Pruning woody Lavender?

Hello everyone - I'd like to ask if anyone has advice about lavender! In the house I recently moved into, the front garden (which is quite small) is filled with about a dozen lavender plants. They are looking lanky and woody though there are green leaves on the tops. Can I prune these back now or is it the wrong time of year? I think the front garden is far too small to have unkempt looking plants and I'm in a location where there is quite a lot of foot traffic passing by besides. I would like it to look a little nicer I'm tempted to pull it all out and start over again.

 

Might be best to take a few cuttings and just give them a light trim now.

Cutting into old wood is not recommended.

 

Lavender does not shoot well from old wood. I think I would have them out and replace with some young ones and then trim these back after they have flowered.

 

A couple of 'cheats' for lavender.

1. Dig it up, then dig the hole deeper. Replant, and add soil so that you've effectively sunk the whole bush down til just the top few inches of green are showing.

2. As 1, but back fill with sand instead of soil. Then a year later, you can carefully scoop the sand away and the wood will have rooted. Like cuttings except without the gamble, as the originalroots are still supporting the plant while new roots are developing.

3. Carefully push the outer branches flush to the ground and peg them down. They'll eventually root into independent plants, then you can cut out and remove the original middle.

 

Thanks everyone!