How has local lavender responded to drought?

NILES, Mich. -- We finally have a good balance of wet and dry weather in the 10-day forecast, but to get out of drought, it’s going to take more than just a few rainy days.

Although Michiana received a good amount of much needed rainfall this past weekend, making a dent in our rain deficit for the season, we are still maintaining our drought conditions with everyone under at least D1 status.

In South Bend, we’ve seen around 2.17 inches of rain so far in the month of June with nearly an inch of that falling on Sunday and Monday alone. Even with the help of recent heavy rain, we are still 1.52 inches less than the average for this point in the month.

In order to be pulled out of D0 conditions, we would need around 2 inches of rainfall over the next month across Michiana.

Despite drought, this purple plant perseveres! Lavender - which is currently in the middle of its season - isn’t impacted as much by dry weather as many other plants. Martha Wilczynski, the owner of Lavender Hill Farm of Niles, says that lavender is a very drought tolerant plant and can withstand dry conditions, but rain does make some difference.

“I am very happy that we started getting some rain though,” Wilczynski commented. “Sometimes if there's a drought, the flower stems are shorter than normal. People like nice long flower stems.”

As new types of lavender bloom, they seem to already be showing signs of improvement from the weekend’s rain.

Different varieties of lavender come and go throughout the season, but this farm expects to stay open through the end of July.

If you’d like to visit the farm, they are open on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6pm-8pm as well as Fridays from 3pm-7pm and Saturdays from 10am-2pm. It costs $5 for as much lavender as you can fit in a 5-inch-long twist tie.

You can find more information about Lavender Hill Farm here.