Mint does spread. Around here it does a good job of groundwater abatement. I’ve had it in the yard for 20 years with little growth. The next tenant will be a new owner, and they’ll have seen the mint and the penultimate owner’s bamboo, and I will be far, far away or dead.
In the spirit of alternative text, I present this narrative in emoji form:
Mint has to be better, better looking, better smelling, less pointy, than goatheads and thistles. Mint can be eaten, or brewed into a tea and much like Susan, the next tenants will take possession after I’ve been planted myself.
The neighbors on the other hand…well maybe they’ll appreciate not having to contend with the milkweed and goatheads
If you plant mint, best to do it in a large pot that sits on concrete, not soil. Mint is great to have but spreads like wildfire in good garden soil. This doesn’t matter so much in a wild and weedy area where no one in their right mind would put a garden.
By the way, I try to encourage people who think they don’t have a “green thumb”. Anyone can grow plants successfully. Just follow the “cookbook recipe” and nature does the rest. 