Dryland Farming

Almost four months later and the lavender is holding on! We have had to be creative as we still do not have running water. It turns out there is a name for growing without any irrigation: “Dryland farming” and it sounds like more of us need to try it to help relieve the pressure on our nation’s aquifers. Sometimes you end up doing the right thing, just by omission. We chose lavender for our second crop because it is drought tolerant…we just failed to remember that it is drought tolerant after the first year. 

In the first year, one should not expect to harvest much lavender, but we were surprised to harvest several bunches so we are encouraged! The kids helped out by hand watering and talking to our lavender friends in August. Fingers crossed for a nice bloom next year if they winter well. Hoping for more precipitation this fall and winter!