How do I get rid of this stuff!?

I'm not a gardener, and don't really have any great interest in working
in the yard. A number of years ago, my mother gave me a few sprigs of
mint since I liked that in my iced tea. I stupidly planted the mint in a
backyard flower bed (raised with cement walls). The mint took over the
bed, which is probably 15' long (length of a small townhouse backyard)
and swallowed several rose bushes that had been planted by the previous
owners. Now the entire bed is comprised entirely of very tall, wild
mint! My lawn guy cuts it down several times a year, but is there any
way to eliminate it? I have some roundup that I used on my poison ivy -
would that work? There is nothing else in the area that I care about
preserving (heck, there's nothing else in the area!). The only caveat is
that my neighbors have a small garden abutting the mint bed. Since there
is a cement divider, it hasn't taken over there... yet.

Thanks for any help.

Lee
(and yes, it is a real address, just not one I check as often)

Roundup is rerely effective on members of the mint family. Go to your
nearest swimming pool supply store and purchase a gallon of muriatic
acid. Pour it into a pump-up sprayer without diluting it. Spray on the
mint. You will see results within 24 hours.



Lee B wrote:
How do I get rid of this stuff!?

I'm not a gardener, and don't really have any great interest in working
in the yard. A number of years ago, my mother gave me a few sprigs of
mint since I liked that in my iced tea. I stupidly planted the mint in a
backyard flower bed (raised with cement walls). The mint took over the
bed, which is probably 15' long (length of a small townhouse backyard)
and swallowed several rose bushes that had been planted by the previous
owners. Now the entire bed is comprised entirely of very tall, wild
mint! My lawn guy cuts it down several times a year, but is there any
way to eliminate it? I have some roundup that I used on my poison ivy -
would that work? There is nothing else in the area that I care about
preserving (heck, there's nothing else in the area!). The only caveat is
that my neighbors have a small garden abutting the mint bed. Since there
is a cement divider, it hasn't taken over there... yet.

Thanks for any help.

Lee
(and yes, it is a real address, just not one I check as often)

The previous post is a malicious lie. Round-Up will do a fine job of
killing your mint, and muriatic acid will destroy much more than just the
plants.

. wrote in message ...
Roundup is rerely effective on members of the mint family. Go to your
nearest swimming pool supply store and purchase a gallon of muriatic
acid. Pour it into a pump-up sprayer without diluting it. Spray on the
mint. You will see results within 24 hours.



Lee B wrote:
How do I get rid of this stuff!?

I'm not a gardener, and don't really have any great interest in working
in the yard. A number of years ago, my mother gave me a few sprigs of
mint since I liked that in my iced tea. I stupidly planted the mint in a
backyard flower bed (raised with cement walls). The mint took over the
bed, which is probably 15' long (length of a small townhouse backyard)
and swallowed several rose bushes that had been planted by the previous
owners. Now the entire bed is comprised entirely of very tall, wild
mint! My lawn guy cuts it down several times a year, but is there any
way to eliminate it? I have some roundup that I used on my poison ivy -
would that work? There is nothing else in the area that I care about
preserving (heck, there's nothing else in the area!). The only caveat is
that my neighbors have a small garden abutting the mint bed. Since there
is a cement divider, it hasn't taken over there... yet.

Thanks for any help.

Lee
(and yes, it is a real address, just not one I check as often)

BOTH posts are the malicious use of inappropriate, soil damaging
chemicals!




On Sat, 21 Jun 2003 14:38:24 -0500, "Andrew Ostriches"
wrote:

The previous post is a malicious lie. Round-Up will do a fine job of
killing your mint, and muriatic acid will destroy much more than just the
plants.

. wrote in message ...
Roundup is rerely effective on members of the mint family. Go to your
nearest swimming pool supply store and purchase a gallon of muriatic
acid. Pour it into a pump-up sprayer without diluting it. Spray on the
mint. You will see results within 24 hours.



Lee B wrote:
How do I get rid of this stuff!?

I'm not a gardener, and don't really have any great interest in working
in the yard. A number of years ago, my mother gave me a few sprigs of
mint since I liked that in my iced tea. I stupidly planted the mint in a
backyard flower bed (raised with cement walls). The mint took over the
bed, which is probably 15' long (length of a small townhouse backyard)
and swallowed several rose bushes that had been planted by the previous
owners. Now the entire bed is comprised entirely of very tall, wild
mint! My lawn guy cuts it down several times a year, but is there any
way to eliminate it? I have some roundup that I used on my poison ivy -
would that work? There is nothing else in the area that I care about
preserving (heck, there's nothing else in the area!). The only caveat is
that my neighbors have a small garden abutting the mint bed. Since there
is a cement divider, it hasn't taken over there... yet.

Thanks for any help.

Lee
(and yes, it is a real address, just not one I check as often)



"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson



tomj

Soil Solarization

By David A. Bainbridge
Environmental Studies Coordinator
Department of Global Liberal Studies
United States International University
San Diego, CA 92131

http://ecocomposite.org/restoration/soilsolar.htm
"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson



tomj

Well the acid is definitely malicious.
I just got rid of mine with Roundup with the intent of
replanting in a buried pot to contain it.
To go chemical free, mow it, then cover it with black plastic
for the rest of the summer. If you miss even a little it will grow
back.

On Sat, 21 Jun 2003 20:24:05 GMT, H Hornblower wrote:

If you miss even a little it will grow
back.


But your soil will not be polluted with a product from the nefarious
Monsanto Company.

And if the Roundup isn't carried to all the roots wouldn't the same
thing happen?


"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson



tomj

I bought my house in March and it had a bed which was completely overgrown.
I spent an afternoon simply tearing out every shred of it I could
find--digging up yards and yard worth of roots. Overlapping,
criss-crossing, roots. It was pretty easy really, the roots were strong and
with a little loosening of the soil around them just with my fingers I was
able to pull it out like rope. It's come back in a few places where the
root was impossible to get out but only a few. I pull a sprig out here and
there when it's coming back up but it's almost completely gone. I left one
small patch that I watch closely. I'm confident that if I left it alone by
the end of the Summer it will have overtaken the whole bed again. So you
could remove and control it without roundup if you wanted but you'd have to
keep a lazy eye on it to rip out new shoots from time to time.


"Lee B" wrote in message
...
How do I get rid of this stuff!?

I'm not a gardener, and don't really have any great interest in working
in the yard. A number of years ago, my mother gave me a few sprigs of
mint since I liked that in my iced tea. I stupidly planted the mint in a
backyard flower bed (raised with cement walls). The mint took over the
bed, which is probably 15' long (length of a small townhouse backyard)
and swallowed several rose bushes that had been planted by the previous
owners. Now the entire bed is comprised entirely of very tall, wild
mint! My lawn guy cuts it down several times a year, but is there any
way to eliminate it? I have some roundup that I used on my poison ivy -
would that work? There is nothing else in the area that I care about
preserving (heck, there's nothing else in the area!). The only caveat is
that my neighbors have a small garden abutting the mint bed. Since there
is a cement divider, it hasn't taken over there... yet.

Thanks for any help.

Lee
(and yes, it is a real address, just not one I check as often)

I have a couple different members of the mint family in my garden... least
damaging to the garden ( but somewhat more so tou your back g) is simply
pulling by hand. You will not get it ALL at one time, but you should be
able to get the colony down to a more manageable umm...population




. wrote in message ...
Roundup is rerely effective on members of the mint family. Go to your
nearest swimming pool supply store and purchase a gallon of muriatic
acid. Pour it into a pump-up sprayer without diluting it. Spray on the
mint. You will see results within 24 hours.



Lee B wrote:
How do I get rid of this stuff!?

I'm not a gardener, and don't really have any great interest in working
in the yard. A number of years ago, my mother gave me a few sprigs of
mint since I liked that in my iced tea. I stupidly planted the mint in a
backyard flower bed (raised with cement walls). The mint took over the
bed, which is probably 15' long (length of a small townhouse backyard)
and swallowed several rose bushes that had been planted by the previous
owners. Now the entire bed is comprised entirely of very tall, wild
mint! My lawn guy cuts it down several times a year, but is there any
way to eliminate it? I have some roundup that I used on my poison ivy -
would that work? There is nothing else in the area that I care about
preserving (heck, there's nothing else in the area!). The only caveat is
that my neighbors have a small garden abutting the mint bed. Since there
is a cement divider, it hasn't taken over there... yet.

Thanks for any help.

Lee
(and yes, it is a real address, just not one I check as often)

On Sat, 21 Jun 2003 13:41:15 -0700, des weges
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Jun 2003 20:24:05 GMT, H Hornblower wrote:

If you miss even a little it will grow
back.


But your soil will not be polluted with a product from the nefarious
Monsanto Company.

And if the Roundup isn't carried to all the roots wouldn't the same
thing happen?


"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson



tomj


Actually I was refering to the black plastic method. The Roundup got
it all.
I don't use the stuff in the vegetable garden.

.. wrote:
Roundup is rerely effective on members of the mint family. Go to your
nearest swimming pool supply store and purchase a gallon of muriatic
acid. Pour it into a pump-up sprayer without diluting it. Spray on the
mint. You will see results within 24 hours.

Hmmmmm, wonder if this would work on Chinese Elm trees....no grin.

Lee B wrote:

How do I get rid of this stuff!?

Now the entire bed is comprised entirely of very tall, wild
mint! My lawn guy cuts it down several times a year, but is there any
way to eliminate it? I have some roundup that I used on my poison ivy -
would that work?

Yes it will. Do not cut before you spray - you want maximum leaf
surface area for the spray. Water the mint heavily to get it
growing rapidly, thoroughly spray it with Roundup (shield the
roses with a chunk of cardboard if they are still there) and wait
a couple of days.

Then cut the mint off level with the ground. If you see any
sprouts coming back, spray them with roundup.

Tsu

--
To doubt everything or to believe everything
are two equally convenient solutions; both
dispense with the necessity of reflection.
- Jules Henri Poincaré

Yes it will. Do not cut before you spray - you want maximum leaf
surface area for the spray. Water the mint heavily to get it
growing rapidly, thoroughly spray it with Roundup (shield the
roses with a chunk of cardboard if they are still there) and wait
a couple of days.

HA! I live in the northeast... the mint has _definitely_ been heavily
watered already! It's like a jungle now. My dogs periodically jump up
into the mint bed (no point in calling it a flower bed anymore) and
literally disappear behind the stalks.

Do I have to hit every leaf, or just a leaf per plant? I don't think
there's a way to get to each leaf initially, it's so dense. Man, I'm
gonna need a barrel of this Roundup! Oh well, at least it's the mint
that's overrunning me and not the poison ivy, which was fairly sparse.

Thanks for the advice. The lawn guy didn't get to the mint yesterday so
I'll hustle out to spray it this morning since he probably won't be back
now until at least tomorrow to finish up some trimming he was doing.

Lee

PS - no, the roses are long gone, swallowed by the mint.

Do I have to hit every leaf, or just a leaf per plant?

You just have to hit "some" of the leaves with RoundUp (for herbaceous plants
like mint). For woody plants you need to hit more.

John