Tag Archives: lemon balm

Last of the winter sowing

If you’ve never tried winter sowing and love to garden but don’t have all the fancy lights, space and time to start seeds inside, this is the method for you,

Any plastic container that’s see through or clear works perfectly. Plastic gallon milk containers, food containers, restaurant to-go containers, you name it. A heated screwdriver is used to poke holes in the bottom for drainage, and then a few on top for heat to escape. Add your soil, seeds, water in completely, and then close up the container. Place them is the sunniest spot outside in your yard. Then let mother nature work its magic.

If you’re using milk containers you don’t need the top cap. Throw that out. In a few weeks your seeds will begin to germinate. As your plants begin to get bigger and the weather warms, you may need to open up the tops. At some point you’ll be able to plant whatever you’ve grown right into the garden. With no hardening off. No hassle with starting seeds indoors, messy counters, watering, replanting into bigger pots, or managing lights.

The time to start is now. You might have another month to do it here in northern Utah, zone 7. This last sowing for me is lemon balm and then 3 different varieties of lettuces. Getting ready for another epic gardening season.

Here’s one for you: lemon balm

It’s been a while since my last post as I’ve been recovering from hip surgery, and now starting a new job.I thought I’d leave you with this picture of lemon balm. I’ve grown it for a couple of years and love it. I use it for basic things: adding it to the terrible tasting local tap water, making lemonade, etc.

This particular plant was grown last year and protected from the very harsh, cold, and wet winter we had.Lemon balm is a perennial from the mint family.It’s grown very well and now will be a challenge to keep it cut back in order for it not to shade the squares next to it.

I’ve just stumbled on to another use with lemon balm: extracts and tinctures.It can be used for all sorts of things that I never knew about.If you’re interested in learning more, click here.

Weather is warming up and that means it will be harder and harder to successfully grow lettuce!Thats what my latest ebook is about.If you’re a lettuce lover as I am and can’t stand the fact that you’ll be out of garden grown, freshly harvested lettuce to go along with those vine ripened tomatoes and cucumbers, then this is a book for you.Go ahead, it’s only $3.99, and you’ll learn the 5 tips to grow right through the hot summer months[ois skin=”3″]

Lemon balm in your square foot garden

I thought it might be nice to report on something I did for the first time this past season. Where I live the water tastes particularly bad in the summer. I find myself adding slices of lemon for glasses of water to hide the chlorine taste coming out of the tap. I wondered if adding a few leaves of lemon balm would do the trick.

It did. And I made some delicious lemonade with it as well. As I did some reading, I found that this fun herb can be used for all sorts of things ranging from what I had done to making tinctures for folks who have a hard time sleeping to adding it to smoothies and more. It does spread so if you’re planning on growing this in your square foot garden plan on it taking up an entire square. And even then I had to trim it back by seasons end. I included this in my delivery baskets for 6 weeks and they all wanted more!

This was a solid performer with a large yield! One plant was enough to provide 3-4 people with several sprigs for 6 weeks. Trim it back at the end of the season and it will regrow the next spring. Its a nice lush, green, and bushy plant that I think you’ll enjoy[ois skin=”3″]