Catnip

Catnip is a very sensual plant. It's soft in a velvety sort of way, has an intriguing, pungent scent, is mildly narcotic for many cats, has many uses and grows like a weed. And it's just pretty to look at. The bees also like it when it flowers.

Not everyone likes the scent, but I do. It's just.................herbal. When I see products that are scented 'herbal scent', catnip is the plant that springs to mind. Although I don't think many of those products actually use catnip. Anyway.............

Catnip is mildly sedative and mildy diaphoretic, making it especially useful for children. I use it as a sedative every so often, but I find it especially useful when I have a sick kiddo. It helps them sleep and sweat through a fever. If drunk cold, the tea acts more as a diuretic, not so useful in the sleeping department. :) Being a mint, catnip is also useful for indigestion. Combined with the sedative effect, again, it's very useful for children. Oldest child likes to just chew on a leaf every now and then, I don't know why.

Cats, many of them, find it mildly narcotic. I've had enough  cats to have seen quite a variety of reactions. One cat I had would get high as a kite on it, but the low afterwards must have been pretty bad because after a hit, he wouldn't get near the stuff for months. Eventually he'd forget about it and do it again. Another cat just seems to find it mildly pleasing. She just rolls in it for a bit and the curls up somewhere and goes to sleep. Some cats don't seem to get anything from it at all.

Catnip, for me, is extremely easy to grow. In fact I can't not grow it. That stuff reseeds itself like nobody's business. I not only have seedlings coming up in the herb bed, I have them coming up in the garden aisles, several beds surrounding the herb bed and in the grassy area 50 yards off. I have to say, looking at where the seedlings appear, you can definitely tell the direction of the prevailing winds around here. It does seem to like a fairly fertile soil that is well drained. I didn't have much luck with it in poor clay soil and when I lived on an alkali flat. Here, though, well.............


And my very favorite reason to love catnip................mosquito repellant!! I make a normal alcohol tincture and dilute it 50/50 with water, then put in a spray bottle. Works very, very well for mosquitos!!. The main disadvantage, to me, is that it doesn't last very long. I just carry a spray bottle with me and reapply as necessary, but I do want to experiment a bit with it. My husband says the main disadvantage is the smell. What does he know? :D Anyway, I've though of maybe mixing a light oil in with the tincture and seeing if that helps with longevity. I also want to try catnip essential oil and see how that works. It would probably last longer. Anybody else tried anything along those lines or have any ideas?