Lavender is a beautiful addition to your garden and an essential ingredient to a cottage garden. It's fragrance, foliage and flowers are hard to beat.
Get the most out of your lavender with our top tips below.
Planting
Lavender enjoy a sunny spot with good drainage - this is key so they don't turn their feet up. When planting, choose a spot with full sun for best results. The widest range will be available for planting from garden and DIY stores in spring.
Lavender will tolerate cold winters provided the soil remains free-draining and not waterlogged.
Less is more with lavender - choose one variety and mass plant it rather than planting lots of different varieties. If you're looking to create a hedge, space plants 30-50cm apart.
Before planting dig in organic matter like Tui Organic Sheep Pellets to your soil. Then add a layer of Tui Rose & Shrub Mix.
Feeding
Feed your lavender in spring with Tui NovaTec Premium to replenish nutrients and promote flowering. Regular applications between feeding with Tui Organic Seaweed Plant Tonic will help keep your plants healthy and more resilient.
Water once a week or so, but don't overdo it as you don't want the soil to become waterlogged.
Pruning
Pruning is key to maintaining good-looking lavender. Prune once or twice a year to maintain shape. The best time to trim lavender to prevent it from becoming 'woody' is after flowering. Remove spent flowers and trim back the foliage by about one third. If they flush and flower again in late summer, after the second flush has finished flowering, trim the plants back and remove spent flower heads.
The exception is Stoechas (French, Italian) type lavenders which are frost tender. If there is a second flush of flowering, leave the flowers on the bush until after winter and frosts have past, trim back in early spring.
Drying lavender
To dry lavender, harvest after the weather has been dry for a couple of days. Snip flowers just above the leaves. Once you have cut the number of stems you'd like, tie together in a bunch and hang them in dark, dry place for approximately a month. The dark room will help their colour last longer.
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Top lavender tips Comments
The in-garden worm farm is a winner. At 81 now I'm finding digging the little bucket of veg scraps into the garden. I have an off cut of drainage pipe which I'll use and can probably make 2 or 3 for my little veg plots.
Suzanne MacFarlane