The Mayfield Lavender farm is one of my new favourite places to visit in the summer. It is a 25 acre farm situated in Banstead, Surrey. There is a very specific time for the lavender to bloom from the middle of June until the August with the peak time in July. That’s lucky for me, I have been there three times now August 2017, June 2018 and now July 2019.

I keep coming back purely because it is so pretty. The first time I came here in the August, I had just started my new job. It was busy and I think I was a little anxious about being the best person I could be in the job. I started using the Calm app to help me sleep. There are calming pictures and stories on it and one of them contained a lavender field. I fell asleep wondering why I had never been to a lavender field. In the morning, I looked at the Facebook pictures of one of my colleagues, as one her profiles had her standing in a lavender field which turned out to be in France. So I was not going to be travelling to France on short notice (it was the August Bank Holiday weekend) so I Googled Lavender fields in the UK and this was the one that came up closest to me – I was going to be driving up from Portsmouth that weekend. There are however, plenty of other fields in the UK!

This year I went along with my husband and our friend. It turns out that it was only an 8 minute drive from where our friend lives in Croyden. We had a great time – mostly admiring the views and enjoying taking pictures in such beautiful scenery. This year there was a wildlife garden present which was so pretty. I bought some Lavender and Early Grey tea, some Lavender and Lemon jam and some Lavender and Lemongrass soap.

In June last year I went with my best friend. Again a great time. We took a ride on the tractor (£2 per person) that takes visitors around the field. It was this visit that my friend informed me that there were two types of Lavender grown in the field as she had dutifully studied the website in a way that I had not. English Lavender is Lavandula Angustifola, and Lavender x Intermedia (Grosso) which is a hybrid plant ( a natural cross-pollination of Lavandula Angustifola and spike lavender). If you look closely, which I admit, I did not at first, you will notice the differences. English Lavender has narrow leaves and short stems and barrel-shaped flower heads. The Grosso lavender has larger leaves, longer stems and larger flowerhead that are pointed at the tip. Theses stems carry three flowerheads with produce more oil (lavandin). There, a mini-lesson in lavender!

The pictures from below are from my first visit in August 2017. I only ever seem to get to the place on cloudy days and this day was at the very end of the lavender season. I went by myself, at the very end of the day so the place was more or less empty. Despite the clearly fading colours it was still beautiful. 

And there we have it – my three trips to the Lavender fields, may there be many more!

References: Mayfield Lavender Farm website