Lavender is often overlooked when it comes time to do the planting and management of your home herb garden. It’s relatively easy to grow and has lots of uses around the house, aside from just looking pretty and smelling nice, though it definitely does those things well.
Here are 3 reasons why you should make some room to grow lavender in your garden:
Natural Disinfectant, Antiseptic, and Even a Bug Repellant
The lavender plant is already well known for its calming and soothing use as an aromatherapy, in lotions and bath products, but the essential oil mixed with a bit of water can also be used as a natural disinfectant on surfaces and even on your hands.
If that’s not enough, crushing the plants and rubbing the oils on your arms and legs can serve as a fly and mosquito repellent while you’re outside working in the rest of the garden. It can also be used to soothe bug bites, stings, and the occasional scrape. The oils blended into a good lotion can help soothe a sunburn too.
Delicious Drinks and Foods
The fragrant and flowering plant is not often thought of as edible, but it certainly is and it makes a great addition to recipes, especially baked goods. You can add a bit to cakes and frostings for a special occasion treat that tastes like it came from the expensive bakery in town.
It also makes a wonderful calming hot tea that can help you relax for bedtime. A sprinkle of lavender in lemonade or while brewing iced tea is also quite refreshing and soothing on hot days.
If you’re feeling especially adventurous, it can even be used in salad dressings, syrups, sauces, and fresh made jams or jellies. My favorite is a little bit added to the blackberry jam on canning day and spread a bit of that on your toast in the morning – it’s simply amazing!
Around the House with Fragrances, Gifts, and Pretty Things
It wouldn’t do to leave out all the things that smell nice and look pretty when it comes to using fresh lavender from the garden. The freshly picked blooms from your herb garden will far outperform anything you buy at the store.
If you need a quick gift on the fly for a hostess or for a friend, you can make a lavender wreath, make some bath products, put together a scented sachet, a bit of potpourri, sew a custom eye mask, or just cut off a transplant and put it into a pretty pot or mason jar to give them their own plant to grow.
These simple DIY lavender bath soaps and DIY lavender bath bombs make great gifts – be sure to make extra for yourself too!
Around the house you can freshen the carpets with dried plants, make a room spray with the essential oils, and decorate with fresh blooms in vases alongside a few other wild flowers or all on their own.
If you’re just looking to relax, a lavender bath is great for your skin. The great thing here is you can experiment with different forms of the plant in the bath; you can add fresh or dried sprigs to the hot water, or you can use the essential oil and some Epsom salts. No matter how you use it here, it is sure to be relaxing and rejuvenating.
Now that we’ve gone over a few of the reasons you might want to plant some lavender in your home herb garden, it’s time to go out and play in the dirt and make a little space for a few plants. You’ll be glad you did!
[…] trouble keeping insects or other pests out of your garden, then plant herbs such as basil, mint, lavender or rosemary. These herbs are known to repel pests due to their strong scents. Citrus scented herbs […]