August: Lavender Pruning and Weeding

Pruning lavender mounds as goats weed.

August: Lavender Pruning and Weeding

This month we prune the lavender down into the even mounds it spends most of the year in. We then give the mounds a good watering, thank the lavender for a good year, and give it a couple of months to green up and harden off before the fallow period of the winter months.
The goats spend time in the lavender weeding what has grown up the last weeks. They are quite capable of learning not to eat the lavender, especially because they prefer the weeds! If any one of them starts in on the lavender mounds, a sharp “no” stops her. She then moves on to a weed, eyeing me questioningly. Yes! I say.
It is part of the cycle on our ranch. The goats’ manure is composted to bring the fertility which in turn builds the soil growing the plants that nourish the goats.
Goats browsing lavender field.