First Lavender Harvest

Sunday I harvested my first bunch of 2010 lavender. This particular lavender is Sharon Roberts, an old fashion English Lavender. This is our third year for her, but the first real harvest. Last year with everything going on here, I didn’t do real well at harvesting my lavender. I promised myself I would do much better this year. Anyway, she not only blooms in early June, but if harvested will also bloom in September. Her flowers are also edible.

When we planted one of our lavender patches on the slope garden (an ongoing problem child and an upcoming post) I really didn’t know much about lavender except that I loved the smell. We planted in this area seven different lavenders, two of which we found out later were not hardy in our area. Anyway, we dug up the two and another one died, leaving us with four lavenders.

Since I really needed and wanted to learn more about lavender, I took an online class, “From Soil to Sachet” from Susan Harrington at Labyrinth Hill. In that class I learned a lot about growing lavender and the best for my area.  Anyway, I now feel I know a bit more about lavender, although I’m learning every day.

I found on Not Martha this great post that showed by pictures when to harvest lavender. So here is the harvest.

Lavender cut

Lavender bundled and ready to hang

Once I cut them, I bundled them with rubber bands. I decided an unused area in the garage would be a perfect place to hang this year’s lavender. It’s cool, dark, and out of the way, but not so for away that I’d forget about it! I didn’t want to buy anything so I just strung a clothes line. I attached a paperclip to the rubber band and then attached the paperclip to the clothes line.

Hanging lavender

I put a towel under them to catch any buds that drop. They should be dry in a couple weeks. By that time some of the other lavender should be ready to harvest.

Since our harvest will be larger this year, I’ll be able to do much more with it than I did last year. Here is what I made with last year’s harvest.