The 2021 growing season is the first year that Matthew and I have grown lavender – they have been on our list for years though! Since it was our first time growing them, we did a bunch of research and it really helped our lavender plants exploded.
Here are the top four tips we’ve learned so far!
1. Prep, prep and more prep
When you full prep the soil and area for planting you have done about 70% of the work – this part is so key! If you are creating a new bed like we did make sure to bring in top grade topsoil and compost as well. Then make sure it is properly graded and evenly spread throughout the bed. If you are planting in an existing bed then rake it over deeply, pulling out all the weeds. Also adding some compost to put more nutrients back in the old soil is a good idea. I would take this time to plan out where you are going to plant the lavenders as well. They will grow a lot their first season so make sure to keep that in mind when laying it out.
2. Keep them watered, but do not overwater them
Once you plant the lavenders you should water them in well. Lavenders love well drained soil so make sure that no water is pooling around the plant. For the first few months I watered them every day, unless it was going to rain then I just let nature take its course. After those months I stopped watering it once a day because it is important to not overwater. Of course, when watering don’t do it during the height of the sun because that’ll scorch your plants. Make sure to keep an eye on what the pants need — whether it be better draining soil or watering more often.
3. Cut off dead lavender heads
This is the most important tip while growing lavender – make sure to deadhead after the entire flower head is finished flowering. If you are able to do it before the head goes to seed that is even better. A deadheaded stem will send signals to the plant that it needs to continue reproducing and therefore it will push out new flowerheads. I tried to be very careful when picking which stems to deadhead as you want to make sure it has fully flowered. Also, don’t cut too far back just to the closest leaf is fine. When properly deadheaded the plant will continue to flower throughout the whole summer and into the Fall!
4. Prune in the Autumn
This is a tip I have done a lot of reading on but haven’t done it yet myself. I will keep you guys posted on how our pruning goes as the fall truly comes. From what I’ve read you can start this process after the plant has fully finished blooming. One important reason for pruning is to make sure the plant weathers the winter well. You need to have air flow and a strong base that has not been cut down to the wood. Prune two to three inches above of the woody base and no closer. Since it is our first year with our lavenders, I am going to keep an eye on them and see how woody they are at the base and go from there.
That’s it! Did you find these tips helpful? Do you think we missed anything? Leave it in the comments below – we’d love to hear from you.
