Have you ever dreamed of turning your front lawn into a lavender field? We did, too! But we also wanted to make sure we included lots of native plants along the way. In this video, we’ll discuss some of the things that we did during this conversion, some lavender varietal options for different soil types and climates, and some other tidbits.
Am I saying this is the perfect way to go or that I did this perfectly? Not at all! There are so many options for converting our bluegrass lawns into more ecologically sensitive and friendly landscapes. The sky is the limit–the key is to try and just get started!
Let’s go over the rundown of how we did this more in depth!
STEP ONE: We stopped watering the lawn in the summer so the grass was very weakened. We then tilled off the strips where we wanted to plant the lavender. We could have tilled the whole lawn, but I wanted to leave some soil microbes and life intact, so we worked in strips.
STEP TWO: We watered the areas we tilled and waited a week for regrowth, then repeated the till and removed any remaining grass clumps or clods. Doing this in the heat of the summer was ideal, because any exposed grass roots died quickly.
STEP THREE: We converted our existing sprinkler heads to drip irrigation using a DIY conversion kit and attached 1/2″ drip tubing with emitters punched in at a 3′ spacing (same as the lavender spacing) so we can water by turning on that sprinkler zone.
STEP FOUR: We planted in our lavender at a 3′ spacing. You can go tighter if you have smaller varieties. We mulched with wood chips to help keep any potential grass regrowth at a minimum and laid strips of light-blocking landscape fabric to smother off any grass in the walkways while we saved up for our grass seed!
STEP FIVE: In the late summer of the following year, we seeded a mix of native grasses (blue grama, prairie junegrass and little bluestem) into the walkways to provide more native ecosystem. Be sure to go with similar water needs plants if you decide to do this!
STEP SIX: We overhead watered until the grass seed established.
Now we have a great, low maintenance and low water needs lawn that’s full of lavender, beautiful scents, bumblebees, and other native prairie grasses and flowers!
A few things we didn’t mention in the video:
WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR LAVENDER?
We sourced ours from a wholesale provider since we were growing a patented variety. While you can grow lavender from seed (non-patented varieties), it is very slow and it is quite difficult to get to germinate, so buying as small plants or taking cuttings to create new plants is ideal.
MAINTENANCE?
If you cut back your lavender in early summer, it will likely rebloom for you, but that all depends on your variety! We prune in spring after regrowth begins just to keep things shaped nicely.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?
What you see in this video is one year of growth. Lavender should be fully grown by year 3.
WHAT KIND OF CONDITIONS DOES LAVENDER PREFER?
Definitely give your lavender a full sun spot! Our lawn faces West and gets absolutely blasted by sun. Typically, lavender prefers a drier, rocky, well draining soil (not clay like ours!) but the hybrid lavendins like Phenomenal are a bit more tolerant of moist soils. Still be cautious of overwatering!
HOW MUCH WATER DOES IT NEED?
We only watered our lavender once to help it establish (the wood chips helped keep the moisture in). During periods of extreme drought look for wilting in the stems as a sign of stress, and water. Water needs will depend greatly upon your soil type, sun exposure, and variety, so it’s best to just keep an eye on things the first season until you have it dialed in!
I hope this inspired you to see your lawn as something new–we certainly love our lavender lawn, and all of our neighbors comment on it all the time! Is this something you would like to do?
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