Lavender is valued for its heady fragrance and potent essential oil. Learn how to cultivate lavender and some of the ways that you can use it, including lavender crafts.

Growing and Using Lavender by Jane Lake There are several varieties of semi-hardy perennial lavender, but all dislike frost. Although you can grow lavender from seed, small cuttings have a higher survival rate. Cultivation: Lavender likes well-drained soil and often thrives in hot, dry, rock gardens. It is drought-tolerant and prefers neutral or alkaline sandy soil in a sunny spot, which promotes the best fragrance and essential oil production. Place lavender plants one foot apart, and trim in the spring to maintain a tidy shape. Harvest after flowering, removing no more than one third of the growth. Lavender attracts bees, butterflies and moths, making it a good companion plant in the vegetable garden. Propagation is best done from cuttings of semi-hard wood taken in late summer. Protect the small plants for the first winter by taking indoors or growing in a greenhouse. Uses of Lavender: Lavender is grown commercially for perfumes and potpourri. Home gardeners also value lavender for its fragrance, which is present in all parts of the plant. Fresh or dried flowers are used to make lavender tea. You can also crystallize the flowers to use as decoration on iced cakes or add plain flowers to vinegar. Dried stems can be burned as incense. Mass planting of lavender makes an attractive low garden hedge or flower border. Lavender Crafts and Recipes: Make easy lavender sachets to freshen cupboards and drawers. Place one used or new dryer sheet on top of another, then heap three tablespoons of lavender in the middle. Gather the dryer sheets around the lavender, and tie into a sachet with thin ribbon. Tuck into drawers or hang in closets to freshen clothes. Lavender and Sage Aftershave Lotion Combine 2 cups of witch hazel with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. Add 1 ounce of dried lavender flowers and 1 ounce of dried sage leaves. Shake to combine. Steep the mixture steep for a week to ten days, shaking the jar for a few seconds each day. Strain out the herbs and decant to a decorative jar or bottle. Use as a daily aftershave lotion. Make lavender bath teas Infuse your bath with the relaxing benefits of lavender! Simply enclose lavender flowers in small squares of cheesecloth, organza, or other sheer fabric. Hang from the faucet and allow water to flow over and through the bath "tea bag" to steep away fatique and stress. Lavender Tea Enclose lavender in cheesecloth or a place in a tea ball and steep to make hot lavender tea. Lavender Lemonade Add one cup of cooled lavender tea to one gallon of your favourite lemonade. Serve over ice, and garnish glasses of lemonade with sprigs of fresh lavender. Medicinal Uses: Lavender is popular in aromatherapy and a common herbal remedy for insomnia, poor nerves and headaches. Rub into the temples for headache relief, or make a small lavender pillow to tuck into your bed pillow for soothing effect. Lavender has antiseptic value, and can kill many bacteria, making it useful to treat sunburn and insect bites. Lavender essential oil which is extracted from the flowers is beautifully scented and can be used for perfume, bath salts, soap making, food flavor or insect repellents.

Lavender - A Treat For The Senses by Colleen Moulding Originally found in the Mediterranean countries, the perennial herb lavender, has long been prized for it’s perfume and medicinal qualities. Used by the ancient Romans for it’s healing and antiseptic qualities the name itself comes from the Latin "lavare" to wash. As a garden flower lavender is hard to beat, having fragrance, beauty and a harvest of sweet smelling blooms. Old English Lavender, a must for any cottage garden, will grow two to three feet high given a sunny spot in well drained soil, producing fragrant greyish leaves and blue/purple flowers. It is hardy and drought tolerant too. The more compact variety Hidcote, has darker blue flowers, grows to around a foot high and is pretty in the flower or herb garden but stunning as a low hedge that will attract bees and butterflies all Summer long. It adapts well to growing in containers so if you place some on your patio, deck or sitting out area you will be able to enjoy it’s heady fragrance as you relax. The easiest way to propogate lavender is to take softwood cuttings in the Spring. However, as lavender benefits from a light pruning in early Autumn these clippings make excellent new plants too as long as you protect them from frosts. Lavender’s spiky form is always useful in Summer flower arranging. Can you imagine a more welcoming posy for a guest room than lavender freshly picked from the garden mixed with pretty pastel coloured sweet peas and a couple of old fashioned roses? To dry your lavender, strip the leaves or the just opening flowers from the stalk and spread out in a warm place before using in pot pourris to fragrance your rooms, in cotton sprigged sachets to scent and deter moths from drawers and closets or to tuck between your bed pillows for their sleep inducing qualities. You can also scent a relaxing and antiseptic bath by tying sprigs of lavender into a piece of muslin and letting the bath water run over it as it fills your bath. If you don’t have fresh lavender try adding a couple of drops of the essential oil. Essential oil of lavender is used in aromatherapy to lift depression, combat tiredness and help relaxation. It has strong disinfectant properties and was even used on the battle fields of World Wars 1 and 11 to prevent infection and relieve pain when other medical supplies were low. A drop of lavender oil mixed with a teaspoon of carrier oil such as grapeseed and massaged into the temples and back of the neck will soothe away headaches. Lavender oil mixed with a massage oil it is also thought to help relieve the pain of arthritis or aching muscles. Around the home dried lavender stalks can be burned like incense sticks or burned on the fire for their wonderful fragrance. Dried lavender can also be tied into wands, wired on to vine wreaths or used in floral art, candlemaking and many other crafts. In the garden, in the bath or anywhere around the home lavender really is a wonderful treat for the senses! Copyright &copy 2000 Colleen Moulding About the author: Colleen Moulding is a freelance writer from England where she has had many features on parenting, childcare, travel, the Internet and lots more published in national magazines and newspapers. She has also published a variety of women’s and children’s fiction. Her work frequently on the net and at her own site for women and children All That Women Want.com, a magazine, web guide and resource for women everywhere. Why not drop by? Subscribe to the free monthly e-zine containing articles, ideas, tips, site reviews and lots more by sending a blank e-mail to: allthatwomenwant-subscribe@groups