Do you want to start growing lemon balm in your garden? Lemon balm is a wonderful plant to grow because of its therapeutic properties. It’s known to naturally relieve feelings of stress and anxiety, help you sleep better, encourage proper digestion, and even help with nausea.
It’s the perfect medicinal herb to grow in the garden because you never know when you might need it. If you’d like to start growing it, it’s essential to understand how to do it the right way. If you take the proper steps when planting your seeds, you’ll have no problem growing lemon balm plants throughout the garden.
Get Your Lemon Balm Seeds
Before you get started, you’ll need to buy high-quality lemon balm seeds. These seeds aren’t hard to find. You can find them on popular websites, such as Amazon and Etsy.com. However, you might even find them at a local produce store or home goods store.
The brand isn’t too important. You might want to choose organic lemon balm seeds to add to your garden. No matter which brand of seeds you decide to get, you’ll need to follow a simple set of steps to turn them into thriving plants.
Make Sure You’re Planting the Seeds at the Right Time
If you’re going to plant lemon balm, you’ll need to do so at the right time of year. The seeds tend to thrive most when planted during the spring, right after the last frost occurs. While it’s best to plant the seeds during the springtime, you can plant them in the summer and early fall months.
If you live in an area where it’s warm throughout each season, it doesn’t matter as much when you decide to plant the seeds because they’ll get the natural sunlight needed to thrive.
Choose the Right Soil to Use
Be sure to plant the seeds in suitable soil. Lemon balm seeds thrive in soil that isn’t too wet. It needs to retain enough moisture to get the plants to thrive without drowning them. You should select top-quality soil with a minimum pH of 6.7 and a maximum pH of 7.3. After you’ve bought the proper soil and have added it to your garden, you’ll need to begin planting the seeds into the soil, covering them about ¼ inch deep. Lemon balm thrives best when planted in neutral soil.
If you have acidic soil because of the other plants you’re growing in your garden, you can use a soil amendment. The soil amendment can adjust the pH levels to make the soil less acidic, thus creating the perfect environment for the lemon balm to grow. When planting your seeds, be sure to spread them out. It’s good to have a foot or two of space between each row of the seeds you’re planting in the soil.
Pick the Best Spot in the Garden to Grow Lemon Balm
Choose the right spot to grow lemon balm. Unlike some plants you have in the garden, these plants will need to get as much sunlight as possible. Avoid planting them in an area that gets too much shade throughout the day. If you’re not sure which spots get more sunlight than others, monitor your garden for a few days to get a feel for where the sunlight reaches and stops at different times of the day. You may have a spot in the garden that receives a lot of sunlight in the morning hours. If so, this is the right spot for you to plant the lemon balm.
Although lemon balm needs plenty of sunlight, it also requires a bit of shade, especially if you’re planting it in a hot and humid area. If you have a spot in your garden that gets covered with shade in the afternoon hours but has full sun in the morning, this is the ideal spot for you to plant your lemon balm. It’s so important to choose the right location because you want to make sure the plants get everything they need to continue to grow throughout the seasons.
Lemon Balm vs Mint
Lemon balm is in the same family as mint. At first glance it may even be hard to tell them apart! But mint will smell, well minty and lemon balm will have that citrus smell. Both plants can grow and spread very quickly. It is a good idea to plant them in something contained so they don’t take over EVERYTHING!
Give Your Seeds the Right Amount of Water
Make sure you’re providing your lemon balm plants with enough water. These plants need to get watered daily, so it’s essential to set up a schedule and stick to it. For example, you may want to water the plants first thing in the morning, especially when the sun is intense and hovering over these plants. If you have a sprinkler system in the garden, you can set it up to make sure these plants get watered at the same time each day. It’s also important to water the plants evenly. You don’t want to add too much water to one side and not enough to another section of the garden where you’re growing the lemon balm.
The purpose of watering these plants daily is to ensure that the roots get enough water. You’ll need to go through a watering process that involves applying the water to the soil where you’ve planted the lemon balm, giving it about an hour or two to dry, and then adding a bit more water to the plants. Once you get in the hang of this watering technique that works best for lemon balm, it’ll come naturally to you.
Wait and Watch as Your Lemon Balm Starts Growing
It won’t take too long for you to start seeing the fruits of your labor. Within two weeks of planting lemon balm, you should start to notice some substantial growth. The growth will only continue as you keep up with the watering schedule while ensuring your plants are getting adequate sunlight.
What to Do with Lemon Balm
- Lemon Balm Tea
- Add some chopped lemon balm to butter
- Make a lip balm (great for cold sores) Super Healing Cold Sore Lip Balm
- Add it to your kombucha
- Make a lemon balm soap – Lovely Lemon Balm Soap
- Enjoy a lemon balm pesto – Healthy Green Kitchen » Lemon Balm and Cashew Pesto
- Use it to season chicken
- Add lemon balm to your bath water
- Make a lemon balm tincture – How to Make a Herbal Tincture
Growing Lemon Balm
Growing lemon balm isn’t difficult at all. It’s one of the best plants for beginning gardeners because of how easy it is to get started. If you’d like to grow lemon balm in your garden because you plan to use it for its medicinal and therapeutic properties, follow these helpful tips!
Your lemon balm plants will quickly thrive with the right seeds and soil, a good watering schedule, and enough sunlight.
More on Growing Herbs
- The 10 Easiest Herbs To Grow in a Pot
- The Best Medicinal Herbs to Always Have in the House
- How to Grow 8 Awesome Herbs Indoors All Year Long
- Herbal Plants to Grow For Homemade Tea
- Herbal Academy
