Lavender: Uses & Growing tips

This lovely aromatic herb is originally from the mountains of France. My grandma’s Golden Guide Herb & Spice book, which I love to reference, describes it as a shrubby plant, 3-4 feet tall with grayish downy leaves that is widely grown in temperate & mild climates. It’s amazingly scented flowers are used to make essential oil, garnish drinks, and scent beauty products or clothing.

Fun Fact:

I want to start learning the history & culture surrounding the different herbs I’m using. As a fun note, the spikenard referenced in the Bible in Mark 4:3-5 where the woman, “having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious and she brake the box and poured in on His head,” is actually lavender. (Gardening with Herbs) The name “Spikenard” came mixing the name of a town in Syria, Nardus with “spike”, referencing the shape of the plant.

Planting

Lavender naturally flourishes in dry, rocky soil, which is why mine is probably doing well here on my rocky windswept hill. With a dry, sunny spot your lavender will happily survive even severe winters. They are also drought tolerant & respond poorly to overwatering, which is great for me because I always forget to water my plants! Gardening with Herbs suggests harvesting the young spikes close to the woody stock when the spike is flowering & the lowest blossom has begun to darken. (Plants flower from July to September) My biggest question when maintaining plants is always, “When do you prune them?!?” I have some sad stories of pruning my hydrangeas & wisteria at the wrong time & missing out on blooms for the year. Benefit from my mistakes, and prune your lavender plants that are at least a few years old in the spring to encourage new growth. Various source I read suggested pruning woody growth by 1/3 to 1/4 for best results.

Want more lavender? Don’t divide the plant, take cuttings! Simply trim about 7 inch sprigs from your plant, coat them in a rooting hormone, and plant them in a sandy soil mixture to help them set new roots. I generally fail at propagating plants, but I am going to try this during the summer with my kids to give them something to take care of.

Uses:

It seems that the main uses of lavender include treating skin issues, and using to soothe and relax. This is why it is so frequently added to beauty products. It is commonly used as an infused oil, essential oil, or dried in a sachet or tucked in linens. Just don’t tuck them in your husband’s hunting clothes when you put them away: smelling like flowers that repel deer when hunting isn’t appreciated haha.

My various herb books suggest using this herb in many different ways to relax and treat skin conditions; For colicky or upset babies they suggest adding a few drops of essential oil to a warm, damp towel and using it as a soothing compress to help their stomach muscles relax. For older children you can add it to bath water to provide a soothing, relaxing bath. ( An herb reference book said that, not me. I don’t think anything really makes kids calm when they can play in the water!) Lavender essential oil is also added to honey to soothe burns.

Many sources note that the scent of lavender actually repels many annoying bugs including flies, mosquitoes, gnats, etc. They note that randomly planting herbs like lavender that repel bugs in your yard won’t free you of bothersome insects, but using the oil strategically in a body spray, or hanging a fragrant bouquet of lavender spikes near yourself may actually help. I am curious to try this, and am planning on hanging some dried lavender near my front door to see if it reduces the amount of flies that sneak in the house this summer. I will be doing some more research on this topic & posting a blog about herbs as an insect repellent.

How I’m Using It:

So to be honest, I’m not entirely sure why I planted lavender other than the fact that is easily available at home improvement stores & I like buying herbs, and that it is well suited to our rocky soil and I wanted something that would actually grow! It smells amazing, is easy to grow, and stands up to “help” from my curious little garden assistants, so I am planning on using it in my herb lessons to encourage my kids’ interest in herbs. I know my girls will love helping me pick the herbs & dry them to tuck in their outgrown clothes as we pack them away, and will love helping me make a lavender spray for them to use as a perfume. Lavender also attracts butterflies and bees, which we love to “study” and talk about as we explore nature, so I am sure our lavender plant will turn into a fun spot to check when we go out to play.

Hopefully you have learned something new and are better equipped to decide if lavender is an herb that you need to add to your garden or herb stash. Let me know how you use lavender in the comments below!