Lemon balm is a member of the mint family, but for me it isn’t as invasive. It does spread a little each year, but a little weeding around the edges gets it back in check when it starts to get out of control. It’s easy to grow, since it’ll grow in full son or partial shade and it doesn’t seem to be picky about the soil as long as it’s well drained.

(c) L Gerlach

Here are some things you can do with lemon balm:

• You can use lemon balm in most recipes in place of mint.
• I’ve used lemon balm to make minted sugar before, but I guess you would call it lemon sugar. You can store the lemon sugar for several months, and use it in recipes instead of plain sugar to add a lemon flavor.
• Add chopped lemon balm to sugar cookies to give them a lemony flavor.
• One of my favorite things to do with lemon balm is to add it to iced mint tea, it adds a lemony flavor, even if you don’t have any lemons.

Do you have any lemon balm growing in your herb garden? If you do what do you use it for?

Post from: Blisstree

Favorite Herbs~ Lemon Balm

After a week, some of the seeds have started sprouting…which proves that at least my thumbs are partly green. I took some fantastic pictures, but alas the usb port on my camera cable is bent, and so all pictures will have to wait, until I replace it.

Hopefully they will keep growing….I am getting really excited about it, and can’t wait to start using them. The one thing I have learned already, is to make sure you mark your rows. I neglected to do that, and now I don’t know which herbs have sprouted and which haven’t. A mistake that will not be made on my next attempt. Oh well, its all a learning process.

Will report more on the garden in a couple of days.

In the meantime, to tie you over-here is a picture of what Lemon Balm is supposed to look like.

Image details: Lemon balm plant served by picapp.com

Post from: Blisstree

The Start of My Journey Into Medicinal Herb Growing

This season, I am going to attempt to grow an indoor herb garden. I would really like to try to grow some medicinal herbs – just to see if there would be an improvement, if I grew them myself. Its a headspace thing! In order for me to understand how and why things work for me, I need to be involved in the whole process – and not just listen to someone else talk about it.

And so I am going to do a little experimenting with some herb growing. First step is to figure out what to grow. Not really easy, when there are so many things to grow. I suppose the first thing I should look into are herbs that can help with regular sleep.

I have come across 3 herbs (among many) that can help with general stress relief, and to help with sleep (that you can grow in an indoor garden).

Chammomile - an herb used for rest and relaxation – although a more bitter form can be used for digestive problems. Most often used in teas (at night-time). It is a very gentle herb to use, and should be looked to first. – I definitely plan to grow
some of this!

Passionflower – an herb used to coax restful sleep – without giving the sleep hangover in the mornings. Most often used in tea form. Sounds like a pretty good alternative, to many of the sleep inducing drugs out there.

Thirdly, I came across Lemon Balm – I am not very familiar with this herb, but apparently just the scent of this herb, has relaxation properties. That right there, sounds good enough for me. It is mostly used in teas.

This is the start to my herb garden. Like I said, I am still in the planning stages. But I am really excited about this little project.

Do you have an herb garden? If so, what do you grow – and why.

**Picture Source- flickr

Post from: Blisstree

Herbs are In!