Drying Lavender

Well it is back to work after all the excitement of Bilbo visiting, he is now on his way to matron of Down on the allotment blog, if you want to follow his adventures in London.I took my package to our local post office early on Saturday morning only to be told we in the Republic no longer have postal collections on Saturday! What a retrograde step in the middle of a recession when we should be encouraging business to our country.This and our sad record of rolling out broadband country wide puts us in the league of banana republics!
Our allotment harvest is getting colourful at this time of year, some of our chiogga beetroot,more courgettes, cauliflower,potatoes, the girls pulled all of their onions to take home, and bunches of lavender.
Potato Blight we thought we had escaped it but no,it struck within 2 days!The British Queens looked Ok....so far, but our late main crop of Golden Wonders were blackened. I did not have the camera with me that day to photograph them. I sprayed all of them again but I will have to cut down the stalks of any affected ones to try to save the potatoes underneath.All of the plots had blight in varying stages,some had escaped so we will have to compare notes to see which ones did not succumb
I tie the bunches with rubber bands as they contract as they are drying and fall out of string ties, a lesson learned last year.
I slipped the rubber bands over the hook of a clothes hanger, one with pegs for skirts is ideal.
I pegged a pillow case over the bunches and they are now hanging in my wardrobe to dry.For a couple of weeks my clothes will have a lovely lavender scent while it is drying out.The lavender falls down into the pillow case and then just roll the case around with your hands and any remaining lavender comes off easily.
These are new plants so I have not as much as last year but I will make some sachets to put in drawers or make gifts with.