Lavender Garden

A Lavender Garden is a must. Besides its fragrance and beauty, it is an ancient medicinal plant, an effective pest repellent, a valuable companion plant, a culinary flavouring and garnish and household freshener and cleaning agent. The flowers also attract bees and butterflies to your garden.

FOUR WAYS TO USE LAVENDER

1. As a healing herb

Lavender has a calming effect that helps us to sleep, relieves headaches and indigestion, lifts fatigue and depression and even eases anxiety-induced asthma. Sip a fragrant lavender tea or soak in a lavender-infused bath.

Lavender flowers are also known to be antiseptic and antibacterial, so they can be used in creams and oils to heal burns, stings, wounds and sores, even mild cases of acne.

2. As a natural insect repellent

The strongly aromatic leaves naturally repel aphids, whitefly and other pests, reducing the need for garden sprays. Margaret Roberts, the standard bearer for lavender, has found it to be an excellent companion plant that benefits all plants growing near it.

Dried lavender can be used in bunches, bags and pot-pourri as a natural air freshener and as a moth and insect repellent. It will also help to repel the neighbours' cats, as well as rats and mice, who don not like the camphor smell.

3. In the kitchen

Used with a light touch, lavender flowers impart a delicious flavour and aroma to biscuits, other baked treats and desserts. Chopped leaves tenderise meat and can be added to soups, stews and casseroles. Angustifolia and stoechas, as well as "Margaret Roberts" lavender, are the culinary lavenders. But, as Margaret Roberts advises, "a little goes a long way".

4. As a cleaning agent

Make a natural household cleaner from a strong infusion of the flowers, or a few drops of essential oil mixed with vinegar and water. The same mixture can be used to remove pet smells and soiling.

DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF LAVENDER TO TRY

ENGLISH LAVENDER (LAVANDULA ANGUSTIFOLIA)

This is traditionally the herbalist's lavender although other lavender also have medicinal qualities. It prefers cooler weather, flowers in spring and usually again in autumn.

The intense blue flowers are superbly fragrant, and the bushy plants with narrow grey-green leaves range from dwarf to 70cm high. Besides Lavender "Hidcote Blue", True English" and 'Munstead Strain', look out for two never varieties, the dwarf 'Ellagance' (white, sky-blue and deep-blue flowers) and 'Blue River' (30cm) with its pretty, exceptionally deep-blue flowers.

FRENCH LAVENDER (L.DENTATA)

With its showy silvery leaves and substantial lavender-blue flower spikes, it blooms throughout summer. Bushes grow between 60-80cm high and should be trimmed after each flush to prevent the plants becoming woody.

L.dentata 'Candicans' has large blue flowers topped with short, pale purple bracts. the green-leafed L.dentata 'Royal Crown' has very aromatic leaves and large blue flowers.

SPANISH LAVENDER (L.STOECHAS)

The flower spikes of this spectacular spring-flowering lavender are very colourful with prominent 'ears'. Plants are compact, 30-60cm high, with fine grey-green leaves. They should be pruned after the first flush. There are more than 30 varieties available, ranging in size and colour.

Newer varieties include 'Purple Ribbon' )deep purple), 'Bella Rouge' (rose/white), 'Coco Blue White'.

LAVANDULA INTERMEDIA

These varieties are crosses of L. angustifolia and other lavenders, the best known being 'Margaret Roberts' lavender and the compact 'Grosso' lavender and the compact 'Grosso'. margaret Roberts' flowers non-stop from spring onwards and although the individual spikes are slender, it produces such a mass of them that the effect is breathtaking.

Trim back after flowering and a new flush will develop. bushes are hardy and can grow up to 1m high and wide.

DUTCH LAVENDER (L.X ALLARDII 'AFRICAN PRIDE')

Known as is the hedge lavender, this variety has beautiful silvery leaves, some of which are serrated. It grows about 1m in height, flowers infrequently and can be clipped into a variety of shapes.

Also visit The Gardening Wizard for more Great Gardening Tips!

Enjoy your Gardening!

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Hydroponics For All - Lessons Learned

So Excited!

I actually have a pea pod and more flowers on the plant growing in my kit; while the runner bean plants have already outgrown their support stick. On thinking about it, I will have to get (or make) a tall trellis structure if I'm to be successful there.

We've been suffering from a few cold, high winds lately so opening the windows for pollination is something that needs to be carefully thought out just at present. Still, although the carrots and Brussels sprouts have seeded very well, after some conversation with other hydroponic growers, I believe I will plant them outside in the ground, even though they are likely to take longer to grow. I understand from what I've been told that carrots do not do well in a 'grow rocks' environment, due to the fact that it is the roots? That you actually eat.

I have been given the names of a couple of local growers and will be visiting them soon so that I can see what, if anything, they do with vegetables such as carrots and parsnips etc.

I think, on balance, that I will need to acquire something like a deep bucket or power-grower system, but with maybe a vermiculite or similar growing medium.

Sad to say, the broad beans did not 'take' so I will have to try them again later, although now I'm thinking seriously about tomatoes and pepper plants to replace the sprouts and carrots.

Saw a PURPLE pepper plant a few weeks ago in a commercial nursery and would dearly love to grow one of those as I love peppers (bell) of all colors and I think one of those would really stand out once the plants in my kit are fully grown. Will be trying out a chilli pepper plant as well as when my husband was alive he always added extra chillies to his curries which were, for us curryphiles, (is there such a word?) just the best ever.

Haven't had one since he passed (was difficult to raise any enthusiasm for food and cooking for a while there) and I really, really miss them now that life is getting back to normal.

I moved my computer a few weeks ago and am looking forward to using the lovely bare space the system left to grow larger things. Not sure what, but will definitely want a tomato plant in there as the space gets plenty of light through good sized windows. Will still be growing them outdoors again this year though as I still don't have the cover for my tunnel house. Am determined to get one for next season though.

When not writing, Hilary Green spends a lot of her time in the garden and enjoys not only growing the flowers she picks, but as much as possible of the food she cooks for her family. She is deeply interested in growing hydroponically and is turning her tunnel house into an area where she can grow plants using only water and waterborne nutrients.

Website http://www.hydrogreengardens.com/

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