How to Grow Lavender

When we harvested our fall bounty from the two raised vegetable beds in the back yard we ended up with about half a salad!
Seriously, between a little bit of weird weather at the start of the season, and the rouge neighborhood cats digging up just about everything we planted I am completely discouraged and honestly fed up!

After our bounitful harvest of half a salad, I decided that with our very limited space it just wasn't worth it for us to grow our own vegetables. That dream will be put on the backburner, saved for  a larger yard, and electric fence ;).

So we had to decide, pull up the beds and add grass, or add something else. It was between planting bulbs and using it as a cutting garden, great for spring but not much to look at for summer, winter and fall!
The decision was LAVENDER!!!

 I LOVE lavender! I love the smell, I love the color, I love the smell (it's so great it deserved to be mentioned twice).  Another big bonus was that our retractable laundry line runs right above it for some natural scenting.

We planted the lavender at the start of September and I have never seen more butterflies in our backyard! It's like a regular sanctuary back there. But my favorite part would have to be the SMELL, I water the back garden at night and as soon as the water hits the lavender it's amazing! The night air fills with scent! I don't want to get all poetic about it but seriously, "It smells good at Night" haha.

They've already grown so much in one month! Here's some growing tips we've gleaned from everyone from my mother to E-How.

• Lavender needs full sun and well-drained soil. Where soil drains poorly, grow lavender in raised beds. Set full-size varieties 3 to 4 feet apart, dwarf types 18 inches apart (ours are dwarf and I plan on replanting some on the other side of our house when they get too big). 
• Mix in some with decomposed granite or gravel, not compost. 
• Water deeply but infrequently, when the soil is almost dry. 
• Lavender require little or no fertilizer. 
•  Prune every year immediately after bloom. Cut back 2- to 4-foot-tall varieties by a third, low-growing types by 2 to 4 inches. If you won't be harvesting the blooms of repeat performers, such as Spanish lavender, cut off faded flowers to keep new ones coming. 

And that's about it! So far so good.

We are both enjoying the smell so much, we're thinking window boxes outside all the bedroom windows!! :)