Traditional Healing Herbs are gentle, nature‑centered ways of easing the symptoms of flus, colds, and digestive upsets, of working with chronic maladies, and of giving first aid for minor accidents such as cuts, bruises, and stings. For thousands of years, people have relied on plants for healing. Gathering summer plants for winter remedies is part of the year’s rhythm. There’s a pleasant satisfaction, too, in preparing herbal remedies for your family, your friends, and yourself. Among the joys of summer can be growing and gathering beneficent garden herbs, drying them in big fragrant bunches for winter teas, and preparing a collection of herbal tinctures, syrups, oils, ointments, and cosmetics. In winter, we can use summer’s bounty to keep ourselves healthy.
Lemon balm grows into a nicely rounded, 24 inch perennial bush with bright green foliage and tiny pink flowers. Thrives in sun or shade; often self-sows.
Traditional Healing Uses: Lemon balm’s appealing fragrance and mild sedative effects have made it useful in relieving tension and depression. It has also been used to treat flu, colds, fever, menopause and painful menstruation, headaches, nausea, vomiting, flatulence, herpes, mumps, acne, and as a tonic for the circulatory system to lower blood pressure.
Other Uses: Aromatic leaves can be added to potpourri, bathwater, and steaming facials to heal acne. It can be rubbed into wood for balm oil and scent. Beekeepers plant it near hives, to please and attract bees.
Harvest: Cut stems near the base when the weather is dry. Leaves must be dried quickly so they don’t turn black. Leaves, stems, and flowers are all used in tea. In well-watered, fertile soil, plants may yield up to 3 harvests over a summer.
Take a look at all our Traditional Healing Herbs in this amazing flip-book! Or click here for a poster.
