Green Wednesday: Vigorous Lemon Balm and Fixing to Reuse
By Cindy Watter, U.C. Master Gardeners of Napa County / Susan Crosby, Environmental Contributor
Green Wednesday: Gardening and Ecological Insights
Every Wednesday Napa Valley Features brings you Green Wednesday, featuring articles from environmental voices and the UC Master Gardeners of Napa County. These contributors share research-based horticultural advice, insights on sustainability, ecology and climate topics relevant to our region.
Summary of Today’s Stories
In “Lemon Balm: A Hardy Herb That Won’t Quit,” Cindy Watter explores the benefits and challenges of growing lemon balm, a vigorous mint-family plant well-suited to Napa’s climate.
“It’s a pleasure to sit in the yard after a weed-pulling session, admiring the lemon balm covered with humming bees.” — Cindy Watter
In “The Repair Fair: Rhymes with Share and Care,” Susan Crosby highlights a recent community event where volunteers fixed household items for free, showcasing a practical response to planned obsolescence and landfill waste.
“The tally for the day was a hefty 497 pounds of waste saved from the dump.” — Susan Crosby
Lemon Balm: A Hardy Herb That Won’t Quit
By Cindy Watter, UC Master Gardener of Napa County
NAPA VALLEY, Calif. – While organizing some of my old newspaper columns, I came across one that declared my affection for invasive plants. In fact, I ranked them at the top of my plant pantheon because for me “invasive” can be synonymous with “easy to grow.” (Yes, I’m talking about you, passionflower.) Well, here’s another case where my frivolity has come back to haunt me.
About 30 years ago I bought a beautiful lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) and plunked it into a large pot in a semi-shaded area. By the end of the summer, several plantlets had appeared in the surrounding area. I dug some of them up and gave them away and allowed the others to go forth and prosper.
Pretty soon the wild onion had a rival for territory, but the lemon balm won because it has a longer growing season. The green mounds of heart-shaped toothed leaves grew 3 feet tall, bore tiny flowers — which of course had seeds — and attracted bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. They made a charming tableau, and then they took over.
Everything in their vicinity had to adapt, meaning all the scented geraniums got leggy and the lavenders had to stretch until they were practically horizontal to get enough sun. Lemon balm obscured the tiger lilies and competed with the roses for water. In fact, the lemon balm was bursting with rude health but to the detriment of other flowers. I wondered why it was so successful in my backyard.
Napa has the ideal climate for lemon balm, which is a member of the mint family. Our winters are mild, and even on the hottest days we can usually count on a cool evening breeze. My yard has plenty of organic matter (compost) in the soil, which lemon balm likes, although it grows in almost any kind of soil.
It can survive drought because we have cool nights and foggy mornings. While it prefers dappled sunlight, it grows in sun or shade — in other words, it can grow almost anyplace.
Most mints send out runners, but lemon balm flowers set seed, and those fly around everywhere, often carried by birds. Another reason for its success is that it doesn’t attract pests. The worst that can happen is the leaves might get discolored from overcrowding.
Native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia, lemon balm made its way to Europe and then to America in the 18th century. In those days, cooks valued it as a flavoring in jellies, cakes and drinks. I like it in fruit salad. Others dry it for potpourri or for stuffing pillows. Its scent was thought to have calming properties, and I think it does — until I am reminded that I need to thin all those plants one of these days.
The best way to control lemon balm is not to allow it to spread in the first place. Well, that ship has sailed, so I will have to dig out the plants. I did so once and more sprang up. Remember the myth about Jason and the dragon’s teeth? When planted, the teeth come back as warriors.
Research tells me that, with continued effort, the lemon balm will diminish over time. Or I could lay down layers of corrugated cardboard, compost and mulch (a process known as sheet composting) and quell the plant’s fertility that way. Foot traffic will inhibit growth, too. Maybe I will cut a new path through the biggest clump.
Since lemon balm is nearly impossible to eliminate once established, the best way to control it is to prune it before it sets seed. Forget the pruning scissors, just shear the tops. It’s faster.
Even though lemon balm has taken over my yard, I love the plant. Besides being easy to grow, it’s not poisonous, unlike foxglove and brugmansia, two of my favorites. Finally, it really is attractive, and it has a delightful fragrance, fresh and citrusy.
It’s a pleasure to sit in the yard after a weed-pulling session, admiring the lemon balm covered with humming bees. The only problem is that there is so much of it.
I went to a funeral a couple of years ago, and the widow came up to me, smiling, and said, “Cindy, I still have that lemon balm you gave me all those years ago.” I thought, “Wow, and she’s still speaking to me.”
Events
Workshop: Join UC Master Gardeners for a workshop on “Catch the Rain: Slow It, Spread It, Sink It” on Saturday, Oct. 4, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington St., Yountville. Explore many strategies to catch rain at home and adapt to the climate’s natural rhythms. Register on the Yountville Community Center website; scroll down to Events and UC Master Gardeners for registration.
Tree Walk: Take a guided walk through Napa’s historic Fuller Park on Sunday, Oct. 12, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., with a UC Master Gardener docent. Discover some of the many exotic and native trees there and learn some park history. Meet at the corner of Oak and Jefferson streets. The walk is free, but registration is required for each participant.
Help Desk: The Master Gardener Help Desk is available to answer your garden questions on Mondays and Fridays from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the University of California Cooperative Extension Office, 1710 Soscol Ave., Suite 4, Napa. Or send your questions to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. Include your name, address, phone number and a brief description of the problem. For best results attach a photo.
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Cindy Watter is a UC Master Gardener of Napa County.
The Repair Fair: Rhymes With Share and Care
By Susan Crosby
NAPA VALLEY, Calif. — It almost hurts to throw away broken appliances, clothing and other items we need and are often fond of. There’s the cost of replacing them, the time and trouble needed to find substitutes, the regret about wasted resources – the raw materials, energy and transportation that went into making them – and our growing awareness that landfills are filling up.
Enter the Reuse Alliance, a nonprofit whose lively band of volunteers fixes stuff for free. Based in Sonoma County, they recently showed up in force at Napa’s public library on a Saturday afternoon.
Walking into the library and finding the “Repair Fair” in full swing felt like the circus had come to town. More than twenty skilled volunteers joked around, traded tools and advice, and got things done. Along one wall, a phalanx of volunteers with sewing machines mended clothes. Around the room, toasters and electric fans were being restored. Outside on the terrace, a crew was repairing bicycles. When a repair was successfully completed, a red bell rang and the room filled with cheers.
Three organizations worked to bring the Repair Fair to town: the Napa County Library, the Napa Resource Conservation District and the Reuse Alliance. Library staff provided the community room, chairs and tables, and a warm welcome. Monique Byro from Napa RCD initiated the contact with the Reuse Alliance as the culmination of the City of Napa’s Rooted in Action Week– Semana de Raíces en Acción, which also included:
Food-waste reduction workshops at Fuller Park, supported by CalFresh and Innovative Health Solutions.
Container gardening in small spaces, presented by the Master Gardeners.
Cleanup of the Napa River, accomplished in kayaks, organized by the LGBTQ+ community.
The Repair Fair, with the Reuse Alliance providing the expertise and tools.
Byro describes herself as “just a gal, 27 years old, with many an item in need of repair,” inspired by the Right to Repair movement and the question posed by Peter Mui of Fixit Clinic: “At one point we’ve all had a broken toaster. What would it look like if they were in a pile?”
“The Reuse Alliance has the talent to match the need,” Byro said.
There were 81 attendees and 41 items repaired that afternoon. As people entered, a volunteer directed them to put their broken items onto a scale. The tally for the day was a hefty 497 pounds of waste saved from the dump.
Phoebe Schenker, Reuse Alliance’s executive director, said the day at the library was their first event in Napa, but she hopes it won’t be the last. The group hosts Repair Fairs around Sonoma and Marin counties and recently rented a storefront at the Petaluma Outlet Mall where they will offer free repair workshops, including how to mend clothes.
Help, in short, is at hand. But how in the world did we arrive at this time of great squandering?
To our regret and at our expense, many manufacturers engineer things to wear out, even to the point of deliberately making them difficult or impossible to repair. The practice began in 1924 with the innocent lightbulb. Early 20th-century technology had the capacity to produce a lightbulb with a lifespan of 2,500 hours. In what might fairly be called “a deal with the devil,” manufacturers met and agreed to produce lightbulbs with an expected lifespan of just 1,000 hours in order to guarantee future sales. This “planned obsolescence” remains at the heart of much manufacturing. We consumers pay the price in time, money and plain old annoyance. Worse by far is the growing catastrophic toll on our planet’s resources.
Actions you can take:
Visit NapaRCD.org and sign up to receive their newsletter, which lists events such as the fabulous Repair Fair.
Check out the Reuse Alliance’s online Reuse News, which lists upcoming in-person workshops at their new Reuse Hub in Petaluma and future events in the Napa Valley.
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Susan Crosby is a volunteer with Napa Climate NOW! and owner of two perfectly functioning old electric fans.
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Weeding is constant but deer are also relentless. My garden is all natives but they need to be “tasted” anyway.
I’ve always repaired (or tried to repair) things. It’s getting more difficult because manufacturers permanently seal their products or create specialized fasteners that require a tool that they won’t sell to you. Something’s got to give. And it has to happen soon. I’m in despair over what is happening to this planet.