Lavender’s Blue, Dilly, Dilly…

Our second crop is in the ground! It started with how many 4 quart lavender plants will fit in a rental van, and ended with carefully watering each plant with some gallon water jugs. Once again, my father, John “Henry” Daniel, rose to the occasion and provided some heavy duty volunteer expertise and labor. Thanks to his help, we did all this on a Tuesday! 

For you latin students, the proper name is Lavandula angustifolia, which comes from latin root lavare which means “to wash”. 

We have 36 Hidcote and 36 Phenomenal planted for in an initial plot. The real engineering challenge was finding a plot that would not be in the path of the underground electric or well piping that has yet to be installed. In Central Virginia, we have to find a spot that is well draining, and slopes are ideal so this spot near the barn worked great. Since Lavender is native to Mediterranean climates, we had to do some soil, or rather, gravel & lime amendments to try to trick the plant into thinking it was “back home.”