sharing the love

and the lavender

This morning was “lavender harvest” in the garden.  I have two – no make that three – varieties in my small herb beds; French, English, and something identified by the Home Depot tag as French Lavender that is so different from the real deal even I can see it was miss-labeled.

Anyway, I just spent a couple of delightful hours preparing this season’s crop of the stuff.  I trimmed back the plants to a reasonable / manageable size and pulled out the volunteer bushes.

I gave away some of the fresh flowers, with instructions for drying, to the sweet little lady from down the lane.  She’s 83 years young and had never seen the fresh flowers before. She immediately fell in love with the fragrance.

“This is nothing like the bath soap and lotion my friend gave me.”

Too true.  Nothing compares to the fragrance of fresh French Lavender flowers.  She was so taken with them, she also went home with one of the bushes I had laid out for whomever to pick up.

In years past, I have taken the time to make Lavender Bottles or stripped the dried stems and sewn Sachets.  This year I plan on Potpourri (my favorite mixture here) because it will give me an excuse to drive up to Three Rivers and gather some of the dried Pearly Everlasting flowers I love so much.

I’ve been drying some sage, chive blossoms and rosemary, too.  The plan is to put together a few dried herb collections similar to these I made for the English lavender harvest a few years ago.

I’ll use bundles of each, fasten them to the bamboo rack with raffia, add a few baby roses and have a sweet reminder of today’s work for the rest of the year.

I love my herb garden.  I love to share the LOVE, and the lavender.