Lavender

In front of my house there are ten lavender plants in full bloom. It smells wonderful! The bees are busy gathering pollen, the neighbors tell me what a lovely yard I have, and when the wind blows, it sends the lavender scent in my kitchen window. Ahhh.

Last year I harvested the lavender. I trimmed every plant so only a round green dome of leaves was left. I tied it into bunches and hung it in the garage to dry. Then I rolled each bundle in my hands till all the tiny buds fell off. I stored all this lavender in a very large airtight box and doled it out in tiny sachets all year long. I still have a large box of lavender. Ten plants produce an enormous amount of lavender, especially if you harvest twice a season.

This year when I went out to harvest the lavender I decided to do something different. I didn’t trim off all blooms; I left a big top knot on each plant for the bees to keep harvesting their pollen. (I just wish I knew where their hive was, the honey is probably pretty tasty.) I bundled the lavender with twine and piled it in my wagon. I started delivering lavender to my neighbors. I still had piles to give away, so I came home and filled two big buckets with water and made a sign: FREE Lavender Enjoy a bunch.

And they did. I watched as cars zipped by on my street. My first “customer” stopped and hit reverse to check it out. “Thanks!” he called out. “My pleasure!” Several other cars came by and pulled over. One older couple did the stop and reverse maneuver so I grabbed a pair of bunches and walked to their car. “Oh thank you so much. Can I pay you for this?” “No, you can see I have more than I need.”

Last year I horded my blooms and couldn’t use them all. This year I shared all my lavender with the neighbors and it smells so much better.

Posted 7/7/2008 @ 6:57 PM | Weekly Thoughts