The Great Chocolate Mint Rebellion
 

I was warned but I didn't listen. :oops:

Three years ago, I planted a 4 inch pot of "Chocolate" Mint (it really does smell and faintly taste like it) in the far corner of my garden area.

It has taken some tips from it's no-doubt distant cousin, the kudzu, and has taken over a 6 x 8 area, mercilessly snuffing out my garlic chives and oregano and is now steadfastly creeping inward toward my cukes.

I took a hoe and a spade to it last year and thought I had established a no-man's land, but it has violated it with a vengeance. :twisted:

Beware the Chocolate Mint and his ilk, the rest of the mint family...they have no respect for boundries! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Bee Balm is another, if you don't watch it. It's beautiful, but it's everywhere!

6x8 what? yards or miles?

The only mint I have is spearmint, it shouldn't be a problem.
Way too far from anything else I care about.:shock:
I mean real far.:shock::shock::shock:

Worth

[quote=johno;60721]6x8 what? yards or miles?[/quote]

LOL [I]feet. :lol: [/I]

The sad part is, I really don't know what to use the mint for. The slight chocolate overtones would probably not fare well with any type of meat.

What do other folks here do with their mint? I'd love to see a few creative uses for it...before I take the backhoe to it and rip it all out. :twisted:

I us spearmint and hibiscus for iced tea.
Us semi Texas Mexicans use chocolate on meat.
Not very sweet coco it is called mole sauce.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(sauce[/url])
I think I would get the back hoe and just buy some mole sauce.:)
Worth

I use the mint patch (planted by previous owners) to test weed killers...I have (almost) gotten rid of poison ivy, English ivy and garlic mustard, but the mint marches on.

Why couldn't tomatoes have the "impossible to kill and grows rampant" gene instead of the mint (which, like Mischka, I can't think of any way to use it)?

I have a few different mint varieties in big pots outside. But even in pots you have to keep an eye on them.

The chocolate mint, for example, has been trying to jump out of the pot. It's like the little shop of horror. The tentacles are creeping over the rim when you are not looking.

The peppermint, on the other hand, is very well behaved. It just grows upwards.

I like the smell of chocolate mint, but haven't found any good use for it either. Yet.

Chocolate mint
 

Cholocate mint is good chopped up in homemade cookies or when making hot chocolate.

I don't grow the chocolate mint but I'd imagine desserts would be the best use for it. I grow Spearmint for tea and tabouleh and pineapple mint that I use in fruit salads.

Use it to dress up some hot chocolate with Rumple Minze.:)
You have a lot of Rumple Minze to drink.:shock:

Worth

One way to keep your mint in bounds is to plant the mint in a big pot, then bury the pot. We have a variety of mints - chocolate, orange, spearmint, peppermint. Of the bunch, the orange is doing the best. Last year the chocolate got huge, but it died back when we moved it. The spearmint needs a saucer of beer - the snails appear to love it.

The chocolate is very nice in desserts, makes a nice garnish for chocolate-mint things.

I'm not certain if what I am growing is peppermint or chocolate mint (long term memory loss...) but it has chocolatey-looking coloration in places...

Anyway, either would work as well. I tried applying some mint leaves to a severe toothache last night (as I'm fresh out of clove oil...) and in a few minutes it began numbing the pain. It works at least as well as anything else I've tried, and better than benzocaine gel.

I'm with Worth -- my immediate thought was "cocktails"! Maybe a chocolatey mojito. Something with Godiva liqueur, or Kahlua. Or, since now I'm thinking dessert, maybe on ice-cream, or with berries. Chocolate mint with strawberries or raspberries sounds pretty good.

"The sad part is, I really don't know what to use the mint for..."

Oh my gosh, chocolate mint makes the best iced tea in the heat of summer. Okay, go ahead and put some sugar in it, if you must. I grow it (in a pot) only for this use. Smash up the leaves, put in boiling water to steep for awhile, cool and pour over ice. YUM!

mint
 

Use your chocolate mint in chocolate chip cookies and cakes!!! 1 tablespoon chopped fresh for both!!! Also i put it into pudding and homemade icecream.Chocolate mint icecream anyone???:yes: :yes:

I have the chocolate mint, Pineapple mint, and Yerba Buena (Mexican Spearmint) all growing in tires which Iput in the ground as raised beds. They've been there over 5 years and I've never had a problem with any of them. I did at the beginning when I had them in the round but I learned fast...LOL!! After that it was in the tires for them...LOL!! I use all three to make teas, chopped finely for cookies and desserts. The Chocolate is not used in Mole that is a very different type of chocolate altogether. I'm of Mexican descent and all I ever cook are Mexican dishes (not to be confused with the Tex Mex cooking) with the ocassional American dishes.
If you want to rid yourself of it you'll have to remove it roots and all. There is a product they sell at Walmart that's made for removing vines and weeds. You just brush it on. Or you can just do what I did once and add compost to it. They HATE the stuff...LOL!! Burnt it to the roots. Hope this helps.

[quote=sunshine98;81737]If you want to rid yourself of it you'll have to remove it roots and all. There is a product they sell at Walmart that's made for removing vines and weeds. You just brush it on. Or you can just do what I did once and add compost to it. They HATE the stuff...LOL!! Burnt it to the roots. Hope this helps.[/quote]

I'll try the compost because it's growing in the corner of one of my growing areas. :yes:

I wish [I]snow[/I] smothered it because I have well over a foot of it here sitting on it at the moment. :lol:

In case anyone doesn't realize, ALL mints (and closely related perennial plants) do this - only the woody or weaklings behave. Thus, most salvias are OK, at least up here, as is Corsican mint, but every variety of spearmint, peppermint, water mint, horse mint, lemon balm, bee balm, and mountain mint I've ever had has tried to take over the garden. They just vary in their success rate!

I admit to growing them in the ground, but I do yank the extras up by the foot - they make a popular Freecycle item around here.

I agree with coronabarb. We have a Mr. Coffee Iced-T maker and we put a sprig of Choc. mint in the top when brewing and it makes a big taste difference. It doesn't take much, just a small branch. We alternate between Spearmint too. Tastes great when tying up tomatoes in the summer heat. :)

Greg

Mischka-- I feel for you and your mint explosion. Every few years or so we have horribe drought and that seems to kill the chocolate mint invasion to just a tiny piece that then takes a season or two to come back--I just never water it and that seems to keep it in check. We too use it for ice tea--but I sure like the idea of mojitos! :D

Mint, chocolate mint, in chocolate ice cream - oh, that sounds soooo good!

I buy peppermint and spearmint each spring....Mainly for A Kentucky Derby party with mint juleps...Been a ritual since college days....After the party the plants stay in containers on the patio...
I let horseradish go free once and I have been afraid of what mint could do ever since..........
I also use some fresh mint in a few salad dressings and italian dishes, plus tea.

Jeanne

Wonder if mint has any deer, snake or skunk repellant qualities? If so (at least for the first 2), I'm "all in" & want to plant heavily along the back of the lot!

Stormy,

It's only good for keeping mice away from your cellar or house. Therefore you must grow it in the ground right next to where you might have a mouse hole.

Your #1 best bet is to grow & Mow! But realizing that, you must mow over it nearly 4 times to mince it down. If want to grow it for tea, make sure you cut the stems way down to the ground. I used to pack them in ice cube trays, fill with water and freeze them for use in the winter time. They're good for hot cocoa in the winter. I wish I could have some starts here to plant out. Also my preference is the ever loving [COLOR=DarkGreen]Apple Mint[/COLOR]. I'm trying to find some down here too.

~* Robin

I grow lemon balm in the ground, but all my mints are in pots. They do try to escape through the holes in the bottom of the pot -- I noticed some chocolate mint in the raspberry bed the other day. I use it for tea and tabouli, and next time I make chocolate chip cookies, I'll add some -- great idea!

To keep the lemon balm in check, I cut it to the ground before it blooms, and whenever it starts looking brownish and a little ratty -- a total of at least 3 times a year. I also pot up the seedlings and give them away. This time of year, I spend a few hours pulling out all the extra plantain, calendula, mint, lemon balm, oregano, etc., and potting them up. Everyone who stops to chat gets offered whatever extra plants I have. They go fast at the community garden, and sometimes I save a bunch to take to a local plant exchange (it's only twice a year).

I'm skeptical about the compost solution, because I pot up all my plants in homemade compost, including the mints.

I'm always amused to see some of the weedier herbs for sale at the nursery, looking less healthy than the ones I pull out! I used to save borage seedlings, until they started growing 4 ft. high and wide in my garden, but now I let a few grow and compost the rest. I also used to save and transplant calendula seedlings, but there are enough of them around that I've stopped saving them. But I still save a mullein or two, and I love plantain and all the mint-family herbs.

You have to be leery of anything with a square stem. They want to take over the world.

[QUOTE=tache;125115]You have to be leery of anything with a square stem. They want to take over the world.[/QUOTE]
No kidding! I have been pulling chickweed & a square-stemmed unknown (w/o mint's redeeming smell) with little purple flowers - has shallow roots that run so I have to pull gently around my densely planted lettuce or it'll upright the lettuce it is trying to crowd out.

I grow Chocolate mint, banana mint and Mojito mint.
Of course, there can never be enough Mojito mint for summer Mojito's:lol: The Chocolate is good for tea and baking. Have yet to find a use for the banana mint but it sure smells good.

Creative use for mint:
Hay fever or a summer cold giving you fits? Go mow your mint. Unclogs that stuffy nose right now. ;)
Seriously though, you can harvest and dry the leaves. Store it in the freezer and throw a few in a humidifier or steamer to help relieve a stuffed up nose. Or place a tiny bit on your filter of your furnace or air filter to freshen the air in your house.
If it's really getting out of hand, why not dig up enough to plant a big pot of it and get rid of the rest. It winters over well in my area without having to bring the pot inside. It really is a nice plant to have around as it attracts parasitic wasps...which benefits your tomatoes.