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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Drying Fresh Lavender

I have fresh lavender growing in my yard. Every summer, I cut and dry it by wrapping ribbon or strings around a bunch of lavender stalks and hang it upside down in a closet to dry and to protect my clothes from months for the coming year. Lavender is a natural month deterrent.


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Sometimes I just put the fresh cut lavender in a dry vase and let it dry
that way.

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The best time to cut lavender for drying is when all of the purple buds on the stalk are blooming but before the lavender flower buds die and dry out (generally mid July in zone 5).
After the lavender was dry, I used it to make moth repelling sachets for my closets.

This post is part of Wordless Wednesdays. Although in my case, it’s not entirely wordless.
Posted by Lisa Nelsen-Woods at 8/06/2008 07:00:00 AM Tags: , , , , ,

7 comments:

  1. Your lavender is beautiful! I ordered a lot of seeds to start planting it in my own yard next spring. I hoipe mine turns out as pretty as yours :)

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  2. It took three years for my lavender to grow this tall and well. The first couple of years the plants were small and didn't have many flowers on them. But I cut them back anyway. My patience paid off because this summer - poof! Lots of lavender. It attracted a few hummingbirds too. nice.

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  3. I love the smell of lavender, its fragrance is so encompassing. Thanks for the post. God bless.

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  4. I always use lavender scented laundry detergent. Just love the smell!

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  5. I have lavender I need to cut, mine didn't bloom until this month. Anyway should I hang it upside down to dry??

    Also do I do anything to the plant itself other than just putting some extra mulch after the first freeze? I'm new to this stuff lol.

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  6. Lisa - I just hang mine upside down to keep the dust from collecting on the flowering buds and my lavender dries just fine. If I don't make a sachet out of it sometimes I just leave it bundled and hanging upside down for moth control. I have a bunch of lavender haning in an out of the way spot in my laundry more for moth derrent than a pretty decoration.

    As for winter, I don't do anything to my lavender after I've cut it. However, I always use mulch in my garden beds so I dont' add any extra for winter.

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  7. Thanks that is what I ended up doing with mine and my garden also has mulch. I cut down some other flowers I had growing before our first freeze (which wasn't much of one and didn't kill anything) and the flowers that wouldn't look nice in the house, I left in the bed and leafs have gotten in there so lots of natural mulch as well.

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