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 Farms, located 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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Lavender Festival at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield Farms

About five miles from where I live is a wonderful extension of the Denver Botanic Garden at the Denver Botanic Garden Chatfield Farm.  Chatfield Farm is a 700-acre native plant refuge and a native farm located along the banks of Deer Creek in Littleton, Colorado, at 8500 W. Deer Creek Canyon Road. Facilities include the Earl J. Sinnamon Visitor Center, the historical Hildebrand Ranch, a restored 1918 dairy barn and silo, the 1874 Deer Creek Schoolhouse, 2.5 miles of nature trails, the Deer Creek Discovery children’s play area, and numerous wildflower gardens.  Every mid-July it holds a Lavender Festival. The festival includes lavender demonstrations, live music, craft and food vendors, farm tours, and activities for children. (All photos will enlarge if clicked on)

Since 2015,  Denver Botanic Garden horticulturists have planted thousands of lavender plants at Chatfield Farms. Fourteen different varieties of lavender range from purple to blue to pink to white in color.

As this sign states, Lavender is a new commercial cash crop for the state of Colorado, especially on the Western Slope of Colorado. Lavender is traditionally grown in the mountainous regions of the Mediterranean and in Northern Africa, as it prefers a hot and dry climate with plenty of sunshine. It also does well in Colorado, as we get over 300 sunny days a year and certain areas have the sandy, well-draining soil that lavender loves to grow in.

It was wonderful to walk among the rows of lavender and smell their soothing scent!

Lavandula (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. If you would like to see a Botanic Garden PDF of the varieties and descriptions of the lavender planted at Chatfield Farms click this link.

Lavender has many uses--click on the photos above to read how it has been used throughout the ages and where the name lavender originated.  I grow lavender in my garden and have used the dry buds for culinary uses in cookies and cakes, I also use the buds to make lavender scented sachets for my linen.

We also enjoyed listening to a bluegrass band, browsing the crafts and lavender product booths, and enjoying some food at the festival.

 

Lavender bouquets were very popular items for sale, as well as products made with lavender such as essential oils, soaps, lotions, candles, and honey. There were also jewelry, clothing, pottery, artwork, and other items for sale. We purchased some locally sourced lavender honey. 

We also visited the working farm to see what crops were growing. Produce is sold as part of the Chatfield Farms CSA. The Community Supporting Agriculture program (CSA) is the cornerstone of the Gardens' Urban Food Initiatives, growing seven acres of vegetables, flowers, and fruit for subscribers (shareholders) and farm stands.

We also enjoyed seeing the many beautiful flower gardens throughout Chatfield Farms, including one section where specific flowers were grown to use to dye cloth and threads.

There were also quite a few "Plein air" artists painting the lavender fields and plants.

Beautiful lavender...

...beautiful scenery. 

It was the perfect way to spend a day enjoying the Lavender Festival!

 Judging from all the brand new lavender plants that were planted this year, it looks like the Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms Lavender Festival will continue to grow through the coming years!

Do you like lavender? Do you grow it in your garden? 

If so, what is your favorite way to use your lavender?

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