I have seen numerous city lots where the entire yard was mint. That was despite the owners' efforts to keep it in check. I have grown it in a pot, and had it send runners through the holes at the bottom of a pot and up into neighboring pots. I am currently growing spearmint in a hanging pot by the back door, where I can keep an eye on it. For your garden, may I recommend calamint? It is a Mediterranean edible, and does not spread by runners. It does spread by seed, but is not a big problem. I've been growing it for 15 years without trouble. I do cut it to the ground each summer when it starts to set seed, and it bounces back happily.

Last year I planted Corsican Mint as a lawn substitite. We live on a slope are are hoping to get rid of the grass completely, as it is hard to mow. The Corsican mint is flourishing here in our woodlands (shady) Pac NW setting. It stayed green all winter, even through freezing temps. And it never needs to be mowed. Yeah! We grew the mint from seed in 4" pots and divided them into little 1" clumps, given that we needed several hundred pots (our lawn is huge), and buying all of those pots would have cost us thousands. The seed was inexpensive. We planted the clumps 12" apart and by the end of summer, most of it was filled in. The only problem is that weeds and grass can pop through the mint, although I think this problem will be aleviated as the mint forms that lush dense carpet, as it is doing now. Corsican Mint is great for foot traffic, and it smells amazing when you walk on it. The tiny scale is gorgeous, like something out of a fairy tale. We have lots of neighborhood cats and I thought they would be attracted to the smell and eat it up. However, we have not run into that problem.

Steve, I don't understand why you are using trellis's. None of the herbs you have have vining tendencies. If you are using the trellises for support, I'd recommend trimming back the plants instead to put more energy into making roots and filling out the plants themself. If you don't mind what the pots look like think of recycling 2 liter soda bottles, gallon jugs with the tops cut off or anything slightly resembling a gallon size pot and poke 4-5 1/4" or 1/2" holes in the bottom for drainage. If you have a recylcing center near by I've never found one that doesn't mind you going through it for containers (this is from experience) and they are free. Yard sales are another great source of cheap pots, I just bought a barrel, square plastic patio container and a 3 gal foam planter for $3 (don't be afraid to bargain...they were asking $5 for 2 of the pots and got them for $2. But do save your money and use a soil less potting mix preferably without fertilizer (the fertilizer washes out after a couple of waterings anyway). Daisy, I disagree with keeping the soil permanently moist. This may be so until and only until the plants are established, once the roots have developed enough that the plant is thriving allow to dryout between waterings. Many an herb has died from over watering, herbs prefer the soil to dryout between watering.

I guess it's a little late but the directions say it's best to vacuum your floors before first using Mint. I didn't but (I THOUGHT) mine stayed pretty clean anyway. Apparently Mint gets to places I must miss :o A day, two at the most, of doing some deep cleaning on your floors, and Mint can maintain them for you :) The wet mopping feature won't take the place of my steam mop but it drastically reduces the amt of times I've used it. My grandchildren were here the other day. After an afternoon of running in and out, a dropped plate of spaghetti and a dropped popcicle, I first used the Mint to pick up debris and then used the mop mode. It got everything and left my porcelain tile floor satin-y smooth :) Wet mop mode requires a bit more interaction. This is what I do. I use a mixture of 50/50 water/alcohol for cleaning. I saturate the mopping cloth with it and then as Mint is cleaning, I'll spray the cleaning solution in front of where Mint hasn't been yet. The cloth starts to dry out. If you spray the solution too far ahead of Mint, it dries. Every smear and spot on the floor was gone when Mint was done :) Let me qualify that by saying I didn't leave food on the floor for Mint to clean :o I wiped up the spills but let Mint CLEAN the area. L.O.V.E. my Mint Robotic Cleaner!