A Grower Perspective

Last evening after dinner and as dusk was setting in, earlier than usual I might add, I went for a walk along our country road. I needed a quiet moment to clear my mind. Wandering along, I noticed the Queen Ann's Lace growing, thriving, and so extremely beautiful. This delicate plant exists and is glorious in what would seem to be the most adverse conditions, gravel against asphalt, with cars and trucks passing regularly and no water or fertilizer except what drops out of the tall boy beer and coke cans. Yet thrive it does and bloom with flowers that look like the finest lace from the north of France.

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 Now is the time to harvest and prune your lavender plants. What a fragrant job! For some folks this is the culmination of a year of growing and the harvest bringing in flowers, which then turn into sachets, bundles, wreaths and oils. For the home gardener it may mean filling the house with bouquets of sweet scent that will last throughout the winter as a reminder of the sunny summer days.

To prune lavender I use two tools, a hand scythe and hand hedge pruners. I harvest the flowers with the scythe and then shape

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If you want to read a great piece about creating stress-relieving outdoor spaces, check out this article in today's (7/23/09) Register-Guard's Home & Garden special section:

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Go out into your yard today and clip a little of this and a little of that, you might be surprised at your own creativity and with the beautiful arrangement you produce. That’s exactly the kind of arrangement you see pictured here. Many of the plants you see here are common landscape plants, like wax leaf privet, pieris and lavender. Throw in some Spirea japonica ‘Shirobana’, Hemerocallis ‘Siloam Fairy Tale’, Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’, and an Italian sunflower and viola! A fabulous arrangement without the trip to the florist’s shop!

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  Walk out and cut some flowers or lots of flowers and make bouquets for all over your home. By doing this you encourage more flowers on your perennials. Just cut today: lavender, white lavender, veronica, grasses, salvia.

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