A tough, gray-green perennial herb grown for cat toys, calming tea, and long-blooming flower spikes that pull beneficial insects into the garden.
Nepeta cataria · also called Catmint, Catwort
6–8 weeks before last frost, in trays on a warm surface.
Around the last frost date, once soil holds 55 °F (13 °C).
At least 10 weeks before first frost, or scatter seed after frost for spring sprouting.
One plant supplies years of leaf for drying, needs little water once rooted, and flowers for weeks in mid-summer when few other herbs do. Deer and rabbits generally leave it alone.
A little history. A mint-family plant with square stems and paired leaves, native to Europe and central Asia and long naturalized in North America. Oil in the fine leaf hairs is what cats respond to.
Press seed onto the surface and barely dust with soil — it sprouts better with light. Keep the top half-inch moist until sprouts show. Seedlings emerge in 7–14 days in warm soil.
Sow seeds ⅛ inch (3 mm) deep.
Water weekly the first season; established plants only in long dry spells. Water when the top 1–2 inches of soil are dry and leaves look dull. Aim for about 1 inch per week including rain, first year.
Once in early spring as growth starts; skip mid-season feeding. What to use: a 1 inch topdress of compost; rich soil makes soft, weakly scented growth.
Pinch the tips at 6 in tall to force branching. Shear the whole plant back by half as the first flowers fade for a fresh flush of leaf and a second bloom.
It's ready when leaves are full sized and release a strong scent when rubbed, just as the first flower spikes open — leaf oils peak at that stage. Cut stems with shears about 4 in above the crown, taking no more than a third of the plant at a time. Cut on a dry morning after the dew lifts.
Hang stems in a dark, airy spot until crisp, then strip leaves into a sealed jar. Fresh cuttings hold about a week in a bag in the fridge.
No need to resow — shear an established plant two or three times a season for repeat cuttings.
Cut stems to 4 in after frost blackens them. Mulch the crown lightly the first winter, then pull the mulch back in early spring.
Rose
Catnip's weeks-long bloom feeds hoverflies, lacewings and tiny parasitic wasps, the insects that work over rose aphids. Set a clump a foot or two out from the canes so air still moves freely around the rose.
Zucchini
Trials with catnip planted near squash have often reduced landings by squash bugs and cucumber beetles, which locate their host by smell. Treat it as a helpful edge planting, not a substitute for scouting and hand-picking.
Broccoli
A strongly scented clump at the end of a cabbage-family row can help confuse flea beetles hunting for young leaves. Keep it at the bed edge — catnip roots spread and will crowd a broccoli plant set too close.
Kale
Catnip flowers are shallow and easy for small parasitic wasps to feed at, and those wasps lay eggs in cabbage-family caterpillars. Leaving one plant to bloom near a kale patch often lowers late-summer caterpillar numbers.
Lettuce
Cats roll on and flatten catnip, and anything tender growing beside it gets crushed with it. Catnip also self-sows heavily, so seedlings turn up all through a salad bed the next spring.
Fennel
Fennel roots release compounds that stunt most garden plants growing close by, and young catnip is no exception. Give fennel its own corner well away from the herb bed, where its flowers can still feed hoverflies and parasitic wasps.
Strawberry
A mature catnip mound leans over low strawberry runners and shades them out, and cat traffic through the patch breaks crowns and knocks off fruit. Keep catnip in its own spot, at least 3 feet from the berry row.
A perennial — it holds its spot for years, so it sits outside the annual rotation.
A long-lived perennial that holds its ground for years, so it sits outside the yearly rotation — give it a permanent corner or a pot. It is a moderate feeder that returns little to the soil, so topdress with compost each spring and divide the clump every 3-4 years.
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