Lavender is not only a beautiful plant, but it is also a helpful plant! By growing lavender you can not only repel unwanted bugs from your backyard (such as mosquitoes, ticks, and flies), but you can also harvest lavender for its scent and for its oil. These can then be used as an antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, anti-dandruff, and many more! So basically, I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want one of these amazing plants in their yard! But now the question becomes… how do I take care of my lavender plant so it doesn’t die on me?!?! Well here’s what you need to know to keep your plant looking great for years to come!
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Outdoor Lavender Plant Care: Light Requirements
Remember that lavender plants are naturally used to being in hot and dry locations. So the closer we can get to mimicking this natural habitat, the healthier our lavender plants will be. This means that they need at least 6 hours of sunlight each day. So try to plant your lavender in a location with partial shade to full sun. Too little sun and your plant will look tall and slender and will only produce a fraction of the normally abundant flower stalks.
Outdoor Lavender Plant Care: Water Requirements
The next part of a hot and dry environment is the ‘dry’ part. This doesn’t mean that you should leave your plant out in the hot Arizona sun without a drop of water. Instead, this means that lavender plants’ soil needs to be allowed to dry out a couple of inches before it should be watered again. If you live in a high-humidity region, keep the plants spaced apart to increase airflow and decrease fungal growth. And if you live in a region that receives a lot of rainfall, you will need to either plant your lavender in a pot with good drainage holes, or you will need to amend the ground soil with sand, gravel, or perlite to increase drainage around your plant. Because there’s nothing a lavender plant likes less than being wet for a long period of time!
Outdoor Lavender Plant Care: Additional Tips
Another important part of lavender care is to regularly prune your plant. Old sections of the plant will become long and woody, but this isn’t what you want to harvest. You will need to cut back your plant in either the early spring or the fall in order to cut back the woody stems and to promote plenty of new, fresh stems. Then be sure to harvest the lavender within a couple of weeks of their blooming. It is said that the younger blooms are the most potent and have the strongest flavor!
Make sure that you’re following these care tips if you want to have the healthiest lavender plant possible. And if you live in a colder climate and you want to bring your plant indoors, then be sure to check out my post on indoor lavender plant care!
Happy Digging!