Lavender Harvest

Today was a beautiful day in Michigan.  The temps in the high 70's and sunny.  I decided to finish harvesting the lavender in the garden.

 

 

The harvest this year was much greater than last year.  I'm sure it's due to the hot sunny weather we had this Summer.

 

 

 

The time to harvest lavender is when the flowers turn to a grayish lavender in bud form. 

 

 

I gather a bunch of the stems and using my pruners I cut the bunch until I've gathered as much as I want to work with.

 

 

 

Using my thumb and forefinger I take the buds off one stem at a time.  This is a long and tedious process.  Today I worked on this outside because of the beautiful day.  One plus to doing things outside was watching a couple of hummingbirds going at each other.

They were going after a clump of Salvia Black and Blue.  I was unable to get a picture of the birds.  I'll have to try again tomorrow.

 

Salvia Black and Blue

 

I was able to gather a good size bowl of lavender buds, about six cups in all.

 

 

Last year I gathered one two quart canning jar full.

 

 

This year I filled two 2 quart and three quart canning jars.  Pictured are the combined six jars.  My plan is to make lavender water, lavender sachets and essence of lavender with the buds.

 

 

Did I mention that lavender is my all time favorite fragrance!