and the Rolling Hills just a little
north of greer south carolina sits a
unusual piece of south carolina
agriculture I'm here today with Mary
Bergstrom of Southern Hills lavender and
we're in a lavender field Mary this is
quite unusual for us it's not a crop
that we commonly think of in South
Carolina so I'm just gonna start while
lavender we decided on lavender because
we both wanted a business to call our
own and we're both plant people and we
thought lavender would be something that
we could possibly handle and still keep
full-time jobs well we did a lot of
homework a lot of research volunteering
on other farms and it is now my
full-time job Oh awesome and who's the
other half of week my husband Tim Tim
Bergstrom and he still has his full-time
job but he helps out here as much as he
can
well like I said lavender is a really
kind of unusual crop for us here in
South Carolina and so obviously it's
popular for aromatherapy and you know
people may be from the familiar with it
from that standpoint but what are some
of the other uses of lavender you can
use lavender for so many things you can
use it from everything to help you sleep
help you relax
to using it in cosmetics and lotions and
things that smell good candles but you
can even eat lavender oh well so it's an
herb just like rosemary and thyme sure
and a lot of people don't realize that
you can eat it there's different kinds
that may taste different and then you
can use lavender in decorations you can
use it in weddings you can dry it and
use it dried or you can keep it fresh
and use it fresh so there's a lot of
different uses that's awesome and what
is the season for lavender here in the
Upstate of South Carolina so here on
this farm we have two main types and one
will start blooming earlier the
angustifolia is our smaller plants with
shorter stems and their oil is sweeter
those will start probably about mid-may
and then we have our bigger plants here
these are intermedius and they will
start blooming later and they'll go
so maybe about mid June and besides your
two different types the smaller ones and
the larger ones I know that you have a
lot of different varieties or cultivars
can you talk about a few of those what
are some of your favorites so currently
we have 11 different cultivars and
worldwide there's something like 400 oh
and there's things every from everything
from a pink lavender and a white
lavender there's light purple dark
purple there's the you know the long
stems the short stems one of my personal
favorites would be royal velvet which we
have on a row over here and it's really
deep it looks like velvet and we also
use that in our culinary because it
gives the foods a really good color and
it's got a really great taste to it I
also do love our Grosso which is kind of
your typical lavender that people will
look for ask for and it's got a really
great color and the stems can get to be
to about two feet long they're gorgeous
so obviously the lavender here grows a
little different than a lot of other
crops do so how about talk a little bit
about your production method here that
another growing in the ground but tell
us about this gravel and what's going on
so it's a great question because
lavender is not native to you know South
Carolina especially and where it's
native to they have less rain less
humidity better drainage so the biggest
lesson is lavender does not like wet
feet so here we have these mounded rose
and they're about eight inches tall and
that's to help with drainage the field
is on a slope to also help with drainage
and then we also have further spacing
between the plants and between the rows
to give them air flow to help with the
humidity and we also have this gravel
and people always ask about the gravel
and it's for a couple of reasons
one is to help protect the roots because
we've got fabric underneath the gravel
to help keep the rows permanent and that
could make the roots too hot so it helps
protect the roots but its main job is to
reflect sunlight back into the plants to
help dry them out so when we do have a
humid
day it can help you know dry out the
center of the plants and as we've been
sitting here I've just marveled at the
number of pollinators and other
beneficial insects we've seen three or
four species of bumblebee we've seen
honey bees butterflies I think this is a
really great crop that's a lot of the
herbs are for attracting and supporting
beneficial insects so I apology for for
that and I believe you said you even
have some hives on property we do we
have five hives up on our hill and I
love watching all the bees and the
buzzing pollinators come to the plants
and the people who come to the farm
really love seeing all the different
things that are flying around the plants
fortunately for me the way I first got
introduced to you was right after you
started planting you had some challenges
that you contacted us about and I just
wondered if you could talk about
especially early on what some of the
challenges were getting started for you
as a new farm owner
so yeah the extension was invaluable and
working with Clemson University has been
invaluable so what happened was when we
planted the farm we had three different
suppliers that we got our original
plants from and one of the suppliers
delivered disease material and the
disease was in the soil and we didn't
know it and so we planted the field and
the two rows that are behind us here if
you can see them with the fabric the we
planted early May and then we had a big
rainstorm and it got really hot at the
end of May and 90% of those plants were
dead
so we sent soil samples to the problem
plant clinic and we got you know hooked
up with extension and Clemson University
and we have learned so much about what
this disease is how to work with it how
to you know really make sure we're not
contaminating other areas and so this
disease likes our area because it gets
hot and wet so hot you know we're in the
summer and we had a rain storm yesterday
that could be helping you know the
disease spread and you'll harm some of
the plants
it is something that backyard gardeners
might possibly see and if they see that
their lavender is starting to die they
can send a sample into the problem plant
clinic and find out what's going on yeah
so Mary we've really enjoyed being here
today and touring your farm and I know a
lot of other people around the state
would love to come visit you tell folks
about when you're open how they can get
in touch with you if they want to come
see this fabulous farm so in general our
season would be something like mid-may
to mid-june depending on if it's the
angustifolia is or the intermedius
blooming and so to get the most
up-to-date information you can either go
to our website which is Southern Hills
lavender calm or go to our facebook
which is facebook.com slash Southern
Hills lavender Mary it's been a pleasure
visiting with you today we've had lots
of fun touring your beautiful lavender
farm thank you for coming and I can't
wait to try some of that wonderful
lavender lemonade that you promised us
yeah let's go get that
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