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?
21 Comments
What is the fabric you used and where did you get it?! Your lavender is beautiful! We just moved and I’m learning how to garden in a new zone so great idea on trying a few different varieties. I’m basically doing the same in my vegetable garden to see what grows best here! I have never really done a “cut flower” garden but I’m trying to plan one now.
I’m planning to do this also, this season. I’ve been growing herbs for years and slowly getting rid of my grass. Really loving your channel! Cheers from Nova Scotia, Canada 🙂
You can’t eat the grass… 😉
Did you purchase or sow all of that lavender? I’d love to do something similar in my yard.
Honey bees aren’t native either, but they have been naturalized and are clearly beneficial. It’s one thing to not plant native, and another in choosing invasive species. Lavender is a great choice 👏🏻
Grass is overrated! I tore up alot of my front yard and made a huge butterfly garden. I raised monarchs, black swallow tail. And had so many pollinators. I'm in N.Y zone 6a cold northeast. I did grow lavender but after second year it didn't grow back.
Epic Gardening brought me here 👍🏿
I have been growing lavender in my Colorado garden for more than 25 years. The only choices we had back then were the English varieties, Munstead and Hidcote. Over the years I have added lots of varieties. Lavender loves it here. I have found that the English lavenders do reseed. I have a large patch that started with only 3 plants. I just weed out the plants that have seeded themselves in the wrong spot and move on. I have used shredded mulch without any detriment. Remember, I live in a very dry climate. There is no threat of drowning my lavender roots. I have wanted to plant lavenders on my septic field to see if that works. May try it this year.. Looking forward to seeing your field flourish! 💝
Thanks @epicgardening from finding me a Colorado gardener to follow!
And regenerative gardening! Hi there hello! I may have to go back and watch again if I missed the timelines… when did you start this process? I love this idea! Did you have to get a permit or anything to do this in your front yard? How would a large tree that drops small leave play into this picture. I think they’d be the only part that could keep be from doing this!
Every video you make speaks to me, inspires, and piques my interest-can I do this-is it a good idea for me? I may or may not do this ( funny I don’t seem to be able to grow lavender) but you gave me lots of tips and ideas. Thank you!
Thank you so much for the videos! I can’t wait to try something like this in our front yard.
I’m in zone 5b, other than Phenomenal, what other varieties do you grow or recommend?
I'm in central Alberta and I have Hidcote lavender that over winters well in zone 4. Testing Munstead this winter, hoping for the best. I find burying it in lots of snow, allows my lavender to handle the -40 Celsius we can get up here in the winter. And since deeper snow takes longer to melt, when we get a Chinook or a dryer winter with a lot of thawing and freezing, then plants stay tucked warm in their snow fort until actual warmth is here to stay. So far so good. Now I want to make rows of lavender too, but starting lots of plants by seed hasn't been all that successful. I've tried stratification for lavender seeds and still not many germinated. Next I'll try making cuttings.
#lawngoals!
Do cuttings this will save you a bucket load of money they trike really easily without even using rooting hormones
Oh I also noticed that goats don't eat it either they just keep your lawn trimmed and eat the weeds around the lavender for free!!! 😁
I found that Grosso worked for my place in Colorado at 6200 ft. I too have clay soil but would definitely like to grow more lavender.
Thanks for the awesome video
Love this! I’m doing it this year!! 💜 Question: are your videos from the second growing year? Or end of first? (Curious in terms of size of plant)
We are going to plant lavender on a couple of acres. Just curious if you have any problems with squirrels or other pests?
Question about the low water native grass that you planted in the walkways…do you need to mow or does it naturally stay short?