PlantSowGrow
How to grow Catnip
Nepeta cataria
🌿 Herb
🔁 Perennial
A hardy perennial with soft grey leaves and white summer flowers that bees — and most cats — adore. Also makes a calming tea.
At a glance: Sow mid April to mid June, harvest from late June.
When to sow, plant and harvest
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Sow outdoors
Harvest
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Catnip: what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Keep evenly moist; water pots daily in hot weather
- Soil
- Any well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 40 cm
- Height
- 60–90 cm
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- A liquid feed every two weeks for pot-grown plants
- Harvest
- About 75 days from sowing
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 3–9
- Difficulty
- Easy
Step by step
- Mid April – mid June · around the last spring frost
Sow Seeds Outdoors
Sow thinly in shallow drills where they are to grow.
- 7–14 days after “Sow Seeds Indoors” · Late April
Check Germination
Seedlings should appear in 7–14 days. Keep the compost moist. If sown outdoors, thin to 40 cm apart.
- 61–82 days after “Check Germination” · Late June – mid July
Start Harvesting
Pick regularly — little and often keeps plants bushy.
Every year
- MarchSpring Tidy
Cut old stems to the ground as new shoots appear.
- JulyCut Back
After the first flowers, cut stems back by half for fresh leaves and a second flush.
