LavandaMia

24/09/2026

The UK's best-loved garden bird has a surprisingly fierce side, especially when its territory is under threat

24/09/2026

Time to tidy and time to plant - filling in the gaps and creating a few extra rows of L angustifolia 'Folgate'.

The spacing between the rows is not ideal, but having made the initial layout back in 2021, we decided that expanding the whole area of lavender was not a viable option (partly terrain and partly the difficulties of maintenance at our age!) So any further planting will be infilling between rows - luckily we planned a wide gap.

We initially decided not to plant a lot of 'Folgate' because we were not certain how the damp climate of West Scotland would affect the drying of lavender bunches. In fact the large airy 18th/19th century barns are ideal as drying rooms and we have had reasonable success.

15/09/2026

Now is the time to trim your lavender if you haven't already done so - this keeps the bush in good shape to overwinter.
Don't despair if you haven't time - it can be done in April once new growth has started but the best time is September

15/09/2026

21/08/2026

All set up for a test distillation of L x intermedia Phenomenal. These were planted last September from 9cm young plants.
9 plants in total provided enough material using flower heads only for 2 distillations in our 5litre copper still.
Total oil 32 ml

I think that is a good result......but the bees were NOT pleased at all...🪻🐝

I think we may plant more of this variety!

13/08/2026

All set for oil distillation...

13/08/2026

Last if the lavender cut this morning ..now to the distillery shed to start the steam distillation for essential oil...
Wonder what yield we'll get this year??!

12/08/2026

12/08/2026

We have a small window to crop this year's lavender for distillation. So today we've made a start to cut as much as possible so that during tomorrow's rain forecast Robin can make a start with distilling.....but the bees and butterflies are not so happy 🥺