The Spearmint Won - Had to use Round-up

[gunDriller]

i belong to a community garden where i have a 15x15 plot.

2 years ago i had a teeny mint plant that i kept stepping on when i was working on a compost pile, the winter of 2008-2009.

by the spring of 2009, it grew back to nice big plant about 4x4 feet. the bees love it, i like it.

but the "garden management" (a Jewish woman who manages a Lutheran church) has decided that mint is invasive and so it is a BAAAAAAD plant.

after 2 2 hour work sessions to dig it out this last winter, the mint has come back and i am being accused of garden negligence etc.

so i gave up on the environmentally sound approach and bought "Spectracide" (sort of like Round-up).

i sprayed some on yesterday & checked it this morning. the mint plants i sprayed are burnt & brown. i pulled all them, and sprayed a little more, trying to stay away from the food plants.

i never ever expected to use anything like an herbicide, but ...

[Large Sarge]

an alternative approach is to use a strong form of hydrogen peroxide

you can get technical grade peroxide (27%) from swimming pool supply, cost is about $15 a gallon

just dilute it to around 10% or a bit more

read numerous items saying peroxide of 10% or more kills plants

very safe stuff,

it just breaks down to oxygen and water

I have just started this, will give some real reports in the next couple weeks.

one thing if you try it, sunlight breaks down peroxide, so do it early morning or sundown

[gunDriller]

OK, thanks a lot !

i felt like i made a deal with the devil, not quite to the extent of Joe Biden, but still.

the thing is, i like Spearmint ! i got some going at home.

but i was getting lectures on the terrible inconsiderateness of having spearmint growing wild in my garden. it was like torture.

[Large Sarge]

well I tried 10% H2O2 this morning, does not seem strong enough

might need the full strength 27%

I will let you know

even so its cheap