homegrown herbs and stuff

[beautifulbay]

I just finished crushing some of my homegrown herbs.

Today was lemon balm and oregano. my kitchen smells all lemony.

I planted lavender this year, but all it did was grow and not put out flowers....is this normal for first year lavender? Since the leaves are fragrant too, does anyone dry and use them? It seems like they coud also be useful.

Anyway, I love growing them all. I want to do some indoors over the winter.
Who else grows their own herbs for soaping and cooking??

 

[Saltysteele]

very cool! i was thinking of putting in some lavender bushes. do they take much care? what type of sun/soil?

 

[beautifulbay]

well, I know it needs full sun and well drained soil. I garden a lot, not just herbs, and I have horses, so I feed my ground a lot of manure. This year, my lavender tripled in size, just didn't bloom. I'm hoping to see what it will do next year. I put in about 8 of them.
It is a perennial, so it should come back each year. Otherwise, I dont think it needs high care or maintenance.

Next year, I want to grow some serious lemongrass. 8)

 

[artisan soaps]

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[beautifulbay]

Artisan, we do the same thing, for the most part...self sufficiency. My husband still works, but we do a lot of our own thing. We garden, and are raising our first beef cow this year, we also have chickens, and goats were supplying my goats milk for soap, but I decided to sell them.

We don't go as heavy as some people, but we do a lot for ourselves too. We also have an orchard, bee hives, and grapes and have made homemade wine.
It's great, doing so much for yourself.

Anyway, it was cool to read your post.

oh...and did your lavender bloom when it was real young???

 

[Deb]

i want a beehive...badly...
and i want my own acreage. but it looks at least 10-15 years off for me.

laveder, I've use th stalks and leaves finely ground as they are slightly less 'whammy' than the leaves. Makes a nice green soap.

 

[artisan soaps]

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[Bubbles Galore]

As the others have said, you can pretty much ignore Lavender and it will be fine. One thing though, it doesn't like a lot of manure so skip that part and you should be right for flowers next year.

If you think it needs feeding in years to come, try some well rotted compost instead. I never do much to mine. :wink:

 

[beautifulbay]

thanks to you both.

artisan, wow...I could never do all of what you did...the little we do is hard enough sometimes. I'm impressed.

Well, we'll see how the lavender does next year. Yes, it is a thick leaf, and I also believe it was just establishing itself this year. Sooo, we shall see.