What I Do With My Lavender Harvest

Lavender is a lovely and popular flowering herb. The lavender I grow in my garden is Lavandula angustifolia, also known as English Lavender. The variety I have is called Hidcote, which is a relatively compact lavender with deep purple flowers. Versatile and easy to grow, this lavender is a useful wildlife attractant on the sunny fringe of my forest garden.

August is the time of year when, with the plants in full bloom, I turn my attention to harvesting it. Cutting lavender blooms is something you can and should do regularly over the summer months. Not only will they be useful for a range of projects in your home, but harvesting will also encourage new flowers to emerge.

Here are some of the ways I use my lavender harvest.

Harvesting Lavender for Culinary Use

One reason to harvest lavender is for use in edible recipes and drinks. However, I must confess that I find lavender a little too much in most cases, and when it is used, it is best used in moderation.

One way that I have enjoyed lavender is in a honey-lavender vinaigrette for late summer salads. You can also add it to sugar to make a lavender sugar that can be used in a range of confectionary or pair its floral smell and taste with a range of summer fruits.

But remember, when it comes to using lavender, in most cases less is more. So don't overdo it and remember that you will usually use most of your crop, as I do, for other things.

Harvesting Lavender for Home Decor

Most of my lavender ends up not in recipes but in vases or other displays within my home. I often simply bring lavender inside and then arrange it in vases in my home. This serves multiple purposes—it looks and smells great, enhances my living spaces, and allows the lavender to dry so it can be put to other uses.

I also like to arrange my lavender in other ways. For example, I take the base for my Christmas wreath (which is made from several twisted ash branches) and place lavender stems, often alongside rosemary, in bunches around it, securing these to the wreath with my homemade nettle twine. This is another good way to dry lavender to ready it for other uses.

If you, as many do, collect lavender blossoms to put into drawer sachets or to use in potpourri, don't throw the stems away.

One way I have found to use stems is to craft bunches into little baskets or bowls. The bunches of lavender stems can be moistened and coiled around, stitched into a bowl shape with a natural twine. Little baskets like this can also look lovely as home décor.

Harvesting Lavender for Beauty & Personal Care

I use lavender (and rosemary) to make my own hair rinses, simply by steeping the fresh or dried herbs in boiling water, straining, and then using them when I wash my hair. Of course, lavender can also be used in a range of other ways to make a variety of cleaning and beauty products.

In the next week or two, I also plan to use some of my lavender in an infused oil (with a sweet almond oil base), which I use within a beeswax honey balm that is great for chapped lips in winter, and also, I find, good for dry hands during the coldest part of the year.

Of course, lavender can also be used in a range of different soaps. And the range of ways in which you can use it are further increased if you distill your lavender to obtain a proper essential oil.

There are plenty of ways to use lavender, and you will certainly find that this is a versatile harvest. No matter how much lavender you have growing in your garden, you can find plenty of ways to use that which you bring into your home.