30/07/2026
Lavender
Are you feeding the bees with your lavender? Every year our HUGE plant hums with bumblers and other bees. It's near where we pass to leave the house and sit for dinner in the summery evenings. It's a mass of activity and so fragrant. I love it.
I am so tempted to cut the flower heads before they bloom so I can keep the medicine it. You see, once they open, they release their essential oils to the air and then it's lost to the medicine. Sometimes I do cut a few, but mostly, I can't bring myself to take them from the bees!
However, all is not lost, as earlier this year, I took many little cuttings from my lavender plant and they have ALL taken! I am so impressed with myself, well, with the lavender, really. But, as it has taken me many years to 'get round to it', I am having a little credit as well! 😊
I grew some of the cuttings in the conservatory and some outdoors and they have all done brilliantly (except the ones the mumma blackbird systematically removed in her determination to get to whatever it was she wanted from underneath them! 😂). Wow to nature once again.
Then the next stage is to create a lavender walkway at the edge of the lawn up to the front door... the trick is to prevent my husband strimming them before they get big enough for him to realise they're intentional and not a non-grass interloper.
This way, I hope I will have gazillions of lavender flower heads to keep for my medicines *and* plenty for the bees. 🐝🐝🐝
