Putting Gravel In Potted Lavender Plants: Why It Is Recommended And What The Benefits Are

If you want to keep a lavender (Lavandula spp.) plant or two on your patio or front steps, we can totally relate. Whether you want to harvest the fragrant flowers and foliage for culinary creations, home decor, or simply to pop in a vase as a whimsical reminder of the Mediterranean, this herb has many uses. When you're container gardening, you can encourage more blooms on your lavender plants with one simple addition to the soil: gravel. It will make your plants healthier overall, too. If you're wondering what the specific benefits of adding gravel are, this rocky soil amendment helps with drainage in potted lavenders and encourages lean, alkaline conditions, ensuring your container-grown member of the mint family thrives.

Lavender is an easy-to-grow herb that's perfect for gravel gardens, including container gardens. Drainage improves when small pieces of rock are present in the soil, and plants are less likely to succumb to rot and fungal diseases. But drainage isn't the only reason to add gravel to the growing medium of your favorite flowering herb. Lavender prefers a soil pH on the alkaline side. Since the minerals and elements released by some types of gravel can increase soil alkalinity, adding these small rocks may help keep the soil within the pH range lavender prefers. Plus, lavender grows best in poor soil rather than soil that's rich in organic matter. Rocks take up space in the pot, leaving less room for nutrient-rich soil.

Now that you understand why adding gravel to the soil is recommended, you can easily plant lavender in pots and keep the herb healthy. You can provide your plant with the adequate drainage, correct soil pH, and low soil fertility it needs. When adding gravel to your potting mix, you may need to adjust the ratios based on your local climate and growing conditions. A good starting point is using 25 percent gravel in your soil mix. If you're growing lavender in a humid or rainy area, take extra care to provide good soil drainage. And growing lavender in a pot rather than in the ground can also help these plants thrive when native soils contain a lot of clay or are naturally acidic, both conditions that aren't ideal for this herb.

There are different types of lavender. English (Lavandula angustifolia) is perennial in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 5 to 9, while Spanish lavender (Lavandula stoechas) is only recommended for Zones 8 and 9. There's also French lavender (Lavandula dentata), which is adapted to zones 8 to 11. All of these types of lavender grow well in gravelly soil and require full sun. However, there is one caveat to using gravel as a soil amendment for potted lavender. If you are using clay-heavy soil from your garden in the planter, adding small pieces of rock can actually make drainage worse.