Do You Like Lavender? Learn How to Take Care of it
If you enjoy gardening, it’s likely that you’ve got a favorite plant. One that you like for both its beauty and its fragrance. In this article, we’ll discuss lavender and everything it can do for your home and for your health.
Learn how to take care of it so that it grows strong and beautiful. Follow these tips to enjoy its beautiful color and perfume.
Let lavender into your life!
Lavender is one of the most beautiful aromatic plants. Its care is quite easy, so you can fill your home with its spring scent. As if that wasn’t enough, these plants have a lot of health properties. Among these, is their ability to help people relax.
What are you waiting for to fill your terrace, your garden, or any other space in your home with this beautiful plant? Of course, keep in mind that you must make sure that it receives a good amount of sun. Ready to get to know lavender better?
Where can you plant it?
If you’ve decided to grow lavender, you should know that it’s a plant that grows easily. Therefore, you must think about where you’re going to plant it. Lavender also needs space around it so that it doesn’t become entangled with other plants.
Another important condition is that it needs to receive sunlight for at least six hours a day. Take care not to put it near elements that shade it and prevent the rays from reaching it directly.
If you’re going to use pots, they should be between 30 and 40 centimeters in diameter since lavender grows upwards.
The substrate that lavender needs
It’s essential for lavender to have an alkaline substrate, with a high pH. If your soil is acidic, you’ll have to compensate by using a specific substrate or, even, adding a little lime.
Another of the essentials for it to grow strong is good drainage. For this, the ideal is sandy soil that facilitates the escape of water. This is very important since the roots of this plant don’t tolerate waterlogging, especially in winter since the roots may freeze and kill the plant.
How to water lavender
Being a wild plant, it’s able to withstand the absence of watering for a long time. However, during the growing months, we recommend that you water it regularly and consistently. Always avoid wetting its branches and flowers, since doing so can encourage fungi.
Space the watering times during the colder months so that it doesn’t have too much moisture at its roots and water in the central hours of the day. During the hotter months, water it once each week and ensure that the substrate is dry before doing so, so as not to overwater.
Pruning: a key point of care
After its flowering time at the beginning of spring, it’s recommendable to prune, making sure that you never prune more than half the size of the plant. In this way, you’ll be stimulating the growth of new branches and their flowers.
If you’ve sown lavender in a protective closure, in addition to pruning its height, you must also prune its outline in order to give it shape. This will ensure it’s aesthetically pleasing.
Finally, we’ll give you an extra tip that may surprise you: using fertilizer on lavender is completely discouraged. Being a rustic plant, it doesn’t need this, and doing so could cause it to lose its pleasant aroma.
If you like this beautiful plant, don’t hesitate to plant it in your garden. It’s especially recommended to repel mosquitoes, which makes it invaluable during the summer months.