Lavender is a beautiful aromatic plant that brings a burst of color to your backyard. It’s additionally one among my favorite crops to make use of for crafts and recipes. Right here’s how you can harvest lavender in a approach that helps you take pleasure in more healthy crops for longer, and provides you a complete lot of beautiful lavender to work with. Plus, I’ll present you 24 inventive methods to make use of lavender as soon as harvested!
Lavender is by far my very favorite scent. I adore it recent when the crops are in bloom, because it dries across the backyard, in sachets tucked into my pillow at evening, or as tub salts after I soak away the aches of the gardening day.
This magical herb is claimed to advertise rest, relieve stress, and even soothe an achy head. Oh, and the bees and butterflies adore it too. We will’t neglect the pollinators.
Too typically, I hear landscapers and gardeners discuss how short-lived lavender is as a backyard plant. After rising it for nearly 15 years in my dwelling backyard and visiting/interviewing a lot of growers and lavender farms, I’ve to say that it will possibly look beautiful in your backyard for a complete lot longer, with only a little bit of care.
Once you harvest lavender, you not solely get to make use of the blooms to create delicious DIYs, however you truly assist your plant yield extra blooms and dwell longer too.
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When to Harvest Lavender
Like most issues, figuring out how you can get one of the best lavender harvest is all about timing. The precise time will rely in your gardening zone and local weather, however I’ve received a fast trick that can make figuring out when to reap straightforward.
The most effective time to reap English lavender is when the flower buds have fashioned on the plant however the flowers themselves haven’t but opened. Lavender flowers harvested right now of 12 months will fall off the stems extra simply when dry, making it simpler to gather.
Closed buds may even retain perfume and color longer.
Want a visible? The picture beneath reveals the phases of bloom. The one on the left has totally fashioned, closed buds. The center picture has a mixture of open and closed buds. The picture on the fitting has totally open flowers, a few of that are completed blooming. Select buds that appear like the left picture.
The right way to Harvest Lavender
To reap lavender, use sharp bypass pruners and collect a small handful of lengthy flower stems. Make certain that you might be abandoning no less than two units of leaves on the inexperienced a part of the stem. In case you reduce all the way in which again to the woody a part of the stem, that stem is not going to regrow.
I prefer to be beneficiant and go away no less than 3-4 units of leaves on the plant, then return and prune it to 2 units of leaves on the inexperienced stem. This ensures that I’m not damaging the plant that provides me all these lovely flowers!
Proceed amassing stems in your hand till you’ve a nice-sized bundle. Safe the bundle with twine or a rubber band and proceed till the plant is totally harvested.
Pruning the crops like it will hold the shrub tidy and evergreen in some colder climates. In case your crops are leggy and also you see a number of lifeless wooden, it’s a good suggestion to summer season prune them every year till they regain a tidier form.
You’ll be able to safely prune lavender crops twice within the rising season to assist outline and keep their form.
The right way to Dry Lavender
After getting harvested lavender, you’ll must dry it out earlier than storing it. Fortunately, that is very straightforward to do.
Dry lavender bunches by hanging them the wrong way up in a heat, dry spot, out of direct daylight. Underneath eaves, within the storage, or someplace within the backyard that’s protected is good. You need to keep away from moisture as a lot as potential.
My herb dryer is an previous portray ladder outfitted with some hooks for the twine. However I’ve additionally dried lavender alongside a shady fence and made it right into a dried lavender wreath. Including some drying lavender round your property will make it scent heavenly. I extremely suggest it.
After 2-4 weeks, examine to see if the lavender is totally dried. You’ll be capable of inform as a result of the dried blooms will simply fall off the stem with little or no resistance.
As soon as the lavender has totally dried, you may shake or gently rub the lavender buds right into a tray or bowl. To retailer it, place the dried buds in a lidded glass jar in a cool, darkish place and repeat subsequent 12 months.
Which Type of Lavender is Finest for Harvesting?
Harvesting lavender is an effective way to tidy up unruly crops and provides you with a complete bunch of inspiration for initiatives all year long. There’s a correct approach and ideally suited time to chop lavender flowers that’s greatest for each the dried flowers and the crops.
That being mentioned, the easiest way to get harvest begins with planting the correct of lavender.
English Vs. French Vs. Spanish Lavender
Lavender is usually grouped into English lavender, French lavender, or Spanish Lavender, however the frequent names can change into fairly complicated as they’ll seek advice from a lot of completely different lavender varieties.
One of the best ways to distinguish them comes from separating Lavandula angustifolia and L. x intermedia, crops which have delicate flowers and lengthy stems that soar above the woody evergreen plant, from Lavandula stoechas with its showy hat of butterfly-like bracts on a perennial shrub.
English Lavender is the frequent identify for L. angustifolia, and a hybrid of L. angustifolia is L. x intermedia, which I’ve seen referred to as each English and French lavender.
In any case, this information is for harvesting L. angustifolia and L. x intermedia, that are the varieties most frequently cultivated for culinary, craft, and medicinal properties. That being mentioned, these harvesting strategies can work for any type of lavender.
Learn extra about rising and propagating lavender on this article: The Important Information to Rising Lavender.
The Finest Varieties for Harvested Lavender
The cultivar of your lavender may even decide perfume, color, and longevity of the dried stems as effectively. ‘Hidcote’ and ‘Munstead’ English lavender varieties are famous by many to be one of the best for drying (L. angustifolia ‘Hidcote’ and L. angustifolia ‘Munstead’).
When on the lookout for dried lavender choices, I actually love ‘Thumbelina’ for producing a bounty of small, deep purple flowers that maintain color rather well. I must also add that after visiting a ton of growers and farms, all of them appear to have developed cultivars that work greatest for them.
In case you can, I extremely suggest visiting a lavender farm, asking some questions, and shopping for your backyard crops from them. They may definitely have some gems that can carry out greatest in your backyard.
The right way to Use Dried Lavender
In case you might be questioning what to do along with your bounty of recent herbs, try these DIY initiatives and recipes that includes this star of the backyard. There’s a lot you are able to do with this beautiful flower, from potpourri to culinary makes use of to creating salves and tinctures. There’s actually one thing for everybody on this listing.
