Lavender bushes should be pruned back one-third every year during the winter season while the plant is dormant, which will allow the lavender to fill out even more the following season. Trim back a lavender bush for a bloom-filled future with instructions from a sustainable gardener in this video on gardening.

Making a lavender sachet is as easy as filling a sachet bag with screened lavender buds. Make a lavender sachet for a lingerie drawer that will ward off moths and insects withtips from a lavender-farm owner in this free video on lavender. Expert: Lila Avery-Fuson Bio: Lila Avery-Fuson owns and runs a Lavender farm with her husband and daughter in Paso Robles, California.

Watch this video for more information.

Filmmaker: Patrick Eaves.

Lavender buds are used inside neck wraps, eye pillows, sachets and comfort pillows to extract the aroma-therapeutic benefits of the herb. Discover the many uses of a lavender bud withtips from a lavender-farm owner in this free video on lavender.

Expert: Lila Avery-Fuson

Bio: Lila Avery-Fuson owns and runs a Lavender farm with her husband and daughter in Paso Robles, California.

Filmmaker: Patrick Eaves

One of the neat things about growing herbs is that you can grow them year round.  Herb garden plants grow very well indoors which means you can continue to have fresh herbs all winter. Plus, all the beautiful greenery really perks up your home.

There are many different herbs with many different uses.  In addition to adding wonderful flavor to your dishes, they can be decorative as well as produce a wonderful fragrance.  Herb garden plants are much nicer and healthier to smell than commercial sprays that are used to freshen the air in your home.  There is nothing like the sweet smell of a fresh herb garden when you walk into your home.

Herbs are also used for medicinal purposes.  They have been used for healing for hundreds of years.  A popular herb used for medicinal purposes is mustard seed.  It has been known to provide relief for sore muscles and arthritis when applied to the skin. It is used to help with respiratory problems and, when ingested, aids the digestive system.

If you are interested in growing herbs for medicinal purposes then do a little research to learn more about these herbs.  There are many that have lots of different healing properties.  You will find lots of information on the internet and there are some good books available that will tell you all about the many uses of various herbs. Before using medicinal herbs it is always a good idea to check with your physician.

Growing herb garden plants in your kitchen is great because, if you like to use fresh herbs for cooking, they are right there within easy reach.  If you have limited space you might want to choose which herbs to grow based on those you will use most when preparing meals.

A very popular herb and one of the easiest to grow is Italian herbs.  These herbs are great for cooking but are beautiful and have a wonderful fragrance as well. Some examples of Italian herbs are oregano, parsley, basil, fennel and garlic.

Some other ideas for your herbs include adding some fresh sage to your turkey dressing and adding thyme to spice up a Cajun dish.  Mint leaves added to iced tea makes a tasty drink to go with your meal.

Culinary herbs are excellent for growing indoors in the winter.  When the markets are low on supply you will have all the herbs you need right at your fingertips. You also have the added benefit of their wonderful aroma and beautiful foliage.

I shouldn’t speak of wonderful scents without mentioning lavender.  For fragrance this is perhaps the most popular of all herb garden plants.  It is known for its calming effect and is widely use in sachets and potpourri.  There is nothing like relaxing after an herb filled meal with the wonderful aroma of lavender filling the room!

If you plan to harvest your herbs for a purpose-crafting, culinary, medicine – you will need a garden designed to make this easier. Garden centers and libraries have dozens of books full of traditional and modern herb garden designs. Productive herb garden designs have several things in common.

Herb gardens are attractive even when scattered and disorganized, but for efficient harvesting of herbs, the productive herb garden needs a planned design. Walkways, compact-sized planting beds, and planned sun/shade exposure are three commonalities in herb garden designs.

The layout of your herb garden or multiple beds in your garden should take into account your need to harvest the herbs. Walkways or pathways between beds or within a larger garden plot will allow you to reach each herb. Paths can be grass, steppable groundcover plants, stone, gravel, wood-any flat surface wide enough to allow you to avoid damaging one plant to reach another.

Small planting beds make harvesting easier. Shapes such as circles, small squares and narrow rectangles are ideal designs for reaching all your herbs. Formal gardens often outline these shapes with shrubby herbs such as boxwood, lavender, marigold, or thyme. Productive designs allow you to reach every herb easily from your pathways.

Herb garden designs that place herbs with similar uses together make productive harvest much simpler. Designate one bed for medicinal herbs, another for culinary herbs, a third for aromatic herbs, or any division you want. Grouping or arranging herbs in pots in the same way will increase productivity in even the smallest herb garden.

Within your herb beds, you can further divide the herbs into how they are to be used. For example, marjoram, basil, lemon verbena, and peppermint area all medicinal herbs used for stomach upset. Group them together and you won’t need to reach far to get what you need. Creating an Italian dinner? If you’ve designed your culinary herb plot to group Italian spice herbs together, gathering the spices you need will be a snap.

Some herbs will need more sunlight than others. Ideal conditions often include 4 to 6 hours of direct sunlight per day. You can still plant your shade-loving herbs in a bed with sun-loving herbs if you arrange them so that taller, sun-loving herbs block the sunlight. Sunflowers are ideal for this-they love to hog the sunlight, and will protect more delicate leaves from the direct rays if planted on the southern side.

How will you be using your herbs? Large-scale productions such as commercial lavender farms need to simplify problems of harvest, weeding and pruning. Heavy landscaping cloth laid in rows, with small cut-outs for each plant, takes care of all three problems at once. Each plant is distanced from its neighbor to allow the farmer pathways between them. Planning and measuring before you plant, and knowing the needs of individual herbs, will increase your herb garden’s productivity no matter what herbs you grow.