Growing and Using Lavenderby 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.
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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 © 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 [1], a magazine, web guide and resource for women everywhere.
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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.