Summer scent and lightness

My wonderful summer drink

Last weekend it was incredibly hot here. When I looked at the thermometer on my terrace, nothing surprised me: it read 37 degrees Celsius!

In such heat, the best thing I can do is find a shady spot and have a cold drink. But a look in the fridge told me that my beloved apple juice and all other cold drinks were gone.

What to do?
I sat helplessly between my flower pots until my eyes fell on my herb corner: there, alongside chives, thyme and sage, there is also a large bush of lemon balm. But of course, I thought, carefully plucked off a few leaves and took them into the kitchen. I filled the carafe with water, threw in the lemon balm leaves and added a splash of lemon juice and five ice cubes.

After just five minutes I was back in my deck chair enjoying my delicious summer drink.

Wonderfully refreshing!

Don’t you think that this story alone is a reason why lemon balm is a wonderful and indispensable herb?

But I can think of more reasons!

7 reasons why lemon balm is indispensable

When thoughts go round and round

You've probably experienced this too: your day was long and full of work, appointments and conversations. But when you finally lie in bed exhausted in the evening, your head just can't calm down. A thousand thoughts are whirling around! You suddenly remember that you forgot to get something or that you have an important meeting tomorrow. And you're so tired and just want to sink into a well-deserved sleep! I have evenings or nights like that too. But there's a wonderful recipe for that: a pen, a pad and a cup of lemon balm tea! While you're brewing a tea with a few lemon balm leaves, write down everything that's going through your head: forgotten shopping items, important appointments, or even the quick-witted answer for your eternally condescending colleague that you never think of spontaneously. Whatever is going around in your thoughts: write it down and it's gone!

And then you sit down in bed with a cup of lemon balm tea, drink it slowly and feel yourself calming down. Lemon balm contains essential oil that has a calming effect on our nerves - that's why it is also called "heart's comfort" or "nerve herb". And by sorting out and writing down your most important thoughts beforehand, the lemon balm tea can unfold its full relaxing effect and you can fall asleep peacefully.

Cough, runny nose, tiredness

Colds can strike us especially in autumn and winter, but also in spring and even summer: Often, a cool summer evening or a surprise downpour that leaves us with wet feet is enough for our nose to be blocked or our throat to sore the next day.

You've probably heard that vitamin C is a good remedy for colds. Lemons are particularly known for their vitamin C content. But did you know that fresh lemon balm leaves contain five times as much of the healing vitamin as lemons? 100 grams of fresh lemon balm leaves contain up to 253 milligrams of vitamin C, while lemons contain just 53 milligrams for the same amount.

That's why I always have a pot of lemon balm on my windowsill. In summer and winter, I pick my little vitamin bombs fresh from the stem when I'm suffering from a cough or cold.

My secret salad ingredient

I like eating salad myself, but I know that many other people don't. Admittedly, a normal head or lamb's lettuce is pretty bland to begin with. It all depends on how we refine the taste! In addition to all kinds of nuts and seeds, a little oil, and salt and pepper, I like to mix a few lemon balm leaves into our summer salads. The lemon aroma gives the salad a freshness and a special note that not everyone knows about. This is my little culinary surprise when we expect guests at the table!

Summer scent in the dreary winter time

Do you often find yourself longing for summer, sun and warmth, but above all for the scent of flowers and trees in winter? For me, the longing usually comes in February, when I'm fed up with winter and spring just doesn't seem to be here yet.
But we can capture the summer scent a little: with a large scented pillow! To do this, I fill a small pillowcase with dried herbs that I collected in the summer. In addition to lavender, mint and sage, my summer scented pillow also contains lemon balm. My tip: the wonderful essential oils unfold particularly when rubbed. That's why I always press and knead my summer pillow properly before I close my eyes and can enjoy the summery smells even in the depths of winter.

The beauty of small things

In addition to the healthy and pleasant properties of lemon balm, I also like this herb because it looks so distinctive and special in its modesty.

I like to pick a few stems and press them. They can be used to decorate postcards and other greeting cards. The leaves of lemon balm have a distinctive structure: the strongly pronounced leaf veins are evenly divided not only from the central main vein to the right and left, but also vertically.

This means that a lemon balm leaf, when viewed up close, has a strange resemblance to crocodile or turtle skin, or even to a mosaic. If you take one of the leaves in your hand, you'll notice how soft it feels. A funny contrast, isn't it?

Lemon balm is the friend of bees

The Roman writer Gaius Plinius Secundus, whom we now call "Pliny" for short, wrote the Naturalis historia around 70 AD. This is a huge encyclopedia in which he compiled all the knowledge of his time about trees, herbs, animals and many other scientific topics. I have great respect for this work!

But fortunately Pliny made it his own, because that's how we know that lemon balm was already known in ancient Greece and Rome not only as a medicinal plant, but also as a bee-friendly flower - because that's how Pliny describes it. So if you want to do something to protect and preserve bees in your garden, then let lemon balm grow! Give it space in your herb bed, then in summer you can enjoy not only the fragrant and tasty leaves, but also the buzzing of the busy bees.

Conclusion: Lemon balm provides fragrance and lightness

Lemon balm has so many good properties that I wouldn't want to be without it in my garden. It helps me when I have trouble falling asleep, refreshes me in the summer heat, provides variety in the kitchen and brings the beloved summer into my house and into my nose in winter.

Bees and bumblebees love my lemon balm, and its small but clearly defined leaves radiate a very special beauty and aesthetic for me. If this inconspicuous herb is missing from your garden or on your balcony, I can recommend you get it quickly! Lemon balm simply makes life more beautiful, more pleasant and sometimes even easier.