The past couple of weeks I tapped into a super relaxing way to spend my time in the garden. Well I suppose all of my time in the garden in relaxing, but I digress. I made my own chronic catnip blend. So if you have these massive plants in your yard and want a simple way to make use of their ever growing leaves, here's how.
Once the cat mint plant is in full bloom, snip off three sprigs for each branch of catnip you plan to use. Hang your cat mint in a warm dry location and let sit for two days.
Harvest the catnip early in the summer when the plant gets about three foot tall. Snip the catnip sprigs as close to the base of the plant as you can in order to get as many leaves as possible. Hang these in a warm dry place and let them sit for four days.
You will want one sprig of lavender once the plant is in bloom for each single branch of catnip you are using. Hang and dry in a warm location for two days.
Once your herbs have met their ideal drying time, gently remove the leaves and slightly crumble them into a mason jar. This is the super relaxing part. You'll want to mix together 3 parts cat mint (including the beautiful blue flowers), 1 part catnip and 1 part lavender. You might want to do this work far away from your cat or you won't get much done. I did my crumbling and mixing in my potting shed and my cat went nuts every time I came back in the house. She knew I was up to something with that killer herb she covets daily. The only downside to this process was that I created a catnip addict in the process of testing the ideal blend out on my own animal. So hopefully writing this post will save you that trouble and your cat can just dabble in the herb every now and again. Happy drying and blending!