Sunday, June 04, 2006

lesson learned # 1: mint

thanks to mother nature, i now have a mint garden.
last year this was not here. in fact, the almost 3 years i have been here it was not here.
this year, out of nowhere (i like mint, but i know how invasive it gets so i do not plant it), it exploded near my air conditioner and now is infiltrating my plot of hostas and lily of the valleys. it's so abundant that i have to take to harvesting it by at least a third every couple of days or so before it overtakes my lawn, house, universe. i even had dreams that a mint monster (picture swamp thing but covered in mint) grew in through my window and started to chase me through the house. well, i wasn't going to have an obituary reading "wonderful gardener, death by invasive mint." it was war i tell you.

my war bound strategy:
1. i tried to cut it back. but it grew back.
2. i tried to dig it up and plant in a container, but the mint immediately died in the pot and grew back almost imediately in the garden.
3. i tried to dig it up, plant it in a pot, sunk it into the ground. results? see #2.
so, therefore, i have risen the white flag, and surrendered. i now harvest mint every couple of days or so, and we cohabitate the garden happily now. i have better things to do in my garden anyhow.

it's not all bad, as i really do love mint, and i always hate to ruin something that is obviously "meant to be". lesson learned: i guess i'm a lover, not a fighter. and anyway, do you think mother nature is telling us that this is the summer of unlimited mojitos?

1 comment:

Stunned Donor said...

You'll never win with mint since it sends runners underground. I had mint that got into a border from a neighbors yard and I tried to dig it out every year, but it kept coming back. I finally asked my neighbor about it and she said she's been trying to get rid of it for years after planting one tiny pot of it. We finally ended up bombing it with Roundup.