Instead of fun, food and fireworks, we planted our test field of lavender.
On July 1st, our tiller attachment arrived, and it was time to prepare the field. We lightly tilled our hillside that we call Lavender Hill. After this first till, we knew we had a lot of work ahead of us. Our soil test results showed that we have silt loam soil. We also knew there was lots of rock in our field since silt is made up of rock and mineral particles but hoped the rock size was ¾” or less to help with the drainage of the soil that lavender needs. Unfortunately, the rock we had was quite a bit larger. We pulled out lots of big rocks by hand, and then racked and pulled out lots more. Not an easy task in the 95+ degree weather and humidity plus an insane number of bugs.
Day 2, we decided to till in Mushroom Compost to help soil health and increase soil pH since ours is 6.21 according to our soil test, and lavender likes pH between 6.5 and 7.0+. Next, we tilled the 3 rows four times and removed more rock. We then attached our Nolt’s Raised Bed Mulch Layer with DeWitt Pro 5 weed barrier fabric [recommended for lavender] to our tractor and made our mounded rows. Let’s just say, it was not bad for our first rows. Trying to bed on a curved hillside with heavy weed fabric was not as easy as the YouTube videos made it out to be. The mounds were a good height, but the weed cloth didn’t tuck under, and there were a few low spots. Overall, maybe due to the heat, we were happy with the results. The planned area between the 3 rows was 6 foot, but completed rows varied, 7 foot and 10 foot, due to rock bed or tree roots. We marked the holes in the mounded rows, 3’ center apart and called it a day.
Day 3, we burned the holes for each of the plants with an 8” metal cylinder [cut down for easier handling] and a torch so the weed barrier hole would not tear. Then, we dug out the soil of each hole with a post hole digger. Again, not an easy task in the heat with soil that still had rock and was somewhat compacted despite all the tilling. We took out any large rocks and put the soil aside from each hole, added ¾” gravel [for drainage], added soil, mixed in 1/3 cup hydrated lime [to increase pH] and then added more soil. A really long day. Didn’t finish all the holes.
Day 4, Happy 4th, we finished digging holes and adding soil amendments! After another long and hot field day, we dipped our lavender plants in BioWorks RootShield Plus WP to help with control of Phytophthora [common lavender disease] associated with root rot due to overwatering or poor drainage, and also helps with root growth. Put the treated plants inside for the night to dry to be planted the next day.
Day 5, we planted 87 lavender plants in 3 rows. The hottest day so far at 98 degrees. Post holed out some of the soil from each hole, added plants with base even with the soil, and topped with more hydrated lime and pea gravel. In the next few days, we’ll be adding irrigation that we purchased online from Drip Depot [more on that later].
Our lavender test field consisted of six varieties that we bought/shipped from Victor’s Lavender in Sequim, WA. The varieties chosen were ones that could be grown in Zone 7a but would not necessarily thrive in areas with lots of humidity. Just decided to test different varieties for oil production, culinary, fresh/dried bundles and other lavender products. We received 120 plants [24 Grosso, 24 Provence, 24 Folgate, 12 Sachet, 12 Blue Velvet and 24 Hidcote]. Only 87 plants made it to planting day [20 Grosso, 19 Provence, 15 Folgate, 12 Sachet, 12 Blue Velvet and 9 Hidcote]. Not sure why we lost 28% of the plants. Possibly shipping stress, wrong variety for our climate, being in the shade and not in the ground for several weeks, overwatering [although I did use a soil moisture tester] or simply part of the percentage failure for young plants. Regardless, we are thrilled to have our first field planted!
Note: Our lavender planting method is atypical for most lavender growers. Research indicates that lavender growers till and add amendments to the entire field, often in the Fall prior to Spring planting. Due to the amount of rock in our field and time of year of our test field, we decided to only add 3/4" rock and lime to each hole and planted a few days afterwards.
