If you haven’t yet discovered lemon balm, let me introduce you to your new favorite herb. There are so many wonderful uses for lemon balm!
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| Credit:healthygreensavvy.com |
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 getting dried lemon balm to add to your arsenal of herbal soothers. I’ve found it an incredibly effective and cheap means to better sleep.
Uses for lemon balm ~ lemon balm’s 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 most of the nighttime noise. I tried everything I could to re-program my body to sleep more soundly, and lemon balm tea 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 might 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! (Here’s a natural mosquito control solution that actually prevents them from living in your yard.)
- 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. (See recipes below!)
- 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.
Note that lemon balm is not recommended for pregnant or nursing women.
More on uses for lemon balm from the University of Maryland Medical Center . One recent report suggests caution about dosage and prolonged use to avoid withdrawal symptoms. If you’re a lemon balm tea lover, consider alternating with other effective sleep teas and mixing in other soothing herbs like chamomile.
Where to Get Lemon Balm
Growing your own is easy and the most cost-effective way to add this wonderful herb to your arsenal.
Lemon balm is a member of the mint family, though not quite as aggressive as common mint. Rather than taking over your entire garden, you’ll likely find new lemon balm plants popping up here and there in your yard because it spreads using plentiful seeds rather than underground like its cousin mint. If you don’t want the extra plants, you can dig them up (and give them to another gardener!). Cutting back the plant after it flowers can also help keep lemon balm under control. I’m happy to have them multiply and generally leave them be. More tea!
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