Where to plant mint?

[Texas.girl]

I have a great spot to plant mint, right by a dripping faucet. The problem is this spot is outside the 8 foot deer fence garden. Does anyone know if critters love mint or will they leave it along?

[Texas.girl]

Thanks. The deer are very hungry around here but no one has touched the rosemary or catnip (not even the cats). So hopefully the mint will be okay. Not to worried about anything taking over around here. I got rocks. No lawn of any kind. I have cedar trees, prickly pear, and rocks and more rocks, rocks of every size. My entire garden is planted in raised beds (only choice there is). So anything that makes it in the ground is doing well. Again thank you.

[Odd Duck]

If you do the partially buried pot, make sure it's over 12" deep or the roots will find any holes in the bottom and grow out and invade the garden through that.

Texas.girl, don't underestimate how invasive mint can be, especially if you give it a spot it likes. I can't tell you anything about the deer eating or not, but I can testify to how invasive mint is. I planted it in a semi-buried pot once and had a terrible time getting it removed from my garden bed after it went out through a single hole in the bottom of the pot.

[Texas.girl]

The soil depth around here is between 0 inches (solid rock) to 6 inches (then hit solid rock). Even that 6 inches is full of small to large rocks. As fast I dig them up they reproduce. It amazes me the cedar trees are able to find cracks in the rocks to send roots down. Nothing gets burried around here. Even the septic tank is only submerged, not burried. P.S. If anyone needs rocks I have plenty to share.

[Susan W]

Given the conditions, I would put mint in there and let it spread any way it wants to!

[froggy]

My Hubby used to grow mint to make the lawn smell better when he had to cut it

I've had mint in my herb bed and yeah, it spread, but not all that bad.
The only critter problem I ever had with it was when I had a huge tub full on my balcony - it got eaten by some sort of flies in just a few days time...

Anyways, if it's invasive enough to grow as a ground cover, why not - beats struggling to keep up the golf green as it were...

[Texas.girl]

Thanks everyone. Going to plant it where there is plenty of water. Like I said, I have rocks so not worried about it becoming a problem.

[Runningtrails]

I am making two rock gardens and would love some of your rocks! Wish they were easy to ship!

It will reseed too. I have it growing wild all over the property. I use it, so I don't mind and am planning on putting it all into a mint garden somewhere next spring just to make it easier to cut for tea.

[PunkRotten]

I had my Mint in a semi sunny spot this summer in the ground and it was getting burned. So I put it in a pot and put it in shade and it started to die. All that was left was 3 short dried sticks and the roots. I found a nice spot about 4x1 with mostly shade, with about 1-2 hours of morning sun. I clipped the dried stems to the ground. After about 2 weeks I am seeing new growth of mint.



You guys say it spreads, But I will be regularly pruning it and composting the clippings. But what I worry about is if the roots spread underground and pop up stems/leaves in areas you do not want it. Does it grow like that or do I just have to watch the stem growth in the main plant site?

[rainbowgardener]

Why everyone warns about mint spreading is that it spreads aggressively from the roots. In my experience that doesn't mean that the mint will suddenly pop up across the yard, but it will pop up in the middle of any thing you plant next to / near it and start crowding that out. The colony gets bigger pretty fast, by spreading out from the roots in all directions.

[PunkRotten]

I planted it in straight clay dirt. The only veggie bed it is near is about 6-7 feet away.

[Runningtrails]

I planted a very tiny choc mint plant in my herb garden in July. Big Mistake! Within a month I knew I would have to move it. I grew right over the top of everything around it. Two months later, when I moved it, it was at least 6' across.