I Harvested Lavender. Now What?

When we first came to look at this house, before we'd even bought it, one of the first things I noticed was the landscaping and all the plants that were already here.

Specifically, the lavender.

Since moving in, I've been learning how to take care of it. It's thriving in the dry, sunny spot at the front of the house, but the plants had definitely been neglected.

One thing I've learned: lavender needs regular pruning. Otherwise it starts developing long, leggy, woody stems—which don't look particularly great.

So I've been slowly pruning mine, trying to remove about a third of the old woody growth each season.

And it's working.

The plants look better, smell fantastic and seem pretty happy.

I think so, anyway. The bees seem to agree.

So I decided to harvest it

I love a plant that actually produces something, so back in July I decided to harvest some of the lavender.

I'd never done this before.

I cut it back as neatly as I could with every intention of tying it into little bundles and hanging them somewhere lovely to dry.

Naturally, that didn't happen.

Life got in the way, and the lavender ended up sitting in my basket for a few weeks in the spare bathroom, safely away from toddler hands.

The other day, I finally pulled it out to see whether I'd ruined it or could actually still use it.

According to Google, there's a very scientific test for this.

Bend a stem in half and see if it snaps.

So I did.

Snap.

Apparently that means it's dry.

Somehow my highly sophisticated spare-bathroom-basket drying method worked.

(Future project: build a little place where I can properly hang lavender to dry. Preferably not in the bathroom.)

Processing the lavender

I took small clumps of the dried lavendar stems between my hands and gently rubbed them together over a very large bowl.

The tiny dried flowers fell right off.

It smelled incredible, and this turned out to be a very good job to do with my toddler.

By the time we were finished, I had about three cups of dried lavender.

I poured it into a jar and tucked it away for another project I've been wanting to try:

Making soap.

Which means, naturally, this project has created another project.

That's usually how things work around here.

Little by little.