Several of you have asked more about growing lavender and how to get started. Well I am no lavender expert but here is some basic advice and a few references if you want to read more. How does this tie in with Alpacas? Well it doesn't directly but its all part of making the most of your farm. Alpaca or otherwise.

Lavender is a nice potential niche crop, although two things come to mind first. One is to really research the market for lavender and find out what you are actually going to do with the flowers – sell them dried, fresh, for oils, make soap, and so forth. Doing thorough market research and talking with potential buyers would be an important first step before planting lavender.

I’d also counsel anyone to proceed slowly and start with an acre or less and see how the plants do on your property, how the markets shape up, etc. It is risky to put in many hundreds of lavender plants without first having an adequate business plan and marketing plan in place.

It is also wise to start small and build from a small acreage if you find success with this crop.

There are a number of resources on the web.

The Oregon Small Farms website has some resources on lavender:

WSU has a whole page on production and marketing:

ATTRA has information on growing lavender as well:

Many thanks to Melissa Mathewson at the OSU Small Farms Extension
Southern Oregon Research & Extension Center