How do I make a spearmint plant spread around as ground cover?

Asked by jaytkay (25810

) June 12th, 2011

There’s a big bare patch in front of my building and I recall how spearmint covered every un-managed spot in a previous garden. And that was a pretty good weed to have, I always enjoyed spearmint & ice-water in the summer.

So I brought home two spearmint plants in 3-inch containers. Is there a good strategy for encouraging these little guys to spread around? Can this be done in a season, or is it a multi-year project?

If you have other ideas for quick & cheap ground cover, I welcome any and all suggestions.

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6 Answers

Funny, usually questions about mint go something like: “How do I keep this #$#$! mint from taking over the entire tri-state area?!?!?!”

Just plant it and let nature do the rest.

YoBob (12846

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I’m going to go with “plant it.”
@YoBob is right on. Just.. let it go. It will do the work for you. You should have decent coverage by the end of this season, and by next year you will be cursing the spearmint for being so aggressive…. I’m guessing. :)

ANef_is_Enuf (26839

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If your bare patch is relatively shady for part of the day and there is a lot of moisture in the soil, you should be able to plant it and it will start to spread and take over. It’s a gorgous plant, but it will tend to kill other plants that are around it, and it’s not technically a ground cover, because it grows up to 3 or 4 feet high if you let it. But if you love mint as much as I do, I just let it go wherever it wants to. I think it’s very pretty and I love to eat it.

Kardamom (33291

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