On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 11:17:19 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:

~
~"hkw" wrote in message
ws.com...
~ Hello all,
~
~ I'm new here! And a pretty inexperienced gardener, although I'm
~trying
~ to learn....
~
~ Here's my problem; I have a flowerbed running along one side of my
~ garden, in which I'm trying to grow roses and some other shrubs.
~ However, someone who lived here previously has planted MINT at one
~end
~ of this flowerbed, and its gets completely out of control and
~threatens
~ to take over the whole bed!
~
~ I try to pull it up in the winter when it's died down a bit, but the
~ extensive network of tough roots underground means it springs back
~ rampant as ever in the summer, and is impossible to pull up. It
~grows
~ to about 3 feet high, too, and is really unsightly.
~
~ How do I get rid of it for good, without poisoning the soil and
~ affecting my existing shrubs or future plants?
~
~Your best hope is to use glyphosate (Roundup) on it when it is growing
~actively.. But make sure the chemical does not get to the leaves of
~the desirable plants. The glyphosate effectively becomes neutralised
~as soon as it enters the soil
~
~Franz
~
~
Where are you? I lost my mint over the winter and I could do with a
nice rampant variety... ;-)
(I do keep it in pots, so it's more vulnerable to frost)

If you dig up some roots, and pot them up, I'm sure your local
school/church/scouts etc. fayre would love to sell it for their
funds!

But apart from that :-) I second the suggestion of glyphosate: choose
a still day with no rain forecast (this weekend is probably ideal) and
spray very carefully onto exposed leaves. I have eliminated bindweed
from a large part of my otherwise organic allotment by using a cut-off
2litre drinks bottle to prevent drift of the spray: I place the
cut-off base over the victim down onto the soil, and spray in the top,
wait a few seconds for it to settle and gently pull the bottle off. No
spray goes near anything else, then. You have to watch out for drips
from the bottle.


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

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