Herbs, and their control

[ausmac]

I love growing herbs, they are so useful, aromatic and attractive. Problem is, they can get woody and the areas around them become weed infested. So I decided to do a bit of controlled herb planting. This was the idea I came up with for my narrow driveway side garden.

Comments

[rhodielady_47]

I generally put down a layer of cardboard first and then a layer of fall leaves BEFORE I put on a layer of wood chip mulch.
That kills out lots of heavy duty weeds and it will keep your expensive wood chip mulch looking nice far far longer than it will if you just lay it down on bare soil.

You've issued a challenge to your mint plant, you know. It will now spend the rest of the summer trying desperately to escape that pot.

I have an area that's become mint colonized which is nearly six feet across this spring after having put out two quart-sized pots of mint that I bought on clearance late last summer. I'm okay with where I planted it though. The flowerbed is one of those spring swamps situated on heavy clay which doesn't dry out enough to work until sometime in July. Keeping the mint company are some other aggressive growers and a type of daffodil which actually seems to like all the extra water in this flowerbed (if I go by how much this daffodil multiplies!).
[BTW: Someone suggested that mint might help keep the mosquitoes at bay, so my mint patch now has a chance to make itself useful to me. I'm trying this theory by rubbing some of that mint on my neck and arms each time I go out to garden.]
Good luck!
:)

[ausmac]

That's a good idea re the cardboard - I have an area out in my front yard that I want to chip but I foresee problems with weeds, I might visit my local supermarket and pick up a few boxes and lay them down. My sister tried using newspaper in her garden in a similar anti-weed program which worked only to a degree. Locally we have a very nuisance weed called onion grass; its very hard to kill because if you pull it, its root bulb stays alive and new weeds pop up, plus its a very prolific spreading weed. She used paper to try and get on top of that but it wasn't very successful. About the only way you can get rid of onion weed is to dig down below the root level, remove all the soil and put in new soil. And hope you didn't miss one....

And yes, I know I will need to keep an eye on the mint. I pulled out all the old mint but now I have mint sprouting beneath the bottom layer of the retaining wall; its a determined plant but I can resist leaving it there as I hate killing a healthy useful herb.

And a personal hint re mint; I suffer from regular bouts of indigestion. When I get one that the normal treatments won't budge, I will go out, pull up some fresh mint, cut it fine and seep it in boiling water, then drink the liquid. It almost always works.

[rhodielady_47]

Your problem plant is probably either a wild onion or it may be a wild garlic.

Getting rid of either one means that you have to dig the little bulbs up and dispose of them.
Good luck!
:)