Pruning Lavender

Pruning lavender - now there is a remedy for winter blahs! Clogged with fallen leaves, with dried up flower stalks making a prickly halo, these little lavender bushes looked quite sorry. I pulled out the leaves and dead stems, trimmed off the old flowers, and they began to look much better. And I began to feel much better too, because every snip or snap brought a burst of fragrance.

I never would have guessed lavender would do well here. It only requires two magic ingredients - well-drained soil and full sun. Our clay would not even enter the running for well-drained soil, but before planting lavender and sage out in the parking strip, I mixed the top several inches of soil with a rough ceramic grit used at golf-courses to break up heavy soil.

I have seen lavender growing in a number of places I wouldn't have expected it. One is the northeast end of the Olympic Peninsula near Sequim. The Olympic Mountains are known for their rain forest, receiving 140 to 170 inches of rain a year, but Sequim is in the rain shadow of the mountains with only 16 inches of rain each year. The area is known for lavender.

Here in rainy Portland, I prune my lavender and breathe deep. It isn't Provence, but it is a little bit of heaven.