The Great Chocolate Mint Rebellion

[gardenhappy]

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???

[sunshine98]

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.

[Mischka]

Originally Posted by sunshine98

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.

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

I wish snow smothered it because I have well over a foot of it here sitting on it at the moment.

[gardenpaws_VA]

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.

[gssgarden]

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

[celestina]

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!

[stormymater]

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

[montanamato]

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

[stormymater]

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!

[Polar_Lace]

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 Apple Mint. I'm trying to find some down here too.

~* Robin

[habitat_gardener]

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.

[tache]

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

[stormymater]

Originally Posted by tache

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

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.

[tomatoaddict]

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

[Barbee]

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.