lavender tender or urban girl meets her own backyard

I usually have my lavender processed by the first week in July. What happened this year? I was not paying close attention to the garden or the calender. So now I'm scrambling to cut the deep purple 'Grosso' and pale lavender 'Provence' stems before all the buds are open and dropping to the ground! Keeping in mind the perils in my untended garden, umm, those blood-sucking ticks on the swaying weeds, I'm compelled to overdress for the occasion. Long pants, rubber knee boots, garden chapeau, bug spray and clippers...urban girl meets her own backyard. Darn! There was no one to capture this vision digitally, or at least I don't think there was.

I grew up in the suburbs of San Francisco, moved to the city or rather, to Los Angeles for college, then to Manhattan and up to the Hudson Valley, never really touching the earth until I moved to the East End of Long Island 16 years ago. The passion for gardening was fleeting, as there was too much nature to contend with. (I dream of caring for a tickless rooftop patio! This coming from our household's best tick magnet!) Anyway, the lavender remains without too much help from me...hey, I did weed! This year the younger plants have matured and are yielding more lavender than ever. So the cut stems become lavender wands...drying out and then woven with my hand-dyed velvet...