Kitchen Garden Forum

My mint bed seems to have given up the ghost this year. It's in a shady border and has always given a good crop. I lightly manure it every autumn after the plants have died down. Any suggestions?

One bad thought Contaminated Manure?

Our mint bed did the same last year after many years of growing strongly. It definitely wasn't contaminated manure because I did not use any manure on the bed, but I wondered whether it might be mint rust. The plants showed no sign of it but they just sort of disappeared. I have planted new plants (bought in) in the same place, mainly because the patch is bordered by a house wall, a dry stone wall and two stone-bordered gravel paths, so the mint can't 'escape', and so far the new plants are doing well.

The manure was the bagged composted type which can be bought from garden centres. It was used elsewhere in the garden to no ill effect so don't think it could have been this. I guess all I can do is thoroughly dig the bed over and put it some new plants. I have a few escapee shoots appearing much further down the same border so might take a few of them and see what happens. The mint was perfectly healthy up to the time it died back at the end of autumn and I didn't notice any kind of disease on the leaves. Perhaps the roots just die of exhaustion after a certain number of years?

Hi Primrose,
My mint has bit the dust over the winter, which here was fairly harsh.
I have now got to visit everybody that has had clumps from me, over the years, and beg for some rooted cuttings and start all over again.
JB.

My immediate thought was that some cat[s] decided it would make a nice toilet. But I don't speak from knowledge, only my general dislike of other people's cats coming into my garden and fouling.
mike