I drink tea made from catnip when I need to relax or am too wound up to sleep. You know those nights when your brain won't shut off?

It's also good for digestive upsets, relieving stress induced headaches, colds, and coughs.

I boil enough water for a big mug, put in a few big leaves of fresh catnip, cover and let steep for 15 minutes or so.

The hardest part is keeping my 7 cats away from it while I'm trying to drink it

That is great Lee Anne, your post got me googling and I found this site that shows some of the other benefits of catnip tea.
http://www.therighttea.com/cat...

I grow it FOR my cats! But of course, I have to protect it by caging it...otherwise, they'd kill it by "enjoying" it too much.

Linda, I have the same problem here, my cats love it to death!

I'll have to try this.

I grow it for my feline friends but haven't managed to try the tea yet.. Catnip (to me) has a skunky odor that I can't imagine enjoying the taste of... Do you combine it with anything else to moderate/mask its flavor? Or does honey do the trick?

honey does the trick!

OK! Still skeptical about the taste, LOL, but after a couple of sleepless nights I'm willing to try it! I need something "stronger" than chamomile. (Hmm, I think I have a lemon catnip plant next to my oregano... maybe that's the one to try!)

Thanks!

I need something "stronger" than chamomile

Hot toddies will work well if you need something stronger

I grow it for my felines as well, but have never used it for myself, I will have to give it a try. Anything natural is better than using a pharmaceutical.

I vote for a little kaluha and cream myself. I grow cat nip inside a protective barrier, too. They can bite anything that grows outside the grid - but they have to leave the plant so it can grow more.

I do that too!

I have heard that catnip is good at helping keep unwanted insects (mosquitoes, knats, etc.) away.
So I went out and got some catnip seeds that I'm wanting to plant.
Questions to all you catnip growers out there:
Should I start my seeds inside and then plant? Or just plant them outside and see what survives the cats?
Does catnip do better in shade, full sun, or half and half?

I’m thinking about lining my short front walkway with it as a kind of multi-propose ornamental/insect repellant/herbal remedy.

Does it have a smell that people walking up to the front door will find objectionable?
Is it pretty?
Will my two cat keep it constantly messed up and ugly?
Thanks ahead of time.
Patrick.

You can just throw the seeds in the garden and they'll come up in the spring.
The scent is not at all objectionable.
It has a beautiful bloom.
Your cats can't really hurt it. Even if they do mess up a plant the plant will soon recover...it is a weed after all!
It will grow well in full sun (depending upon where you are)or part shade.

My cats have killed catnip plants in the past...loved them to death, so to speak...not right away, but eventually. The little cages I've used kept the plants alive. But maybe my cats are just more catnip crazy than most. Lee Anne, is catnip considered an annual in Canada if planted in the ground?

Up here catnip is a perennial. It comes up everywhere, all by itself, and comes back every year. I have several plants that I keep around just so I can harvest them for the cats.

I take it that the catnip you're talking about is not the same as the "Walkers Low" that I grow in my garden. Or can I boil some of that up, too?

this:
Catnip (Nepeta cataria)

Shoot. Thought so.