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What to do with harvested lavender?

 
Steward of piddlers
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My lavender plant has started to produce a bunch of lavender, to the point that I'm not sure what I am even going to do with it all. I enjoyed tying a few bouquets and placing them around the house. It does smell incredible, but I'm not sure I have any more spaces to put them!

What do you all recommend?
 
master pollinator
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Lavender sachets for drawers and wardrobes are a classic for a reason, keeps things smelling good and supposedly deters moths. I just dry the stems, strip the flowers and stuff them into small fabric bags, nothing fancy at all. Also worth trying infused into honey if you bake, works surprisingly well.
 
pollinator
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Lavender lemonade is also tasty.  You can give sashets to friends/family as gifts, also consider selling them in some form or fashion, I know you've been looking at honour stand designs ... you can sell sashets and bundles.
 
gardener
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I put lavender in the chicken's nesting boxes.

Freshly cut stems are great for making lavender wands to hang in the wardrobe.

They're a bit fiddly to make but the smell is wonderful.
20260830_120530.jpg
Lavender wand
Lavender wand
 
steward
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You can also use the stems to make a coil basket. It takes a while to make, but it is a cute, nice-smelling way to use up the stems!



For the buds, you could dry it and use it to make lavender-scented pillows or sachets.

You could also make little eye-pillows/heat packs. Fill a sock/bag/pillow/etc with lavender and lentils/buckwheat/dried peas. You could make them of different dimensions for a keyboard or mouse wrist support, or a larger or smaller heat pack, or an eye pillow. I did this craft with my kids--it's pretty simple. We used old sheet fabric that we cut into two rectangles and sewed them together, turned it inside out, and then filled with lavender and dried lentils. (Lentils were cheaper and easier to find compared to buckwheat).
 
Timothy Norton
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This is not even all of it! I'm enjoying walking by the bundles and getting a waft of lavender to enjoy. I just took down last year's bundle (just one small one) and sacrificed it to the all consuming compost.
 
steward
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I would make lavender tea.  

I use lavender to help me sleep because its natural compounds calm the nervous system and reduce stress.

I would try making the tea into a spray to spray my bedroom at night.

Or put it beside my bed or under my pillow.
 
steward & manure connoisseur
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i really like making the 'easy sachets' to put in with stored clothes and bedding.
 
Rusticator
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I would make some lavender infused oil, for massage, baths, skin soothing (great on rashes, bites, pretty much any ouchie spots on the skin - including for dogs), because it's incredibly versatile, and if the base oil is edible, it can also be used in cooking. Personally, I have a thing for tallow, in this. Also makes a great lotion bar, lip balm, moisturizer...  
 
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Soap is a good one.

If you combine the lavender with some rosemary and sugar then heat it on the stove to make a simple syrup, you can then use this delightful herbal sweetener in things like lemonade, tea, cocktails, or in cooking (quite tasty as a component in a chicken marinade). Refrigerate it after it cools and don't let it sit too long. Add some lemon zest for a more citrus forward version.

You could spend this winter learning about steam distillation and next year you could start making essential oils.
 
out to pasture
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In Portugal we make a very simple lavender wand, no fancy ribbon or very much time needed.

I don't have one at the moment, and I can't find any photos, but this video demonstrates it  pretty well...

 
pollinator
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I make very strong lavender and rosemary tea for people with a cold. A small handful each of lavender and rosemary, about a quart of water, steeped between ten minutes and ten hours, depending on how soon you need it.
I also make lavender syrup - strong tea, strained, with sugar added 1:1 by volume, then boiled briefly. It is a nice seasoning for lemonade or other things that need sweetening.
Lavender vinegar (tea that got too old and fermented or lavender infused in white vinegar) makes a good cleaning solution.
 
gardener
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I have a still with a friend. Make oil with it that mostly i use in the washing machine, same for the 'waste' the hydrolat water. Sometimes i make a lavender sock for next to the pillow.
 
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Lavender is one of the ingredients I use in a tea mix I call Hangover Helper, good for unhappy guts from any cause. The other three ingredients are mint, fennel seeds, and chamomile. I try to grow all four of these myself, but the fennel I planted this spring, which did quite well for awhile, dried up and died (as did the parsley) in midsummer. The chamomile bed kept getting invaded by weeds so I eradicated it all and started again, but I'm not sure it's going to come back this fall as it has been so dry and hot. I think I have peppermint and spearmint going well again in planters. I have a nice lavender plant--not that much harvest but this is the least important ingredient, I mostly add it because an old herbal said it was good for "a simmering braine" and I've used the tea for migraines. Sometimes I cut off a thin slice of ginger root and put that in the cup too.
 
pollinator
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As I gather lavender, I bundle it and use a rubber band around the base.  I then hand it around the house to dry.  Sachets are great, but I also plan to fill some sleep masks with it.  It is my intention to give these to friends.
 
I agree. Here's the link: http://stoves2.com
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