So goes the song and so must every garden have a few lavender shrubs to chase away bugs from the rose bushes.  I prefer the kind of lavender with the long stalks so I can make pretty braids and or cut the tips short to fill up my sachets with fresh lavender and place them inside the closets and wardrobes.

The braids are easy to make. You take a bunch of fresh cut stalks and bind them tight towards the cut ends. Then fold them upside down to hide the ends on the inside. Braid the stalks like a thick braid of hair and finish with a nice satin ribbon in your favorite color to hang wherever you please. The smell is hypnotizing, the only one like it is Aqua Lavanda Puig which I buy in Spain.

The most common use of lavender, if not in the perfume and olfactory business, is the sachet (tiny bag)  of lavender flowers to perfume your linen closet, keeping out moths and making everything hanging inside smell delectable.

For the sachets you take a pretty  length of cotton cloth about 18 cm x 6 cm, stitch up the sides and run a wide band around the top to put in a drawstring. The flowers are culled, sewn into a tiny bag of mesh and covered by a cotton bag with embroidery or the like, then tied with a length of satin ribbon.

If possible, construe the outer bag so the inside one can be replaced each year. Fill the sachet with the mesh bag of lavender blossoms and pull the string tight. The flowers need replacing every year since the aromatic oils evaporate after a short while.

For those who wish to use lavender in soap, there are the fantastic Savon de Marseille blocks. There are several shops in Marseille that offer a private visit in their factory at the back. Pure savon de Marseile is made of nothing but soda and olive oil and lavender oil. One can buy them in a fish form or as blocks and in various other combinations.

I myself am a Pisces, so naturally, I bought fish soaps to give to my friends and family. Sniffi sniffidee snuff, now it is enough!