, it’s flowers are so cute! The neighborhood is blooming!
We just bought a house last year and now are currently dealing with a garden full of bindweed and creeping bellflower. It’s fairly daunting but also kind of addicting trying to dig it all up.
addicted to the war game
[Sabaton]
Bamboo looks way better than blackberry, I made sure to plant a ton of it in various parts of my yard.
The funny part is that clumping bamboo actually makes a great privacy hedge. It’s leafy, grows in thick bunches, very quickly hits like 10-20 feet tall (depending on the variety), and doesn’t rapidly spread. So it can be a great option for people looking for a perimeter hedge or property divider.
The tricky part is that most bamboo isn’t clumping. Most is running bamboo, which rapidly spreads, doesn’t grow very tall, and will break past basically every barrier (like sidewalks and landscaping stonework) that most other plants would be stopped by. It’s also extremely difficult to kill, because it stores nutrients in the (extremely wide) root system. So even if you cut it down, it’ll just grow right back again somewhere else.
And plenty of people have accidentally planted running bamboo, thinking it was clumping bamboo.
fun fact: if you plant oragano next to mint, it will take on a minty flavor.
the tomato mozarella salad I made was… interesting
Define close please. Also mint please I got a nice lemon balm patch right next to some Greek oregano I bought because why not. The rest of my oregano lives in the bee alley.
Touching distance, basically
A similar thing happens with fennel and dill. The result is something that tastes like a weaker mix of both and the fennel doesn’t grow a bulb.
That’s so cool
Crystal cool - Holly
you guys make a lot of fuss about a plant that is tasty and you can eat.
I just wish Kudzu tasted half as fun.
I’m aware it’s edible, I’m saying it doesn’t taste good.
Have you tried pickling it? I’m amazed at the number of ways humans have developed to make things that taste awful taste slightly ok.
There’s no accounting for taste. Some people eat canned fiddleheads. There’s gotta be someone out there that just loves the stuff.
Yeah, my buddy’s goat
I doubt it is nutritious though
if you’re talking about Kudzu, it must have some value in that regard, it was introduced in the US during the Great Depression as a way to feed people. turns out though, when they aren’t starving, people won’t eat just anything.
I meamt mint, actually.
