Vashon Islander Elsa Croonquist called the newsroom Thursday to let us know that the sixth annual Vashon Lavender Farm Tour is coming up, July 19 and 20, and wouldn't we like to write about lavender?

You bet, Elsa. I am just discovering the nuances of lavender. I'm becoming lav-obsessed. I spent some time at the Ambergardens booth at the Tacoma Farmers Market Thursday with my nose buried in different pots of it, trying to decide which variety to buy. (Read this post for what lavenders were at last week's Ambergarden booth.)

My first adventure in growing lavender: blue cushion. This Thursday at market day, I'd like to buy a royal velvet and silver frost. What next? Any suggestions? Maybe I'll do an entire garden bed with just different varieties of lavender. On second thought, maybe not. The aroma might be a bit ... confusing. I do rather like the idea of planting the lavender in proximity to the seating areas in my back yard. It's a wonderful thing, to stumble across a cloud of lavender.

I started doing some research and here are a few interesting links I found. I think this link is a good place to start, it has all kinds of details about growing and selection. And, this link to a WSU fact sheet on lavender also is a nice source of information for our climate.

So what's next for me and the lav? Watch for an article about lavender in the Home&Garden section on July 19. I don't know what I'll write yet, but I'll come up with something. Or my fellow garden blogger Craig Sailor will tell me what to write. He's good at that.

Note: Here is a link to the big Sequim lavender festival, which is the same weekend as the Vashon lavender festival (I smell a Get Growing blog field trip to both).