This lavender drying activity was originally published in September 2013 and has been updated and republished for you today
Pick and dry lavender from your garden to use in home made lavender bags or potpourri. This is a fun sensory-rich garden activity for kids.
Kids adore picking flowers. They pick them to incorporate into imaginary play games such as decorating mud pies, making magic potions, creating posies to put in a vases and also just because they look and smell nice.
Picking flowers to dry and use in lavender bags is one way to put them to a real-life purpose, and my kids enjoyed this “real activity” just as much as their pretend play flower games.
I remember as a child making lavender bags from scraps of material to put in my clothes drawer. I loved the way they smelled and remember how proud I felt of the ones I made, so I have been meaning for some time now to make them with the kids.
My green-thumbed mother’s thriving lavender garden at the back of her yard gave me the perfect opportunity. Last time we visited, we decided to pick and dry some.
To be honest I’m a bit of a novice at flower and herb drying, but Mum does it all the time so she showed us how to do it.
Often when the girls pick flowers from our garden they will cut the stems right up close to the flower, so I showed Miss K how to keep the stems long enough to bundle up later.
She loved picking and smelling them.
I wasn’t sure how much lavender we would need to make our bags, so we picked a huge arm full just to be sure we have enough.
We tied them into three bundles and have now hung them upside down in an airy place in the house to dry. “How long do you need to hang them for” I asked Mum, who replied “until they’re dry”. This is typically 2-4 weeks.
You can use your dried lavender to make simple lavender bags. Either sew them by hand or simple use a ribbon to tie a small piece of material into a bundle around a small pile of lavender.
Put your lavender bags into into clothes drawers to keep them smelling nice – this is especially good for out of season clothes that won’t be worn for a long time.
How to Dry Lavender
Materials
- lavender
- string
Tools
- scissors
Instructions
- Pick a large bunch of lavender with plenty of stalk left on the flowers
- Tie into bundles
- Hang upside down from a hook on your wall or leave on a shelf under a windowsill that gets plenty of sun for 2-4 weeks until the flowers have dried
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