Late July in the Mid-Atlantic runs on two speeds — baking through afternoon heat, or catching a brief break from a thunderstorm — and this week has mostly been the former. Catnip nearby is having its moment: gray-green leaves bushing out, flower spikes everywhere.
Along field edges and unmowed corners, mountain mint is swarmed with bees and butterflies most of the day — one of the best pollinator plants for a home herb garden, and late July is when it earns that reputation. Out west, gumweed is having its own quiet peak: sticky, resin-swollen buds along dry roadsides, a plant many of us won’t have the opportunity to forage ourselves - but is worth knowing.
Three herbs, three growing ranges, one shared trait: this is the week for all of them.
Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
Catnip is a hardy mint-family perennial — soft, gray-green, heart-shaped leaves with toothed edges, and small white-to-lavender flower spikes blooming late spring through early fall. It's easy to grow almost anywhere, including here in the Mid-Atlantic, and mid-to-late summer is prime harvest time, with aromatic oil content near its yearly peak. It's a plant that comes up again and again in the group's conversations, and — surprising given how common it is — one we haven't actually covered here before.