Growing Herbs Is Easier Than You Think!

Whether you want to grow herbs for culinary use, or for landscape use, you will be greatly rewarded for your efforts. The aroma of fresh herbs is a delightful treat and can do wonders for your psyche too!

I LOVE lavender. Lavender has been used in aromatherapy for a multitude of therapeutic uses from depression, headaches, and mood swings to treating acne and bee stings! The essential oils it produces have been used for centuries!

You will find lavender in my herb garden, in my landscape, and even in the specialty container gardens I plant for my customers. The leaves alone add texture to the container plants, along with that oh so sweet scent. Imagine placing it in your pots on your deck and catching a faint sweet scent every time the wind blows.

There are many types of lavender. My personal favorite for the landscape is Provence. It not only smells great and looks sensational, but it is also a haven for bees. Provence Lavender buds are easily stripped and make great additions to sachets or potpourri. It grows to about 24" in a mounding evergreen shrub, and the flower stems it produces are tall with 3" - 4" fragrant flower top clusters that dance ever so gracefully above the plant. I harvest them continually all summer, dry them, and use them in my potpourri, my dried wreaths and arrangements and other crafts.

Place the plants in well-draining soil in a sunny location. Do not overwater it. Blooms will start in early summer and go strong, even into the fall. Harvest them in the morning while the buds are still closed. I group them in small bunches with either a thin rubber band or piece of twine. Hang them upside down in a cool, dry area so the flower clusters dry straight. After a couple of weeks, tie a pretty ribbon and bow around them and hang them in your kitchen, your bedroom, your bathroom, front entrance, etc. Place them in a small vase (without the water of course) and sit them by your bed. Better yet, strip the buds from the stems and place them in a small organza bag as a sachet and put it under your pillow. Lavender is said to prevent nightmares!

I hope you will give this fabulous herb a special spot in your garden or in a pot by your favorite chair on your deck. I think it will become your favorite as well!