Grab Your Shears and Ignore Your Fears

If you fear grabbing your shears and whacking back a plant or two, you aren’t alone.

But you need not be afraid!

This is a slightly blurry picture of some lavender that famously grows in The Vegetable Garden Cathedral at the end of a raised bed beside a giant boulder.

It looked so nice earlier this summer when it was in full bloom, but I didn’t cut any for myself. I left it all for the bees and let it go to seed. Then, this morning, while harvesting some green beans in the raised bed next to the lavender, I decided it was time to give that lavender a big cut-back.

It looked like this:

And now it looks like this.

Ten minutes of work, using Jakoti shears.

Now, some of you might gasp to see how it looks after being cut back. “Is that better, Carol?” “Did you cut back too much, Carol?” Weren’t you afraid of killing it?

It is better. I didn’t cut back too much. I wasn’t a bit afraid.

Trust me, that plant is now breathing a sigh of relief and is happy to have better airflow around it and through it. I may even go back and cut out a bit more because there was a lot of dead stuff in the center and I don’t think I cut it all out.

Regardless of whether or not I do that, I am confident that in a few weeks, the lavender will start to push out some new growth, and there will still be time for it to harden off before the first frost.

I was not afraid. You should also not be afraid to cut back your lavender or any other plant that looks like it has gotten a bit out of control. Just grab your shears and ignore your fears. Your garden will be that much better for it.

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