Because I am a head gardener of 6+acres of garden, and we have quite a lot of lavender, I have learnt you dont have to be too worried about how you prune.

Two rules - prune once, with shears before the first frost, but generally the best idea is to prune when the flowers loose their colour. And dont cut into bare wood, but leave about two nodes below your cut. This enables the stems to put on fresh growth the following year.

And get someone else to clear the clippings! Easy - peasy!!!

Linette Applegate

http://www.applegategardens.co.uk