diy

Drying Lavender

Projects

Have you ever gone into a boutique and seen the bunches of dried lavender neatly tied with twine for sale? I always thought it would be nice to purchase such lavender bunches. The only thing that was stopping me was my pocket book. Dried lavender can be pricey.

This is where my DIY mode sets in. I decided growing my own lavender would not only be cheaper than buying dried lavender bunches, but I would also have plants to fill in my bare yard. Bonus!

Growing lavender is easy (see my blog under gardening). Drying lavender is also very simple. Just cut the lavender stem above the lowest leaves. Cut enough to make a nice bunch and wrap a rubber band around the bottom of the stems. Hang this bunch upside down until they are dry. Voila!

I put my dried lavender in a ceramic wall pocket . You could tie a pretty ribbon around them and display them in a basket or make a floral arrangement with them. Crushing the flowers and putting them in a DIY hand sewn satchel would bring a lovely scent to your drawers. Gifting the lavender would also be a nice option or using them to decorate a wrapped package.

So if you like the thought of lavender indoors, why not bring it outdoors first. The bees will be happy and your garden will look lovely.

Growing Pineapples

gardening

I love Hawaii and the taste of fresh island pineapple. What could be better than to have the taste of the islands in your own yard? A few years ago, I decided to give it a try.

I purchased a pineapple from the store, twisted off the top and peeled off a few layers of the lower leaves. I placed this in a glass of water, changing the water daily. After roots started to form, I planted it in a pot with topsoil. It is a good idea to put a wire cage around the plant until it is a good size. This is experience talking. One day I came home and found that an animal (most likely a rabbit) had uprooted a newly planted shoot. Lesson learned. Animals do not bother the plants when they are larger, probably because the leaves do tend to be sharp.

Pineapple plants do not have very long roots, so the pot does not have to be all that deep. The plants do, however, get fairly large. I had to re-pot my plants in larger pots as they grew. They also do not need to be over-watered, although they do require a bit more water when flowering to support the fruit they are producing.

I have found that my plants grow better when not in full sun. I have mine on the side of my house so that they are in the shade until afternoon. This seems to make them happy. They also do not like frost. I live in California and in the winter I am sure to watch the weather forecast. On cold nights I cover the plants with a light frost cover from the garden store. It is very light weight and does not bend the leaves. My plants have been burned from the frost on nights when I didn’t foresee the frost. They survived and still produced pineapples. I just cut off the burnt part of the leaves with scissors.

Pineapple plants produce one pineapple and then they produce shoots that are new plants. When a shoot forms, it can be twisted off and planted as a new plant which will in turn produce a pineapple and then more shoots. A few years ago I stared with one pineapple top and now I have six. All of my plants are offspring from the first plant. The first plant takes the longest to grow and to produce a pineapple. The shoots seem to grow faster and produce pineapples in less time than the original top.

I am sure there are different ways of growing pineapples, however, this is what has worked for me. Not only are the pineapples tasty to eat, they are fun to grow and make for an attractive addition to the landscape. Aloha!