How to Make Lavender Oil & Lavender Bundles
What does collecting lavender or have to do with a hiking blog? Good question!
One of my favorite things about hiking is getting the chance to discover wild herbs and other edibles to gather on nature trails. Learning about the plants on the ground helps you develop an appreciation for nature that enriches your time in the outdoors. While lavender plants don’t generally grow in the wilderness, the plant is a popular choice for parks, footpaths, and tended trails. Since it’s an extremely hardy plant, it can survive in areas with a lot of foot traffic. Lavender plants also boast pretty purple flowers. They typically blossom in late spring through summer, with another rush of color in late summer or early fall.
Aside from being beautiful and hardy, lavender smells amazing. This is why I’ve planted lots of it in my own home garden. The scent is known for its calming properties – lavender oil can help ease insomnia and reduce stress.
When I hike along a lavender lined trail, I love to pluck off a few flowers, hold them to my nose, and breathe deeply. Inhaling this super soothing scent enhances my mood and makes me feel relaxed and more connected to nature.
Lavender is a versatile herb. It’s easy to gather and to use – you can carry that feeling of walking outdoors on a lavender lined path into your home! This article will cover a couple of ways you can gather and use lavender in nature. Read on to learn how to make pretty lavender bundles and sweet scented lavender oil:
Lavender Bundles
If you find yourself out on a nature trail lined with lavender, pluck off several sprigs to make a little lavender bundle. Then, when you cross paths with a pine tree, gather a few pine needles and weave them together to form a ribbon to tie up your mini bouquet. Voila! You now have a lavender bundle, perfect to lay on a pillow, tie up on top of a nature-inspired gift, or to simply hold in your hand and enjoy.
How to Make a Lavender Bundle
To make a lavender bundle, you don’t need any special skills. Even children can easily create these sweet-smelling, pretty bouquets while out on the trail. If you’re looking for a way to make a simple walk outdoors more exciting for your kids, show them how to make lavender bundles while hiking.
Start by picking a few sprigs of lavender – you’ll want to leave just a bit of stem to secure the lavender bundle together. No special tools required – just snap off the flowers and gather them together like so:
Next, pick up a few pine needles and braid or twist them together. Soon, you will have a little pine rope, which you can used to secure your lavender bundle.
Use the pine rope to wrap around the stems of the flowers tightly. Then, push the end of the pine needles through the loop to tie up your bundle. Your lavender bundle is now ready to enjoy!
How to Make Lavender Oil
If you’re up for a project that takes more time and patience, try lavender infused oil, a soothing salve that has many uses. Lavender oil has traditionally been used to ease the pain of stings and burns, to treat eczema and other skin conditions, to scent bathwater, for massage, and even for cooking and baking. Infused oil is simple to prepare – all you need is some high-quality oil and lots of dried lavender. You can use edible oils (like extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut, or almond oil) for a more versatile finished product that can be used for cooking and baking or use jojoba oil for an extra boost of skin soothing magic.
Gathering the Lavender
For lavender infused oil, you don’t need a huge amount of lavender (as opposed to lavender essential oil which requires a large amount of lavender and some special equipment). To begin, you’ll need to collect a few cups of lavender blossoms while you’re out hiking. Bring along a pair of garden shears to make the job go faster.
Where lavender is planted, there is usually so much overgrowth that you can easily collect it without affecting the appearance of the plants on the trail. If you’re worried about it, try gathering a few flowers from several plants. You can also find more lavender to collect in gardens and parks – this stuff grows all over the place, especially in Mediterranean countries.
The next step is to dry your lavender. I like to hang mine upside down just off our kitchen or in bedrooms – it looks beautiful and smells fabulous while it dries. If you’d like the process to go a bit faster, you can lay the lavender out on a cookie sheet in an oven set to a low temperature or just leave it out in the sun for a few days. Now your lavender is ready to be used to make lavender oil.
How to Make Lavender Oil
Materials:
- A mason jar
- Carrier oil (olive, almond, jojoba, coconut, avocado)
- Dried lavender
Once your lavender is thoroughly dried, find a mason jar and fill it with dried lavender leaves and buds. Discard the stems. Then, cover the dried lavender with oil and close the jar. Set it aside in a cool, dark place, making sure to shake the jar once daily so that none of the lavender stays floating on top.
After three weeks have passed, it’s time to strain your lavender oil.
Take a fine mesh sieve and line it with a cheesecloth (I use a very thin cloth napkin). Pour the oil through. Then discard the lavender. You now have delicious smelling, multi-purpose lavender oil.
This oil makes a great massage oil for hands, feet, and temples. You can also add a few drops to hot bathwater or dab onto a wool dryer ball before drying your bedsheets. A restful night’s sleep is just a few drops of homemade lavender oil away!
Bring Nature into Your Life
There are so many different benefits that come with hiking and exploring the outdoors. Discovering wild herbs is one of them. Each time I find new things to collect on the trail, I love to figure out how to use what I’ve gathered. Turning wild plants into home-enhancing oils and bouquets is a wonderful way to bring nature back into everyday life.
How to Make Lavender Oil:
- Gather a few cups of lavender blossoms/ leaves from a plant outdoors
- Tie the lavender together and leave it to dry in a sunny place indoors for several weeks.
- Remove the leaves and flowers from the stems.
- Discard stems.
- Put leaves and flowers in a mason jar.
- Fill the jar with a carrier oil (olive, coconut, almond, avocado, jojoba).
- Cover the jar and allow it to steep for three weeks, shaking occasionally.
- Pour the oil through a strainer lined with a cheesecloth. Discard lavender.
- Enjoy your lavender oil! You can use it to scent pillows, rub into your skin, or for cooking and baking.
How to Make a Lavender Bundle:
- Gather a few sprigs of lavender outdoors.
- Break off the stems, leaving a small amount to tie bundle together.
- Find a few pine needles.
- Weave or braid pine needles together to form a rope.
- Tie your rope around your lavender bundle.
- Secure the rope by tucking it through.
- Enjoy your lavender bundle! You can lay it on a pillow or place it on top of a gift.