Herb

Although Lavender is not a culinary herb, it is still immensely popular due to its fragrance and growing popularity as an important essential oil. Lavender is a perennial that grows better in a well-drained and slightly alkaline soil. For better performing plants use a top dressing of lime in the fall. If you live in conditions where your soil is generally wet or soggy, lavender would not be a good choice for your garden.

Some varieties of Lavender, which are hardy to Zone 5, are:

· English Lavender

· Hidcote (deep purple flowers)

· Munstead (blue flowers)

· Jean Davis (pink flowered)

Lavender is a bit needy because it is a woody plant. Pruning needs to take place after you harvest the flowers in the summer. Make sure you use sharp pruners. Cut any remaining flower stalks and approximately 3-4 inches of foliage. This pruning is necessary to keep the plants from becoming spindly looking. If for some reason you could not prune in midsummer wait until the following spring and provide a more intense pruning until the plants are well shaped. Lavender grows slowly, and for this reason I recommend purchasing established plants at your local garden center.

Lavender is a famous fragrance that can be found in many perfumes, cosmetics, and potpourris of every kind. Harvesting the flowers is an easy process for the kitchen gardener. Cut the flower stalks as soon as the flowers open. Tie several stalks together and fasten them with a rubber band. Hang them upside down to dry. You can remove the flowers from the stems for use in potpourri, floral water, and linen bags. Store them in a tightly sealed plastic bag and use them within the year.

Lavender oil is extracted mostly from the flowers of the plant. This process is done primarily by steam distillation. The essential oil has a calming effect, which makes an effective remedy for the nerves and aids in treating anxiety, headaches, depression, migraines, nervous tension and emotional stress. It’s aroma increases mental activity, as well as removes nervous exhaustion. Hence, lavender is truly a calming herb.

Hi! My name is Nancy Merkle. My husband Joe and I are amateur gardeners. We live in the suburbs of Chicago. Needless to say our growing season is just six months at best. In the spring a little competition begins in the neighborhood with the neighbors. We make harmless bets as to who will have the first the tomato, the largest, and the best harvest. Tomatoes are a big thing with us suburbanites. We’ve even taken it as far as to see who can grow them longer in the fall. Of course our landscaping has become quite an important task to us also. While the men obsess over their lawns, the women have more important things on our minds, like flowers. Through the years we have accumulated and shared our gardening secrets. It is a race due to our short growing season. But so many aspects of growing veggies are the same no matter your location. Here we are passing on to you are successes and secrets of gardening. We hope you will enjoy this as much as we have creating it. We are in the process of creating a blog. We will post how the neighborhood is progressing, so watch and grow with us. We would love to have you in our cyber garden space. Please visit us at http://www.gardengroupies.com

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