Meanwhile kudzu is over here like… what trees?
One time I did that, and was horrified to see that the next day the gardner removed it and disposed of the body.
It was my baby and it was literally choking itself in every pot I planted it because it would just grow until the entire pot was roots.
I now know that it had to be done, this is what it means to be an adult. To know that sometimes murdering a baby mint is for the greater good T_T
A lot of being adult is finding the justification and necesity of certain evils.
They are not welcomed, but we find peace in embracing, acclamating them.
I first learned this with pets. My brother in law, in his youth, would stone puppies to death. A cruel act but they would endanger the food rations. I am thankful I did not have to live that life.
I am thankful more humane and proactive measures exist now.
Mint
Mint everywhere.
Also ivy. A curse on whoever first brought English ivy to the Americas.
Can confirm, I’ve been waging war on the Ivy in my backyard and I’m definitely not winning.
Let’s switch, I try to kill your ivy and you fight my bamboo
It takes a real focused effort. Tear out as much rhizome as you can and cover the entire effected area in a smothering layer. I prefer cardboard or newspaper because inorganic root barriers were sent by Satan to destroy us, but it had to be a substantial layer. Hold it down with mulch and/or decent topsoil and watch it like a hawk. Sow native wildflowers the first year, something that will hold the layer together without requiring much maintenance because odds are high you’re gonna be back in there tearing it up and finding more ivy rhizome and there’s no sense destroying something you love. But you need something there because you’re also being assaulted from the air.
Birds spread ivy in their shit. They eat the berries, fly everywhere, and deposit noxious invasives wherever they go. You need aggressive natives to maintain the front line and keep those turd seeds from finding purchase. So you gotta be out there fortnightly to check for little English sprouts as well as hoping the subterranean menace is subdued.
When you have a year with no ivy bring in even more good soil and bury it good, then do whatever you want but never grow complacent.
This strategy applies to most horrible weeds but some cannot be reliably smothered and must be physically removed in their entirety so rent a Bobcat or something and try not to cry.
Also catnip, but with catnip there’s a 50% chance neighborhood cats will show up and roll on it until it dies.
(Catnip is a type of mint)
Bees seem to love the catnip that grows in my garden at least. I think last summer I counted 8 different kinds of bees enjoying it.
Thank you! Time to lure some cats to the yard.
Catnip brings all the cats to the yard.
And they’re like: meow and purrs
Damn right, meow and purrs.
I could teach you, but I got some shit I need to knock off a counter somewhere.
The abandoning of the rhythm is such a cat thing to do.
I planted some mint in a large pot, at an off-grid shack on a New England beach… two decades ago. That shit is still thriving to this day, despite zero maintenance and/or care and numerous harsh winters!
Tldr Mint is invasive.
How do you know I don’t live in western and central Asia, east to the Himalaya and eastern Siberia, where we all know mint is native!?
That’s why I installed Arch instead!
Random thought:
What if people who post in internet comments claiming to use Arch are actually just one person who’s a barely contained SCP?
Is his name Linus?
I hate you. TAKE MY UPVOTE. You SUDO’D ME TO UPVOTE YOU!
Not sure what you are talking about exactly. I’m stating this from the perspective of a gardener and forager.
I’m not sure what I’m talking about, either. Just a dumb joke.
You know what’s also invasive?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houttuynia_cordata
The last people to own our house planted this stuff in the ground. It’s also called fish mint, because it smells like fish when you cut it.
That’s what that shit is? I though it was some generic weed I had a hard time getting rid of. Great. Another invasive to deal with. Just killed a tree of heaven the other day, too.
Your own private morsel of the sea.
Maybe plant some bamboo to help it
I thought I finally killed mine but after about a year it’s back again
I have some kudzu i could sell you
And some blackberry, too! We could have blackberry mojitos made with bamboo muddlers.
Evil.
Strawberries too. If you don’t plant them in containers you’re gonna have a bad time.
The previous owners of my house did this and I’m so thankful. Wild strawberries where I live slowly replace the grass and never grows very tall so this means I don’t have to mow nearly as often.
I’ve got strawberries growing freely in my yard. I don’t see a problem. It stays pretty low to the ground and doesn’t out-compete everything like mint does.
I could never get them grow tho
Whats actually wrong with this? I feel like a lawn full of mint is infinitely better than the short grass suburb lawns that are so pervasive.
Trading one invasive monoculture for another isn’t really an upgrade, though you may get more utlity from mint. And your neighbors may set fire to your property.
The problem is not that it spreads. It is that it then suffocates other plants that can’t handle staying near it.
Of course having the ecological wasteland of lawns isn’t good either. You want to create the conditions for a balance habitat to establish. Mint can be an obstacle to this and be detrimental to the biodiversity in your garden, if left unchecked.
I planted a horseradish. Harvesting it often, don’t see the issue.
IDK. I like the wild mint patch in our lawn. Want some mint? Just go grab some mint.
Yep same. I do drinks, drop in my water bottle, put in my coffee etc
We had some that grew right under the faucet outside, and I’d share grab some and throw it in the tea when we were making iced tea. Tried it years later with dried leaves, it didn’t compare.
I obviously don’t know… :(
Edit: Thanks for the answers - now I know! Where I live it doesn’t spread that easily, and often when it’s growing well it disappears overnight or in a matter of days thanks to caterpillars or grasshoppers. I didn’t know it would grow out of control in other places.
Once it gets going … it’s hard to get rid of
I’m not 100% sure, but I think it’s weed.
It’s not weed, it’s that mint is very aggressive in spreading.
I personally like the mint growing in the yard it makes mowing the lawn smell great.
Oh, so it’s not weed, but it’s a weed.
Not weed if you can make mojitos with it
It can still be a weed if you can’t make enough mojitos to keep up with the growth.
Challenge accepted
Are we talking Weed Mojitos? M’confusted?
Weed as a classification is bullshit anyway. Iirc, it’s whatever broad-leaf plants got killed by roundup, Monsanto declared ‘weeds’.
Clover used to be a common part of American lawns
A weed is something you don’t want to grow right there. It just means undesired plant life and changes on a whim.
Monsanto tried to categorize clover as weeds in their advertising because the plant killer that was used to kill broadleaf plants that interfere with grass lawns also kills clover. They demonized clover because it was collateral damage!
That’s why I’m doing my part to help it take over :)
My parents outsource their Lawncare to me, and I have been taking the huge patch of clover near a corn field and transplanting it around their yard. Just cutting a shovel ful of dirt out and swapping them, and watering the area.
No idea if it’ll work the way I want it to, but I guess I’ll see if it spreads this summer.
I’d love to go to my in-laws and use a big seed spreader to throw clover and other native plants around, but that would just lead to them killing it all and hiring a lawn company to replant Kentucky bluegrass or something lame like that.
Clover is pretty hardy and in my experience doesn’t even fight the grass aince they thrive on different nutrients or something like that.
The bur seed clover in my lawn, shits a nightmare to deal with. Dogs get the seeds in every inch of fur, spread it around the lawn and hack them up when grooming themselves.
It’s mostly under control after a few years of tackling it.
I’d love another variant to replace the horrible one I’ve got.
Ok, that sounds like it sucks.
But that isn’t the clover we are talking about when we say clover is awesome. White clover is generally what people are referring to when they are talking about lawns and landscaping.
Red clover is native to the west coast, it’s edible, makes a good incense apparently, and it looks rather handsome imo.
I keep telling people to let clover grow, and half the stuff that’s supposedly bad for their lawn is actually good for a healthy patch of dirt but someone invented a problem so they could sell the solution.
I’ve actually had landscaping people knock on my door and explain that half my lawn is weeds and they can take care of it for me on a 6 month contract or whatever bs…
Like Bruh my lawn is carefully cultivated to grow all natural native plants, specifically with the intent of boosting local insect and pollinator activity, there’s a reason this half-are is the only place you see butterflies.
I’m not about to let some punk in headphones and a “Lastname Lawncare” t-shirt flatten all of this to 1/2in of plain green uniform grass. That’s boring as shit. And bad for the environment. And boring. as. shit.
Let’s fucking go!
Dam dog you got a bio lawn of local fauna and flora?
This guy knows how to progress.
Prograss
Look at Mr. Green Thumbs over here!
Seriously though I’m just jealous you have a yard to do this in.
It’s not owned by me, but it’s tended by me for now. I also am tending to my parents yard this summer, and trying to transplant clover around their yard. Sofar the patches are still green but it’s not quite growing time yet to see how well it’ll take hold.
Oh thank God I was worried there was some meme about an incel jacking off on it I didn’t know about
that’s not a meme. that’s all they do.
I grow my mint along the side of the house where the HVAC condensation runs out! It helps with the whole area just being a giant muddy mess since it is also on the shady side of the house.
It is classified in my state as a weed
Weeds don’t actually exist. It’s just a term we invented for plants we don’t like.
People who say this have never battled goat head burr, burr clover or bristly ox tongue. Invasive as shit, crowd out threatened species and necessary natives for plant-specific pollinators, poke through your shoes and bike tires and generally run your day.
“A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, growing where it conflicts with human preferences, needs, or goals” - Wikipedia
“Taxonomically the term “weed” has no botanical significance” - Wikipedia
Ok…? I really don’t get this “I love all plants equally, peace on earth, bro” messaging that pops up any time someone mentions a highly invasive plant.
Some plants, in the wrong spaces, are highly damaging to wildlife on many levels. It’s not just about wanting a monocultured lawn and having been tricked by Monsanto propaganda.
I think you got me wrong. What made you think I like invasive plants? I’m aware they’re an ecological disaster. The term weed just pisses me off. People spray chemicals on their lawns to kill off native plants because they’re “weeds”. Fuck grass and fuck invasive plants (like grass). I can think of quite a few plants I hate and would like eraticated from North America actually.
My buddy warned me about the mint the pervious owners planted, and I pulled it right away. It was right by our basement entrance so I frequently peer in and inspect for mint shoots. I think there must be a buried barrier or something (like landscaping cloth) preventing it from spreading outside the bed it was in. I found a small sprig 4 years after pulling everything I could find.
Pair it with raspberries
Just put them in raised beds and then mow right up to that bitch, they wont make it out.
I’ve seen it grow low. Like thyme.
