Lavender Herbology (KnockturnMC)

Hello everyone! Welcome to Second Year Herbology! Today, we are going to be looking over a plant known as Lavender! In this lesson, I will go into detail about how to grow, harvest Lavender, as well as small facts about it. We’ll study some extra information about Lavender, along with everything it’s good for. With that out of the way, let’s dive right in!


First off, what IS Lavender, exactly? Lavender is a flowering plant found in the mint family (of plants, of course). It is native to the Old World, being found on the Canary Islands and Cape Verde. The plant has an original and more official term called ‘Lavandula’, but is often referred to as ‘Lavender’ to make it easier - new world English.


Shooting for what it’s good for, Lavender has many uses. As a starter in food/nutrition, it is used in salad dressings, condiments and even for medical purposes! In the baking world, Lavender is also a dearly loved product. It is used in a countless number of dishes, some of which include (as stated above) salad dressing, condiments, lavender sugar, lavender scones, and lavender marshmallows. Lavender is also paired extremely well with chocolates and cheeses! Lavender adds a floral scent, look, and taste to the ‘product’ that it gets added to. Lavender also has medical uses, as mentioned earlier, such as use in sleeping pills (helping people fall asleep), overdose prevention, decreasing anxiety, and other various things. Lavender Honey is an example of a herb treatment used on uninfected wounds.


Now, as many of you may be wondering how to harvest it, Lavender is actually very simple to harvest. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to harvest Lavender and use it to suit all of your needs - from cookies to medication.
Step 1: Gather and cut the lavender plant an inch above its root, this allows it to grow back. If you cut too short, its ability to fully grow again decreases, and even goes away. It is very important that you do this, and don’t get lazy.
Step 2: Remove all dead-leaf! Remember, your lavender won’t be as useful if it’s all dead. If your lavender is 90% alive and 10% dead, that’s still a 10% you could easily have if you cut it off. You cannot get lazy with this step.
Step 3: Dry out the lavender. Store it in a dark, cold place so it doesn’t go bad before you use it. All the hard work in steps one and two will be wasted if you don’t do this correctly! Man, talk about a waste of your time!
Step 4: Take the lavender and use it for any of the uses. Congratulations, you grew and harvested Lavender!


Lavender is quite simple to grow, just as it is to harvest! You just need to plant the lavender in well-draining soil, make sure to water infrequently- and when you do, make sure it’s a good, wholesome job. Not some half-done mess! Be sure to plant the seeds 10-15 inches apart, to insure that the roots have enough room to grow. If you don’t give your plants the space to grow, the roots will connect and everything will give up. Prune during harvest time. Let the lavender grow tall, it should come around to 3-4 feet by harvest.


Hold tight for a history lesson! Lavender was around and used in Ancient Greece, and was referred to as “nardus”. Following up the Syrian settlement of Naarda, it was given the nickname of “nard”. During the times of Roman, these flowers sold for 100 denarii per pound (0.453592 kilograms). This is about the same payment of farm-laborers, or around 40-50 haircuts from the hairstylist. Its Latin name “Lavandārius” evolved into “Lavanda” meaning “things to be washed”.


Even though we’ve gone through loads of uses, there are still more! As pretty much everyone knows, Lavender is used in flower arrangements, and has recently been used in wedding confetti (Just to spice up the party, quite literally!). Lavender is popular in scented waters and is commonly used in the process of cleaning clothing (Just to keep it smelling nice).


Summing it up, let’s speak once again about what we went over this lecture, just for memory purposes. Some things that you may want to answer for yourself for future reference may me the following: “What is Lavender?”, “How do I grow and Harvest Lavender?” and “Where did Lavender originate?” Now, it is not a must that these will be brought up, but it may be useful to study!


-=+ (Optional) Quiz (Optional) +=-
(2 Points) Question 1:
What are the 4 steps of harvesting Lavender?
(1 Point) Question 2:
Where did the Latin term for “Lavender” originate, and what is its meaning?
(1 Point) Question 3:
How many denarii’s did a pound of Lavender trade for?


-=+ Homework +=-
Write a year-round itinerary of your lavender garden! Include dates and entries for its growing season (summer)! 5+ Pages, not including cover (6 total!) Put your Name, Username, and House on the cover. The more in-depth entries and more dates the better!
-=-= OR =-=-
Write about spicing up a dull recipe of yours with Lavender! Where do you get the idea to use Lavender? How do you get it? Do you grow it, or buy it? Maybe start a garden! Does everyone like the taste of it? 4+ Pages! On top of the 4, include a cover page with your name, username, and house. Title your HW as HW:(PROF) and send it via Owl Mail! The more you write, the better. Minimal should be 5 pages including cover page.