🌿 Catnip

Nepeta cataria

herbs perennial herb

☀️ Sun

full sun to partial shade

💧 Water

low to moderate (drought-tolerant once established)

🗺️ Zones

3–9

🪴 Soil Type

well-drained loam to sandy; tolerates poor soil

🧪 Soil pH

6.0–7.5

💧 Drainage

well-drained

📏 Spacing

18–24 inches

📐 Height

24–36 inches

📅 Days to Maturity

75–85 days (perennial, flowers first year from seed)

🍴 Edible Parts

🍽️ leaves and flowers (tea🍽️ culinary flavoring🍽️ infused honey)

🤝 Companions (7)

🤝 Cabbage

Catnip's strong mint-family scent repels cabbage moths, flea beetles, and aphids from brassicas; attracts parasitic wasps.

🤝 Squash

Catnip deters squash bugs and cucumber beetles; flowers attract bees essential for squash pollination.

🤝 Beet

Catnip repels flea beetles that pockmark beet leaves; different root zones mean minimal competition.

🤝 Potato

Attracts beneficial wasps and predatory insects that parasitize potato pests; may provide general aromatic camouflage. Note: No peer-reviewed evidence supports catnip as a Colorado potato beetle deterrent.

🤝 Rose

Catnip repels aphids from roses; its gray-green foliage and lavender flowers complement rose beds aesthetically.

🤝 Tomato

Catnip deters aphids and whiteflies from tomatoes; attracts pollinators that improve tomato fruit set.

🤝 Collards

Catnip's strong scent masks collards from harlequin bugs and cabbage loopers; both thrive in similar growing conditions.

⚠️ Keep Apart (4)

⚠️ Mint

Both are aggressive spreaders in the mint family; planting together creates an uncontrollable tangle where neither thrives.

⚠️ Parsley

Catnip's spreading habit can overrun low-growing parsley; different water needs (catnip prefers drier soil).

⚠️ Lemon Balm

Both are mint-family spreaders that compete aggressively for space; their combined growth creates an impenetrable, over-crowded mess.

⚠️ Strawberry

Catnip's bushy growth shades out low strawberry plants; cats attracted to catnip may trample strawberry beds.

💊 Medicinal Uses

Mild sedative (humans), carminative, diaphoretic, antispasmodic. Used for anxiety, insomnia, digestive cramps, fever, colds. Contains nepetalactone (mild sedative in humans, euphoric in cats), thymol (antiseptic), and rosmarinic acid. Traditional children's remedy for colic, fever, and restlessness. Gentler than valerian or chamomile. Catnip tea is a classic 'nightcap' sedative.

📜 History & Traditional Uses

Roman cooks used catnip as a culinary herb. Medieval European monastery gardens grew it as medicine. English colonists brought catnip to America. Used as a tea substitute during the American Revolution when British tea was unavailable. Pioneer remedy for children's ailments. Traditional Appalachian folk medicine valued it for colds and fevers. Used in European folk magic for love and luck.

📝 Notes

Contains nepetalactone — attracts and intoxicates ~70% of cats (genetic trait). Also repels mosquitoes, cockroaches, and termites (research shows nepetalactone is 10x more effective than DEET for mosquitoes). Excellent bee plant — flowers heavily and for extended periods. Catmint (Nepeta × faassenii) is a showier ornamental cousin with less medicinal value. Self-seeds readily; deadhead to control spread. Square stems, opposite leaves typical of mint family. Cats may roll on and destroy plants — protect with wire cage or plant decoy patches.