It is the time of year when gardeners need to decide what to do with their lavender. This gorgeous purple flower is a popular choice for British gardeners because it is relatively easy to maintain. When it gets to around the middle of July, there is one important job you need to complete, which you should do before the month is through. Lavender bears excellent results when grown in a British garden, and people use it for all kinds of purposes. You can place it in a wardrobe to make your clothes smell better or even turn it into a room spray that is said to help you get to sleep.
If you are growing your own lavender, you should look at pruning it and deadheading it now. Gardener’s World released its monthly checklist for gardeners across the UK and in the list is jobs to be completed for those growing lavender this summer. When lavender flowers have had their first bloom and are a decent size, the time has come to cut them for drying, the experts revealed. Choose newly opened flowers to cut for the best smell.
Following that, you should hang them in a cool, dark place to let them dry. Dried lavender smells delightful and it really adds a homely freshness to every room in your house, especially bedrooms and bathrooms.
July is also a great time to deadhead the plant. Deadheading involves cutting off parts of the plant that are not producing flowers. This means that other, flowering parts of the plant will grow better because less is spent on failing sections.
This will give the lavender plant a second chance at blooming again, meaning you will have more flowers tp hang up and dry in late summer and early autumn, with beautiful lavender smells present in your house well into the winter months.
Gardener and full-time content creator Adam Kirtland has explained the jobs we should get done now when it comes to our lavender.
He revealed: “Cutting back the lavender is generally done in August, but it can be done anytime from July onwards. The whole point of cutting off the dead flowers is to prolong the plant’s life.”
Other jobs that gardeners need to complete this month are giving dahlias a liquid feed, planting autumn bulbs, and cutting back early summer perennials, such as hardy geraniums and delphiniums.