Lemon balm not only gives drinks and food that certain something, it is also an important source of nutrients for bees. Read here how easy it is to plant in the garden.
If there's one plant that's popular with home gardeners, it's lemon balm, and for good reason. It has not only beneficial properties that are very useful in the kitchen, but also medicinal and bee preservation. So it is a very versatile plant that can serve as a crop. If you want to buy lemon balm just as a collecting area for bees to keep them, you have a good reason to find out about the correct planting of lemon balm. Planted correctly, the plant can be up to 20 years old, which also speaks for the well-considered placement of the plant in the garden. To ensure that everything works, we have collected all the important details for planting the popular and extremely practical lemon balm below.
Usage information
Anyone who is not yet sure whether they want to plant lemon balm as a useful plant in the garden should learn important details about the plant. One advantage of it is, for example, that it counteracts the death of bees - because it represents a very good grazing area for insects. At the same time, you can use the leaves of lemon balm to refine your own kitchen: Both dry and fresh, they taste great as a tea good, but they also round off sauces and various dishes and cold drinks perfectly.
If you think that's all that lemon balm can offer, you're wrong - because it also has a number of active ingredients as a medicinal product, such as a calming agent or to promote and improve your own digestion.
Not many see the lemon balm as an ornamental plant, but the plant can look very attractive when it spreads in all its glory in the garden and develops the fragrant leaves several times a year, which can be harvested. So if you're looking for a pretty filler for your bed, you've come to the right placeLemon balm well advised.
Benefits and Disadvantages of Lemon Balm
Advantages:
✔ has many uses
✔ has calming properties, also has a digestive effect
✔ Leaves can be used as a tea, spice or addition to sauces and drinks
✔ ideal Plant for beekeeping
✔ can live up to 20 years
✔ is handsome
✔ leaves can be harvested several times a year
✔ easy to plant
Cons:
✖ basically not an ornamental
Choose best location
If you choose a location for the useful lemon balm, there is actually not much to consider. Only space should be able to be delivered, since the lemon has taken up every possible space in no time at all. So it grows quite fast and wide, but can also reach a height of one meter. If you want to keep them in the bed, you should therefore make sure that there is enough space for all other plants. One requirement that lemon balm has, however, is that it needs plenty of sunlight. A sunny location with little shade is therefore ideal for lemon balm and its growth.
If you want to do something good for the plant, you should choose a more sheltered location that doesn't allow too much strong wind - the plant will do much better that way. The plant can also be kept on the balcony, provided it gets a sunny but also slightly shady place that is not too exposed to the wind.
Finding the right substrate
As with location, lemon balm is fairly easy to please. The lemon balm gets along well with almost any soil and substrate, unless waterlogging occurs. First of all, the soil should be very well aerated and permeable so that moisture is stored but not accumulated. Therefore, before planting in very moist soil, it is first necessary to place a drainage layer consisting of pebbles, which allows the soil around the young plant to become less wet. Otherwise, the soil can be loamy, but sandy or humus-rich soils with lots of nutrients also allow the lemon balm to grow well.
The lemon balm takes it very well if you add some compost to the soil when planting and mix it well. Whether calcareous, acidic or neutral in pH: Otherwise, the popular lemon balm gets along with almost everything.
Planting Tips
If you want to plant a young lemon balm plant in the garden, the first step is to dig up thefloor. If you look at the root ball of the young plant, it becomes clear what size the hole should be. Then it is important to loosen it up, i.e. to stir up the soil around it and prepare it with compost. If a drainage layer has to be laid, this must be done beforehand. Otherwise it is sufficient if the soil is made more permeable with the help of a rake (this should be repeated several times in the near future to prevent waterlogging in any case). The young plant can then be planted and watered. It should be noted that the lemon balm needs a distance of at least 40 cm from other bedding plants or crops, if not more - precisely because it spreads so quickly.
If you want to plant the lemon balm in a tub or larger flower pot, it should be of sufficient size and depth - a balcony box is definitely not enough for the well-growing little plant. The lemon balm is also well suited as a balcony plant, especially for use in the kitchen. Conventional substrate with lots of nutrients is good enough for planting in the tub, if you want you can add a bit of compost. It is also important with this type of planting that there is no waterlogging - which is why the bottom layer should always consist of gravel to drain off the water. No pot or bucket that does not have drainage holes may be used.
Sow lemon balm
The unbelievable thing for many owners of lemon balm is that it can also be planted directly by sowing. And not in a balcony bed or a small flower pot to pull up, but directly in the large garden bed or the garden floor. If you water regularly and the soil was previously made permeable, the lemon balm develops very well. The only thing to remember is that lemon balm seeds are planted in the spring when there are no more frosts. Otherwise it is very easy to care for.
Here is a brief overview of all the requirements of lemon balm:
- sunny location with sheltered area is preferred
- needs space and therefore at least 40 cm distance to plants or your own spacious bucket
- any substrate is fine as long as the soil is very permeable
- Waterlogging is to be avoided, if this is not possible, gravel drainage must be carried out before planting
- Fertilizer can be added to potting soil and added again after a few months
- Soil should be loosened from time to time to keep it year roundabout to hold loose
- Seeds can also be sown directly in the garden as long as it is in spring and there is no more frost