Sunday, July 17, 2022

Lavender Festival at Chatfield Farms



Yesterday, my husband, youngest granddaughter, and I attended the annual Lavender Festival held at the Denver Botanic Gardens extension at Chatfield Farmslocated at 8500 W Deer Creek Canyon Road in Littleton, Colorado. Chatfield farms is a 700-acre native plant refuge and working farm located along the banks of Deer Creek with facilities that include a visitor center, the historical Hildebrand Ranch, a restored 1918 dairy barn and silo, an 1874 Deer Creek Schoolhouse, and miles of nature trails and numerous wildflower gardens.  We love to visit the area as it is a short drive from our home!





More than 2,000 lavender plants of all kinds have been planted in a section of the garden and every summer a two-day Lavender Festival takes place.  We last attended in 2018--you can see that post on this link--so we were excited to return for a day of enjoyment.  There were garden tours, free entertainment in the amphitheater, barrel rides for the children (and adults!), demonstrations, a variety of food, dessert, and drink vendors, a farmer's market for fresh produce from some of the partners of our Community Supported Agriculture program, Lavender products made by local growers and artisans available for purchase and paintings and pottery available for purchase from local artists.



I love the smell of lavender and I have many plants growing in my gardens.  The good thing about it where I live is that the deer do not touch or eat it and it is a perennial plant that grows every year and spreads. I collect the lavender flowers to dry to make sachets for my linens and also use them as a spice in cooking  If you have some culinary lavender available try my Lavender Loaf Cake--click here for the recipe--everyone who tries it loves it!

There are many varieties of lavender planted at Chatfield Farms that can thrive in Colorado's climate and you can see PDF descriptions of them at this link. 




Chatfield Farms is full of other beautiful gardens full of flowers!





I was fascinated by the many colorful displays of coleus.





Chatfield Farms is also the location of an original farmhouse that is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1866, the Hildebrand family bought the log cabin and the surrounding land. In these dry grasslands nestled against the foothills, they turned a small cabin and vegetable garden into a thriving farm and ranch with 600 head of Hereford cattle. Over time the family extended the cabin and added clapboard to the exterior. The site also includes a schoolhouse (built in 1874); granary; icehouse; wood and blacksmith sheds. Recently renovated, the blacksmith shop is fully functional.






Now there is a Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) located at Chatfield Farms, growing seven acres of vegetables, flowers, and fruit for subscribers (shareholders) and farm stands.




Our granddaughter enjoyed the Lavender Festival and had fun exploring the labyrinth, the gardens, the willow sculpture art installation, and the farmhouse very much. I hope the day will always be a fun memory for her and instill a love for lavender in her life forever!


Do you love lavender?


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29 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Hello Pat,

I do love lavender, I have sachets in my dresser drawers.
The Lavender festival looks fun, beautiful views and lovely flowers.
The lavender loaf cake sounds yummy. Looks like a fun day with your granddaughter. Take care, enjoy your day and have a happy new week!

Penny from Enjoying The Simple Things said...

I do love lavender! I would have loved to have gone to that Festival. The artist that created the stick structure recently did one here at our botanical gardens.

NCSue said...

I bet that smells absolutely heavenly!
Thanks for sharing at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2022/07/milkweed-visitors.html

Barbara Rogers said...

How can anyone not love lavendar! I'd enjoy the festival, as well as seeing those antiques in the home...and a working blacksmith shop too! Stay cool!

Tom said...

...Pat, this post is jam packed with beautiful images! The blue sky and puffy clouds set them off.

Carol @Comfort Spring Station said...

Lavender field are always beautiful but the other gardens are also gorgeous

Tom said...

...Pat, this post is jam packed with gorgeous colors and the blue skies and puffy clouds are the frosty on the cake.

Ruth Hiebert said...

Oh that looks like so much fun. I know Lavender smells really good, but unfortunately cannot smell it or any other scent anymore.

Janice said...

I had lavendine, a variety of lavender for lower altitudes, in my old yard. Would harvest the seeds for use around the house. Lovely photos.

ellen b. said...

I do enjoy lavender and we have about 6 full plants right now. I just cut some to bring in. Your trip looked fun and I love the collages!

Tamar SB said...

Beautiful!!

Fun60 said...

I do love lavender and am lucky that there are lavender farms not too far away. At this time of the year they look beautiful with their blue and purple fields. I liked the photos of the coleus which seems to have gone out of favour here as I haven't seem much of it at all lately.

Jeanie said...

I would go crazy! I love lavender, love it. And can't grow it to save my soul. The fragrance had to be heavenly. What a wonderful day!

William Kendall said...

Beautiful shots.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

I do love it Pat, for all the reasons you cite, except that I've never tried the culinary variety. Another wonderful experience with your grand-daughter and I know she'll remember it always!

A few years ago we attended a lavender festival here in Lane County (up the McKenzie River a couple of hours away). We enjoyed it -- it was wonderful, but had not nearly as much as yours did -- ours was *all* lavender -- just what you could pick and the products the farm made, soap and such. No food. Now I'm wondering (and will research) whether what's grown here is different and can't be used for cooking. ... There is always something new to learn -- how lucky we are these days to have the whole world of knowledge right here at our fingertips!! ...

Linda said...

Lovely images! Yes, l like lavender.

Min Lilla Kokvrå said...

Of course I love lavender :) and my dream is to experience the large fields of lavender flowers in long rows in Provence in the south of France. Think the scent ... I love the scent of lavender!

Nancy Chan said...

I love the fragrance of lavender. It is a beautiful farm with rows of lavender plants. Beautiful photos with the blue sky and white fluffy clouds. So many colourful flowers and plants. Would love to check out the interesting original farmhouse.

Carol Benton said...

Oh, my goodness!! It all looks so beautiful (and fragrant). Looks like it was a wonderful event.
Thank you for participating in Talent-Sharing Tuesdays Link-Up 25.
Carol
www.scribblingboomer.com

Jim said...

Beautiful blooms and scenery.

Spare Parts and Pics said...

You're always visiting fun and interesting places! I love seeing photos of lavendar. They photograph beautifully!

Jocelyn said...

I've never seen Lavender fields before. Great capture.

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

Yep, I love lavender, both the color and the smell. Chatfield Farms looks like my kind of place.

Joanne said...

That sounds like such a fun day out! Thank you so much for sharing with us.

Mitzi said...

How wonderful! Lavender is awesome!! Beautiful collection!

Klara said...

that was an awesome outing. I love lavender.

DeniseinVA said...

I absolutely love lavender and so did my mother and sister. They swore by a few drops on the pillow at night gave them a good night’s sleep. I keep the dried flowers in my drawer. Wonderful photos and I could walk around here for hours.

Natasha said...

Such stunning images and yes, I am a huge, huge fan of lavender. Though they don't grow a lot in our part of the world, except the high mountains.

Thanks for sharing these awe-inspiring shots. I was also ogling at the sky and the wispy clouds, Pat.

And I can't wait to check your lavender cake recipe. :)

https://natashamusing.com/2022/07/6-months-of-balanced-flow-word-of-the-year-2022/

Rambling Woods said...

Oh I love lavender…..I can smell it from here…so relaxing..Michelle