Expert: Sijka - 4/30/2004

Question
Hi. I live in south western New Hampshire and would like to plant lavender in front of my home. I have a small doublewide mobile home (just bought last fall) that has a big built up planter area (it is about 10 feet wide by 3 feet deep and goes up about 2 1/2feet from the ground.  It is this weird stone wall looking type thing.  Anyway, I would like to pull out the ugly ivy stuff and put in lavender.  However, at my old home, I could never get lavender to grow.  What soil does it need and do you think I could do this there?  Is there a particular lavender that doesn't grow much over 2 feethigh?  The space is in front of my bay window.  I don't like ivy and I love lavender and thought I would like this.  If not, do you have any suggestions as to what might be nice there?  I have looked at magazines and books but can't wrap my mind around all the different plants.  At the old house I had plenty of room for all kinds but here I am limited.  Any ideas would be so helpful.  thanks.

Answer
 Lavender is not a hardy plant.  There are MANY kinds of lavender though.

Please go to these websites for further info:

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/herbs/lavender.html

http://www.frontrangeliving.com/garden/lavender.htm

on this next one, scroll down to the lavender and find the "evergreen" variety.  They are n=more hardy but may not do well over the winter, depending which growing zone you live in.

http://www.nhg.com/Db/ihernama.htm

Hope this helps you!

Sijka