Use this delicately flavored herb fresh in salads or as a last-minute addition to foods that benefit from a hint of mint. Lemon balm’s combination of relaxing and healing qualities make it a fine addition to bath water and facial washes.

Despite the pretty names, this perennial is a scraggy little herb, usually only about a foot tall. Its leaves are somewhat heart shaped with toothed edges, making it look like a diminutive nettle. Sporadically through summer, it produces small clusters of yellow or white flowers that bees love. Let your fingers check for the signature scent of lemon and mint.

Lemon balm is happy in any ordinary soil, although your plants will have bigger, plumper leaves if you add generous amounts of organic matter and water during a drought. Cold hardy through Zone 4, this herb needs midday shade in the South. If hot weather beats it up, shear it back to the ground and it’ll regrow.

Lemon balm doesn’t spread rampantly like other mints, but it does self-sow. Remove the spent flowers if you don’t want more lemon balm — or more bees. You can start lemon balm from seed, but taking stem cuttings or dividing an established plant (its shallow roots are thick and matted) is easier. Space plants about 18 inches (46 cm) apart.

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