Blog @ Purple Haze Lavender Ltd.

With the farm opening this next weekend, everyone is scrambling around making sure everything is in it’s place and the Drying Shed is clean, clean, clean. After sitting all winter it is quite the project readying the Shed and surrounding area.

Jose and I are busy pressure washing the outside and using a brightener on the cedar siding. When this dries, we’ll spray a nice clear stain on. This long, wet winter sure contributed to an abundance of mold and mildew on the outside of the building.

We hope to have a complete selection of lavender varieties for the opener on Saturday. Along with the usual 4″ offerings, we will have a limited supply of one gallon plants also.

We were fortunate this past week to partner with salon/spa giant Aveda. In a move to raise money to insure clean water in our Columbia River System, Aveda is ramping up a fund raising campaign by selling our lavender bundles in their downtown Seattle store. All proceeds from the sale will be used to insure a long life for that beautiful piece of water down south in our state. Purple Haze was happy to donate the lavender bundles for this worthy cause.

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With April rapidly approaching, the ladies of Purple Haze are busy cleaning and arranging the drying shed for an April 1st opening of the farm. It is just amazing every year how my wonderful staff can put it together and have it looking gorgeous in such a short time. For the opener this year we will have a fabulous selection of lavender plants available plus all of PH’s other products.

Yesterday found me on my hands and knees in my garden planting the first veggies of the year; sugar and chinese peas, a variety of salad greens, arugula and two types of spinach

We’ve installed a new web cam here at the farm. We’re gonna call it “lavcam” and hope to get it on many sites around the NW. It should be installed on our site in a week or so…now the public can watch the lavender grow in real time. Jose was instrumental in the installation of the camera in the upstairs window of the drying shed. Once again he showed his expertise in getting things done……

I spent the weekend in Neah Bay at some brand new cabins RIGHT ON the beach. The location is just to die for. It’s called Hobuck Beach RV and cabins. It’s just a wonderful location and I’m sure in a short time they will be booked all the time. I took some random shots of the cabins to show you their uniqueness…

At the farm we continue to plant lavender, replacing the old varieties. The fields are just about full now and we will start to weed in earnest, getting ready for the farm to open on April 1

A couple of weeks ago, we were visited by Paul and Jacqui Abbot, owners of Isle of Wight Lavender farm in England. It’s England’s largest lavender farm with over 600 varieties under cultivation. Paul and I hope to start exchanging cultivars in the near future.

Anyway, here’s a couple of shots of the cabins at Neah Bay…just beautiful

Jose has been planting like crazy between rainstorms and has this past week, stuck over 500 new one gallon Grosso plants in the ground. We’re seeing just the very first flush of green-grey in the plants now and in two weeks should see a full blown bud push. The birds are at the feeders big time now, and the willows are showing their furry fat buds. It’s pussy willow time at Purple Haze!

Purple Haze Lavender Farm
Originally uploaded by pattieky.

Wow this is a great photo of our farm.