Mint in Herb Garden - Bad Idea

If you have been reading this blog, you know that I started it in January 2010, about 9 months after we moved from our house in town where we had lived for over 25 years and which sat on a small city lot.  We moved to our 5-acres where we grow vegetables for our local farmers' market.  (See post from January 19, 2010.)

At that time, I grew a variety of herbs in our backyard in town.  So, in addition to moving our furniture, we also moved most of my herbs.  But, by the time we got to the herbs, we were running out of time, as well as energy and stamina.  So, for the most part, we just dug them up and put them in pots.   As I had time that spring, I would grab a couple of pots, take them out to the raised bed that Tom had prepared for me to use as an herb garden and plant them where ever I could find room.  There was not much planning that went into it.

They say "haste makes waste" and that saying came home to me this past summer.  Unfortunately, one of the herbs I had planted right in the middle of the herb garden was a pot of chocolate mint.  Now, if you know much about herbs, and mint in particular, you know you should contain mint with some sort of barrier, or else plant it where it will not bother other plants as it spreads.   That first year it seemed innocent enough and I actually worried whether or not it was going to survive because it looked somewhat sick for most of that first summer.

What I failed to realize was that it was using all its energy to send out runners underground.  I didn't know how bad it was until this past summer when it became apparent that it had taken over a good portion of the herb bed!  I didn't have time to deal with it at the time, so I just tried to keep it from spreading any more. 

Finally, last week during a spell of nice weather, I bit the bullet and began digging it up.  Here's a picture of what it looked like when I was about a fourth of the way finished.

All of that dead-looking stuff to the right of the shovel is the mint.  It looks dead, but I can assure you that it is very much alive because underneath that dead material is a sea of green runners just waiting to break forth for another assault in an attempt to consume the rest of the garden! 

As I dug it up, I put it on my garden wagon and trucked if over to an area beside the shed where Tom had roto-tilled a strip of ground for me to replant it.  It can spread as much as it wants to there without interfering with anything else. 

I worked on it an hour or so and ended up calling in the "big guns" (Tom) to help me.  But, we finally got it all removed and here is the result.

I know we probably missed some of the mint runners, but I'll dig those up as I find them this summer.  I'm just glad to have the mint gone and will try to be a bit better at planning when it comes to where I plant things!