This morning I harvested the lavender on my terrace. Each bush throws a spray of long stalks on top of which tiny purple flowers grow in tight clusters. The flowers are replaced by seeds, which contain the fragrant oil. The trick is to harvest the plants before the wind dries the seeds and blows them off. The stalks are tied into small bundles, which can be used to repel insects of all sorts: mosquitoes, flies, wasps, moths. The first harvest was quite a delight. After all, only fifteen small lavender bushes grow on my terrace. Planted last April, they produced only five bundles.