CindyG
True Blue Farmgirl
293 Posts
Cindy
Fairfax
VA
USA
293 Posts
Posted - May 24 2013 : 5:39:26 PM
All I know is lavender can be tricky in terms of soil pH and soil type. The heavy clay soil in Virginia is not lavender's friend, so I should not have much firsthand experience with it. I have an anomaly of plants that should not have survived the winter has now come back for the third year and are doing well!
Working with a local herb farm, I was given the advice to incorporate sand and some leaf mulch in to the soil to improve drainage, and was told to plant it where it would have good air circulation. I'll confess to not paying attention to the pH part of things, but was told lavender does not like acidic condition and prefers a pH of 7.2 to 8.0.
The more interesting piece of advice was to surround the plant with crushed oyster shell or small white rocks which reflect light back into the branches of the plant - this helps eliminate a common fungus problem which manifests as black leaves at the base of the plant. I figured with the humidity here, this was an important step to complete. Fungus has a head start in our damp conditions.
So far so good for all two of my plants - not exactly a rousing endorsement for advice, but it is working.
Growing lavender
Posted - May 24 2013 : 08:53:42 AM
