About Us

In the spring of 2005, the farm was hand cleared of scotch broom, blackberry vine, and gorse before spreading 2 truckloads of rotted fir bark and aged horse manure from Family 4 Stables and 400# of lime.  Bill Humphries came out with his tractor and tilled it all in to a depth of 6". 

The stumps that were uprooted during tilling were cleared and I started spreading 18,000 sq. ft. of landscaping fabric, staying one step ahead of John (Dutch) Nuyten who was installing the irrigation lines.  Liza Ehle of By the Sea Gardens became my gardening goddess when she helped me order all of the fabric, pins, and liner stock and offered her expert advice. 

I potted 600 lavender starts and watered and nursed them through the summer as the infrastructure was being completed.  By September 2005, we had planted 576 lavender plants into the ground and I continued to weed throughout the growing season.  Due to an extremely wet and windy winter with gusts up to 80 mph, there were 526 lavender plants remaining in the spring of 2006.

Since the farm is organic, only bone meal and lime were added this spring to boost the plants which tripled in size in about 2 months' time.  The first harvest started 8 months after the plants went into the ground and the farm produced over 66,000 stems of lavender in the first harvest in 2006.  The lavender is sold as fresh cut and dried bouquets and in products made on the farm. 

Propagation continues and the farm will have 1,000 plants by 2008.  The 4 lavender varieties being grown are Provence, Dutch, Super French, and Grosso.  They were chosen for their diversity of scent, color, hardiness, prolific oil production, excellent fresh cut and dried flowers for use in crafts, and good flavor for culinary purposes.  All of the plants are lavandins (lah-vahn-deens), an X intermedia hybrid which are superior in disease and pest resistance to standard lavender. 

At maturity, the plants will be 3' X 3' and create a drought tolerant hedge of blue-purple.  During a normal growing year, blooms will appear in June through October.  Due to Bandon's temperate climate, the plants occasionally sprout flowers even in December.  It's all up to Mother Nature.