Lavender deserves a place in every garden and this easy addition will make your plant feel right at home and produce abundant flowers and more of that exquisite fragrance. It takes minutes to do and it works no matter who you are grow lavendereither that’s it in a cana raised bed or on the ground, for everyone varieties and species of lavender.
This flavored one perennial The herb, loved for its tall spikes of purple flowers and silvery evergreen foliage, is native to the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean basin. From southern Europe to northern Africa, western Asia and India, lavender thrives in sun and well-drained soil in harsh mountainous and coastal environments and has evolved to flourish with minimal water or nutrients.
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Now, does this habitat resemble the conditions in which you grow your lavender? Because if you grow up Washing her in a rich potting mix or compost-amended soil and feeding it in hopes of growing a bigger plant and more flowers, you’re missing a trick. Because the key to success with lavender is to mimic the conditions in which it naturally grows, which is easily done with mulch of sand and gravel.
June is lavender’s prime growing month when it forms many flower buds, so make the switch now to give your plant the conditions it desires and you’ll see results quickly.
How to soften lavender
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Whether your lavender is in a planter or in the ground, dress the surrounding soil with a 1-2 inch layer of coarse sand and gravel. Use a ratio of three parts gravel to one part sand.
This helps the plant in many ways:
- Coarse sand naturally moves down into the soil and gradually improves drainage.
- Gravel improves airflow around the base of the plant and keeps the growing environment drier.
- Gravel also reflects sunlight onto the plant and retains warmth.
- Weeds are suppressed, as is any mulch.
Fine gravel like pea gravel this one from Amazon produces better results, although you can use any type of gravel you already have. However, it is important to use coarse sand and preferably sand intended for gardening such as this one from Amazon. Do not use fine sand as it can compact and clump together when wet, defeating the purpose of your dry mulch.
If your lavender is currently mulched with organic matter such as bark chips, remove this layer from the surface of the soil first. An organic mulch works the opposite way to a layer of gravel, trapping moisture around the plant – leading to conditions lavender hates, even rotting stems and roots.
Leave a 3-inch gap around the woody stems of the plant and spread the mulch beyond its outer edges or to the lip of the pot. The more you spread the mulch, the drier and warmer a microclimate you will create. Visit any lavender field or farm and you will see how it is done, and how effective this dry mulch is.
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What else can you do to help lavender thrive?
Giving your lavender plant mulch of sand and gravel is the best thing you can do to help it thrive. But there are many other ways to cultivate the conditions in which your plant will flourish.
1. Skip the fertilizer
For starters, don’t feed lavender plants. Lavender thrives in poor, nutrient-deficient soils, and over-fertilizing it stresses the plant, results in weak, stunted growth, and can significantly restrict the number of flowers produced. Even in a container, where the plant has limited access to nutrients, it is better renew the top layer of potting mix each year instead of applying fertilizer.
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2. Do not overwater
While lavender plants should be watered regularly when they are first planted, once they have had a chance to develop roots in the soil to supply their own moisture supply, gradually reduce how often you water. Depending on your USDA zonelavender plants will happily rely on rainwater for most of the year and you only need water once every two or weeks through extended dry spells. Don’t worry if your lavender is planted among perennials that need more frequent watering: as long as your soil drains well (and your new well-rotted sand and gravel will help with good drainage), your plant will be fine.
3. Improve drainage
Lavender planted in pots needs more frequent watering, but only when the top two centimeters potting soil they are dry. What lavender plants in containers really it needs a lot of drainage. Improve this by drilling additional drainage holes in the base of the pot, moving your plant to a porous terracotta pot, or raising the pot on risers so the roots aren’t sitting in a puddle of water after a heavy rain.
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4. Count the hours of sunshine
For maximum production of this wonderfully fragrant oil, lavender needs at least six hours of sunlight per day during spring and summer. Check how much your plant gets as the season progresses and make sure it doesn’t get shaded out as its neighbors grow.
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5. Prune twice a year
A cut in early spring, again just after flowering, will encourage healthy, bushy growth. Pruning lavender it’s an easy job. Keep spring trimming light, just to tidy up your plant after winter and do any shaping in late summer. Then, once you’ve left at least half an inch of this summer’s growth (you’ll be able to see the difference between this year’s fresh growth and the older, darker, woody growth), cut back as much as you want, depending on whether you want to keep your plant compact or let it grow. Leaving that half-inch safety margin means you’ll never cut off old growth, which the plant can struggle to grow out of.
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Lavender’s ability to adapt to different environments is one of the reasons why it has been cultivated for so many centuries, all over the world, so it’s probably already growing quite well in your garden, whatever conditions you’ve given it. But just wait until you make your lavender feel right at home in a well-rotted sand and gravel bed: your plant will flourish and your reward will be more than just its lovely flowers and lovely scent.
