my lavender has just started flowering & it smells amazing. I think i’d like to replace all my grass with Lavender…why would anyone want grass when they could have fields of this?! ok, just me.
That is funny! I was thinking, while i was shooting AND SMELLING the lavender, if there was such a thing as a smellograph, people would have nose prints on their screens! I took about 15 photos of the lavender, those are the only two that i liked. I have since cut them all to bring inside to dry AND oh, they smell so yummy!!!! Thank you, Jo! ~amy
In the house where I grew up, some ancestor had planted in the garden, a lawn covering of thymes….regular and lemon. We added other fragrant creepers when we put in brick walk. it was wonderful to walk and smell the fragrance of the herbs. I think back in the olden days, many people would do that. I think that would be a wonderful thing to start anew…a field of lavender though….oh my.
WOW, it was really done once?! I know people would put herbs along with hay on their home’s floors. Lawns are killing the planet, or so i’ve been told. I read that if everyone stopped cutting & putting herbicide on their lawns & white roofs on their homes America’s energy debt would be paid off in a few years. Lawns are status though. At least for men. I have a lawn & my ex-husband would obsess over it. He would spend almost all day working on it. Me? I’d rather plant wildflowers, lavender, a little mint…now? i would add thyme. Thank you for sharing your amazing childhood home. What a place of magic for you. Lucky you. ~amy
Yes, they truly did. I forget what the term was for it but I call it fragrant walks….Mints, thymes, any of the low to the ground spreading fragrant herbs would do. Our lawn? Hah! We don’t put stuff on it or do watering – we cut it. We live out in the country in a small neighborhood and basically, we just all cut our grass. Green in the summer, brown in the winter…But all those chemicals are not good, that is true. My father and many others often just throw lime (not the pelletized) on their lawns in the fall when it is rainy so it goes into the grass – makes it “sweet” they say…but it does make the grass so very green in the spring and summer. Lime is a natural thing – calcium carbonate? not sure but it is dug from the earth and powderized. Folks also use it around hen runs or in their outhouses to keep it “sweet”….I think It neutralizes a lot of the alkaline in the soil. I think a lawn of just wild flowers that grew and bloomed cyclically would be gorgeous. You’d always have bouquets and in the fall, birds would have extra seeds to much on. I imagine folk in CA are having fits with the drought and not being able to keep up those lawns. But places like in parts of AL where they have golf courses that add to the economy, it’s good we aren’t having droughts to keep those nice.
My ex-husband used to put just lime on the lawn, but then it didnt’ work fast enough for him any longer. Since he left, everything is growing like wildfire. Alabama Gulf courses…i see acres of grass with two people playing. it is too hot to play in the summer. There are GIANT fans blowing hot air at them in hopes to keep them playing. I don’t get it. Why so many, when so few dare to play? I do cut the grass, but i do not put his “weed & feed” he left in garage. I leave the grass long when there is a drought & cut it after a few days of rain. I used to tell my ex-husband to think of grass as a thinning man’s hair, the sun won’t burn the scalp, if you leave it a little long. as in the sun won’t touch the soil & dry out the grass as fast if you raise the blade on the mower…he used to take my advice. And he saw that i was right. Long gone is he & me & the lawn are better for it! 🙂 ~amy
Bless you. It does seem you are truly the better. I know, up here in Richmond, we frequently see travel ads for Alabama – not just the coast but those golf courses. I go into hibernation in the summer – can’t deal with the sun and heat. I never did understand golf anyway – walking about in all that sun and heat – stroke (not pun intended) waiting to happen. I imagine you miss the cooler temps of Vermont. This is the time of year when my stove basically is not used – slow cooker used more than in winter. I fixed meatloaf in the slow cooker the other day and my husband said I should continue – that as good as my regular was, this was much better. Also did a berry bread pudding in the slow cooker as well….to die for. Yes, men are funny about those lawns. I’m glad my husband is happy to just let it get kinda long and then cut…..we live in a plain little country neighborhood and folks don’t try to be a “lawn attraction”…LOL
You wouldn’t need a little push mower, Mark. You would need a pair of scissors so you can cut the lavender & give it to all your friends. OR you could have a lavender party…invite friends & hand them scissors & tell ’em to take as much as they’d like! ~amy
I can’t grow lavender up here except on a flower pot on the porch. It’s too cold but there is one grass I would plant- sweet grass. It smells like rich vanilla and doesn’t mind the cold.
Too cold up here is where? I’ve bought lavender a thousand times in Alabama, the one i’ve photographed here is the one type that is native in Alabama. Maybe you have a native type too? Still you do get some in a pot. That is very good. It is my favorite. I dry it & throw it on my rugs before i vacuum or i put the dried flowers in my canister vacuum…my house will smell wonderful. I am trying to think of a way to put it on my furnace filter, but maybe i’ll spend the $15 & buy the lavender oil at the health food store. What do you think of planting it instead of grass? Then i would look like i had France in my backyard. 🙂 ~amy
Minnesota. But I’ve grown it sometimes in a flower pot for the summer. I tried a variety that was supposed to be zone 4 hardy but it froze. So no France here 😦
But there are a other mint relatives (like monarda and agastache) and other sweet scented plants. One I grow is called sage, although it is not related to any sages. It can be used in smudging or just braided and hung like a wreath. The sweet grass is used as a smudge and is also braided.
Zone 4 is pretty darn cold, its the same zone as my home state of Vermont. My love of gardening comes from her. She had an English style perennial garden. She also had deer that feasted on her bulbs, she called the deer, “bulb-breath” Alabama was/is a shocker as far as what will grow. I’ve tried to bring my favorites here. I have found a lilac bush-tree, really…for this zone. It looks a bit like Vermonts…but the flowers do not smell the same. Alabama is too hot & HUMID for so many favorites. But, i do get to grow pansies & Violia’s during winter, that is pretty cool. But everything is blah like November in Vermont. I have a beautiful type of sage that is grey/green/purple that is quite beautiful & it doesn’t die back in winter. Thanks for letting me babble on about Vermont. ~amy
That must be a type of tree lilac. Are the flowers a sort of creamy-white?. Everyone here grows the standard purple lilac (which is in bloom now and smells wonderful this week). My flower garden is sort of a cottage type but not by design, more like by lack of time. The deer eat everything here too including so-called deer-proof plants.
The sage you describes sounds like the tricolor variety. I’ve grown that sometimes and it works well in recipes. The plant that is also called sage is actually one of the artimesias from the prairies. Once it gets to a good size I’ll see about getting a photo posted.
It is warm here this morning at 51 degrees so we savor these days while we have them.
herb lawns – brilliant idea! lemongrass, corsican mint, basil, yummy. love the pairing here… sharper dominant with a calming gentler companion… Very Lovely!
I think if it was a woman’s job to tend to the ‘lawn’ grass would go away like the dinosaurs. I love your combinations! One image was backlit by the sun, then the sun had the audacity to move behind the house…which turned the lavender into a far less contrasting image. I liked both though. Thank you so much for your awesome comment! ~amy
I struggled with lavender forever…the only one that still lives (and the one i photographed) is the lavender native to Alabama(or perhaps the South). Perhaps your state has some type that will grow where you are. That is one thing that nurseries never tell you…some things will not thrive, if planted in the wrong place/state. Just like me, they want to go home. ~amy
So true! I live in England and this reminds me of a type of grass my workplace laid in the North East of England (it’s much colder and wilder up there)… it all died during the winter and no one could work out why until a local gardener came over and pointed out that it wasn’t a native type of grass, it looked much finer than the rough and ready stuff in the North of England. So we ended up letting nature take it’s course and after a few years the local grass spread all over the area. I shall go and see if I can find any local lavender! Thanks 🙂
Wouldn’t it be great? My ex-husband planted mint in my garden bed. I begged him not to…nothing spreads like mint. I jokingly told my daughter that i would plant it in the lawn & when i mowed the mint, everyone would stop driving past their house & would suddenly crave a Peppermint Patty! My daughter was upset, i told her it was a joke. She is still trying to get her sense of humor back. ~amy
You have a friend that grows it commercially?! Have you ever took photos of her fields of lavender?! Wow…i would image it to look like the famous photo of the lavender fields in France, shot during the golden hour with the yellow house. GO, Julie!! And then let me know you did! Please! ~amy
These are lovely, delicate images which reflect the subject well. One question though, the contrasts seem different on them and personally prefer the first. Only my opinion though
Thank you, cadephotographic. The contrast is different because the first image is backlit to the morning sun. The second one was not…no matter where you’re shooting, the sun will never hold still for long. 🙂 ~amy
2me4art 
I have tried to get good pics of lavender flowers, but can’t quite capture their beauty the way you have. Now if only there were a smellograph….
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That is funny! I was thinking, while i was shooting AND SMELLING the lavender, if there was such a thing as a smellograph, people would have nose prints on their screens! I took about 15 photos of the lavender, those are the only two that i liked. I have since cut them all to bring inside to dry AND oh, they smell so yummy!!!! Thank you, Jo! ~amy
LikeLike
In the house where I grew up, some ancestor had planted in the garden, a lawn covering of thymes….regular and lemon. We added other fragrant creepers when we put in brick walk. it was wonderful to walk and smell the fragrance of the herbs. I think back in the olden days, many people would do that. I think that would be a wonderful thing to start anew…a field of lavender though….oh my.
LikeLike
WOW, it was really done once?! I know people would put herbs along with hay on their home’s floors. Lawns are killing the planet, or so i’ve been told. I read that if everyone stopped cutting & putting herbicide on their lawns & white roofs on their homes America’s energy debt would be paid off in a few years. Lawns are status though. At least for men. I have a lawn & my ex-husband would obsess over it. He would spend almost all day working on it. Me? I’d rather plant wildflowers, lavender, a little mint…now? i would add thyme. Thank you for sharing your amazing childhood home. What a place of magic for you. Lucky you. ~amy
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Yes, they truly did. I forget what the term was for it but I call it fragrant walks….Mints, thymes, any of the low to the ground spreading fragrant herbs would do. Our lawn? Hah! We don’t put stuff on it or do watering – we cut it. We live out in the country in a small neighborhood and basically, we just all cut our grass. Green in the summer, brown in the winter…But all those chemicals are not good, that is true. My father and many others often just throw lime (not the pelletized) on their lawns in the fall when it is rainy so it goes into the grass – makes it “sweet” they say…but it does make the grass so very green in the spring and summer. Lime is a natural thing – calcium carbonate? not sure but it is dug from the earth and powderized. Folks also use it around hen runs or in their outhouses to keep it “sweet”….I think It neutralizes a lot of the alkaline in the soil. I think a lawn of just wild flowers that grew and bloomed cyclically would be gorgeous. You’d always have bouquets and in the fall, birds would have extra seeds to much on. I imagine folk in CA are having fits with the drought and not being able to keep up those lawns. But places like in parts of AL where they have golf courses that add to the economy, it’s good we aren’t having droughts to keep those nice.
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My ex-husband used to put just lime on the lawn, but then it didnt’ work fast enough for him any longer. Since he left, everything is growing like wildfire. Alabama Gulf courses…i see acres of grass with two people playing. it is too hot to play in the summer. There are GIANT fans blowing hot air at them in hopes to keep them playing. I don’t get it. Why so many, when so few dare to play? I do cut the grass, but i do not put his “weed & feed” he left in garage. I leave the grass long when there is a drought & cut it after a few days of rain. I used to tell my ex-husband to think of grass as a thinning man’s hair, the sun won’t burn the scalp, if you leave it a little long. as in the sun won’t touch the soil & dry out the grass as fast if you raise the blade on the mower…he used to take my advice. And he saw that i was right. Long gone is he & me & the lawn are better for it! 🙂 ~amy
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Bless you. It does seem you are truly the better. I know, up here in Richmond, we frequently see travel ads for Alabama – not just the coast but those golf courses. I go into hibernation in the summer – can’t deal with the sun and heat. I never did understand golf anyway – walking about in all that sun and heat – stroke (not pun intended) waiting to happen. I imagine you miss the cooler temps of Vermont. This is the time of year when my stove basically is not used – slow cooker used more than in winter. I fixed meatloaf in the slow cooker the other day and my husband said I should continue – that as good as my regular was, this was much better. Also did a berry bread pudding in the slow cooker as well….to die for. Yes, men are funny about those lawns. I’m glad my husband is happy to just let it get kinda long and then cut…..we live in a plain little country neighborhood and folks don’t try to be a “lawn attraction”…LOL
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I would, I would!!!!
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oh, a girl after my own heart! Thank you, L’Adelaide!!! ~amy
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That would mess with my little push mower, Amy. 😉
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You wouldn’t need a little push mower, Mark. You would need a pair of scissors so you can cut the lavender & give it to all your friends. OR you could have a lavender party…invite friends & hand them scissors & tell ’em to take as much as they’d like! ~amy
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That sounds like fun, Amy. 🙂 The party, I mean.
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I can’t grow lavender up here except on a flower pot on the porch. It’s too cold but there is one grass I would plant- sweet grass. It smells like rich vanilla and doesn’t mind the cold.
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Too cold up here is where? I’ve bought lavender a thousand times in Alabama, the one i’ve photographed here is the one type that is native in Alabama. Maybe you have a native type too? Still you do get some in a pot. That is very good. It is my favorite. I dry it & throw it on my rugs before i vacuum or i put the dried flowers in my canister vacuum…my house will smell wonderful. I am trying to think of a way to put it on my furnace filter, but maybe i’ll spend the $15 & buy the lavender oil at the health food store. What do you think of planting it instead of grass? Then i would look like i had France in my backyard. 🙂 ~amy
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Minnesota. But I’ve grown it sometimes in a flower pot for the summer. I tried a variety that was supposed to be zone 4 hardy but it froze. So no France here 😦
But there are a other mint relatives (like monarda and agastache) and other sweet scented plants. One I grow is called sage, although it is not related to any sages. It can be used in smudging or just braided and hung like a wreath. The sweet grass is used as a smudge and is also braided.
LikeLike
Zone 4 is pretty darn cold, its the same zone as my home state of Vermont. My love of gardening comes from her. She had an English style perennial garden. She also had deer that feasted on her bulbs, she called the deer, “bulb-breath” Alabama was/is a shocker as far as what will grow. I’ve tried to bring my favorites here. I have found a lilac bush-tree, really…for this zone. It looks a bit like Vermonts…but the flowers do not smell the same. Alabama is too hot & HUMID for so many favorites. But, i do get to grow pansies & Violia’s during winter, that is pretty cool. But everything is blah like November in Vermont. I have a beautiful type of sage that is grey/green/purple that is quite beautiful & it doesn’t die back in winter. Thanks for letting me babble on about Vermont. ~amy
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That must be a type of tree lilac. Are the flowers a sort of creamy-white?. Everyone here grows the standard purple lilac (which is in bloom now and smells wonderful this week). My flower garden is sort of a cottage type but not by design, more like by lack of time. The deer eat everything here too including so-called deer-proof plants.
The sage you describes sounds like the tricolor variety. I’ve grown that sometimes and it works well in recipes. The plant that is also called sage is actually one of the artimesias from the prairies. Once it gets to a good size I’ll see about getting a photo posted.
It is warm here this morning at 51 degrees so we savor these days while we have them.
Thanks for writing back.
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herb lawns – brilliant idea! lemongrass, corsican mint, basil, yummy. love the pairing here… sharper dominant with a calming gentler companion… Very Lovely!
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I think if it was a woman’s job to tend to the ‘lawn’ grass would go away like the dinosaurs. I love your combinations! One image was backlit by the sun, then the sun had the audacity to move behind the house…which turned the lavender into a far less contrasting image. I liked both though. Thank you so much for your awesome comment! ~amy
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sun, shadows, and children…. can be quite contrary LOL
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Yes it can! ~amy
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Sounds glorious! Have you got any tips for helping lavender grow? I really struggled with it in our garden 😦
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I struggled with lavender forever…the only one that still lives (and the one i photographed) is the lavender native to Alabama(or perhaps the South). Perhaps your state has some type that will grow where you are. That is one thing that nurseries never tell you…some things will not thrive, if planted in the wrong place/state. Just like me, they want to go home. ~amy
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So true! I live in England and this reminds me of a type of grass my workplace laid in the North East of England (it’s much colder and wilder up there)… it all died during the winter and no one could work out why until a local gardener came over and pointed out that it wasn’t a native type of grass, it looked much finer than the rough and ready stuff in the North of England. So we ended up letting nature take it’s course and after a few years the local grass spread all over the area. I shall go and see if I can find any local lavender! Thanks 🙂
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OH, I wish you luck, Lauren! Everyone should have lavender. ~amy
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I have always wanted a herb lawn…
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Wouldn’t it be great? My ex-husband planted mint in my garden bed. I begged him not to…nothing spreads like mint. I jokingly told my daughter that i would plant it in the lawn & when i mowed the mint, everyone would stop driving past their house & would suddenly crave a Peppermint Patty! My daughter was upset, i told her it was a joke. She is still trying to get her sense of humor back. ~amy
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🙂
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I have a friend who grows it commercially .. It is just glorious when it blooms. And I love purple 😊
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You have a friend that grows it commercially?! Have you ever took photos of her fields of lavender?! Wow…i would image it to look like the famous photo of the lavender fields in France, shot during the golden hour with the yellow house. GO, Julie!! And then let me know you did! Please! ~amy
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These are lovely, delicate images which reflect the subject well. One question though, the contrasts seem different on them and personally prefer the first. Only my opinion though
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Thank you, cadephotographic. The contrast is different because the first image is backlit to the morning sun. The second one was not…no matter where you’re shooting, the sun will never hold still for long. 🙂 ~amy
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