Here in the Sprouting Off Garden we grow more than just fruits and vegetables.  To me a garden is the entire landscape not just the bits that are edible.  One thing I’ve grown almost longer than vegetables is Lavender.  I love lavender.  I love the smell of it the texture the simple beauty.  I suppose that’s why I love going to the Sequim Lavender Festival every year.  I only wish my plants were as perfectly shaped as the farm’s.

When we first landscaped our garden the first plant I purchased for the reworked space was a collection of 5 Twickle Lavender bushes.  They were small little one gallon beauties that performed like pros.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take into consideration that the Thundercloud Plums over their heads would eventually create a deep dark shade (on the south side of my house I might add).  Slowly the three middle plants died and the two on each end (they are planted up my front walk) are leggy and don’t produce flowers anymore.  However, I did get a great flower harvest off of them right before they kicked the bucket.

In the years since I’ve learned quite a bit about Lavender and what it likes and doesn’t.  I likes to be left alone.  A yearly hair cut and some fish emulsion if you are feeling generous are it’s basic requirements.  It would prefer mostly to full sun and nice well drained soil (slightly sandy if you have it).

My collection of Lavender bushes has grown from those original 5 (now 2) to include 11 more.  Six were planted earlier this spring.  I love the look of Lavender, but I also use it.  Each year I harvest every last bloom off of each plant, bundle them together and hang them in the garden shed to dry.  I then use a pillow case to catch all of the dried blooms (pick out the earwigs) and store the dried flowers in an air tight container.

Today was my annual Lavender harvest.  It is always bitter sweet because I won’t have the pretty little flowers dancing about in my garden.  The bumble bees also get a little grumpy that I’m taking away their money maker, but a gardeners got to do what a gardeners got to do.

What do I do with all the bounty?  It goes into various crafts that I sell to support my gardening habit.  The main product is eye pillows.  Little bits of fun fabric filled with organic flax seed and organic Lavender make for great gifts.  In addition to the eye pillows I am entertaining the idea of putting together dryer bags and maybe a few fun sleepy time pals for kids.  We’ll see how much the harvest yields.