Lemon Balm ~ An Herb Worth Knowing and Growing ?

If you haven’t yet discovered lemon balm, let me introduce you to your new favorite herb. Especially if you have trouble sleeping, you will likely find this wonderful yet gentle herb immensely helpful. But there are plenty of other uses for lemon balm and reasons to love it besides its power as a sleepytime tea. Use lemon balm in the garden, for cleaning, and as a tasty addition to numerous recipes.

I love lemon balm so much that I’m letting it take over huge portions of my not-very-big yard. Seriously, you can never have enough of this terrific plant. Even if you don’t garden, consider adding dried lemon balm to your arsenal of herbal soothers. It’s an incredibly effective and cheap means to better sleep.


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Why all the fuss over lemon balm? Lemon balm has some amazing properties:

• It promotes relaxation and sleep. That’s my main use for it — after having kids waking me in the night for years, my sleep was really messed up, even after they stopped all the nighttime noise. I tried everything I could to re-program my body to sleep more soundly, and lemon balm made a big difference. If you’re a restless sleeper, or you wake and have trouble falling back asleep, please try some lemon balm and see if it helps!

Lemon balm has antiviral properties

• Lemon balm may help headaches and stomach upset.

• Lemon balm essential oil has many many medicinal uses as well, and has been studied for alleviating dementia symptoms, skin conditions, and more.

• Rubbed on your skin, it’s supposed to help ward off insects, though I haven’t found it particularly effective. If you want to try it for yourself, just crush some leaves and rub them on your skin. Add some sprigs to your floral arrangement if you’re dining al fresco and they discourage insects from crashing your party. Simply having plants in your landscape may help, though I wouldn’t count on it during peak mosquito time. Lemon balm is also supposed to help with the itch from bugbites, so if it fails as a repellent, use it on the bite!

• In the garden, it attracts pollinators, which means more food for you! Its botanical name, Melissa officinalis comes from the Greek for “bee.”

• It’s a lovely lemony seasoning for all kinds of food and drinks.

It can also be used as an easy scent for your home, whether in a bouquet, dried in potpourri, or placed in a trash can to help with odor. You can even capitalize on its scent and antiviral properties and use it to infuse vinegar for your homemade cleaners. Scratch Mommy has some great suggestions for using lemon balm around your house and in DIY body products.