I planted peppermint, spearmint, catnip, and lemon balm in the ground. Why would I unleash any rant? You just have to be ready to harvest away or in some other way maintain the area it tries to consume.

FataMorgana

Consider yourself smacked upside your head.

My neighbor planted a little mint patch some years back. Now she has half an acre of it, which she cuts periodically with a tractor.

Buy a bigger pot?

Some people bury a chimney flue deeply, so that the roots can't find their way under it. But all you need is a little chink or crack and the mint will escape, and pretty soon you're drowning your sorrows in juleps.

OK, you asked for it!! Herewith a smack on the head, both sides, repeatedly, until some sense has been knocked in!! :-)

Plant it in the lawn to stop it invading the garden beds? THAT won't work. Not only will it choke out the grass, but it will spread far and wide - usually where it isn't wanted!!

Why not hunt out an old bathtub, or some old concrete laundry tubs, or a cattle trough or something similar and large, and use that as a pot? It won't solve the problem of spreading entirely, but it will keep it contained for a bit longer. From time to time, you'll need to dig out some of it to make more room, but you'll still have plenty left to indulge yourself with mint tea.

BTW, go easy on that mint tea. One cup per day is a medicinal dosage - more than that, and you could begin to have problems with headaches, indigestion, fatigue etc.

I'm with fatamorgana. With a bit of vigilance, it's not that hard to keep under control.

Interesting note about the medicinal usage - thanks. I never really thought of mint as a medicinal herb...

Still not sure about the in the ground bit, though. I have two yays and two nays... No suggestions as to a preferable location for planting, though. Anyone? (perhaps the bigger pot suggestion is really the way to go - but I'm not really a potted plant person...)

Hi Julia,
I have Choc. mint in the ground. Also in 2 pots. About 8 years ago I planted it in the ground. I live in Northern Mich., and in the woods. The Mint does not grow well. It is in the shade of pine trees. I do not fertalize or inhance the ground at all. This summer I finally put it in a pot and it is growing well now. I wanted more. I have not done anything with it except to get my choc. fix by smelling the plant. It is such a delight to rub against or squeeze for the smell. NO CALORIES.
Call me crazy but it works for me.
gmom

I'm no expert, but I thought I read that chocolate mint and pineapple mint are not as invasive as peppermint and spearmint. It might be worth a try. Can you mow around it, just in case? :)

I too had heard rumors that Chocolate mint might not be so invasive. I was hoping someone with experience might weigh in - it sounds like it was not invasive for gmom.

I'm kinda thinking I'll have to give it a try.

You don't need a smacking; just the right method. I have 12 types of mint planted in my herb garden. This is 5 raised bed in a 19 foot semicircle. The mints are contained with the plastic border material. Most mints will try to sprawl using above ground runners, so once a month I simply cut away the horizontal stems. Place these in a black plastic bag and leave them in the sun for a week to kill before I dump them in the compost.

I just use very large pots - the kind with pans underneath. The mints grow well, I get plenty, and even they try to reach the ground by sending out runners, but in the pots I can just cut off those runners and throw them in my teapot. We use a lot of mint all year round, and five or six pots like this make all we can use. When vigorously growing, we cut all of it from one of the pots and dehydrate it for winter use. Every couple of years I dump the whole thing out carefully into my wheelbarrow, remove the bottom half of the soil, replace with a fresh mixture of compost and the removed soil, and put it back in the pot. I do this in the spring once it gets growing again pretty good. Chocolate mint is definitely not less vigorous than pepperming or spearmint or orange mint or even lemon balm. They all seem to do fine this way.

Well for me spearmint does not spread enough. I gave some to my neighbor and she keeps it in a large pot abt 18" and hers does better than mine in the ground. Almost lost mine due to the drought we had this year, but hopefully it will do well over our winter. Never had any problems in Colorado either knew its place and did well and never bothered my garden.