Old neglected lavender

We’ve moved into a house with a lovely, but neglected, old lavender plant that’s been left to its own devices for several years. It’s grown quite large and has spilled out from the wall border onto what used to be lawn.

We’re planning to reclaim that top section of the garden to lay a patio, but we’d really like to keep the lavender growing along the wall if possible. The parts of the plant extending into the lawn would need to be cut back to make space.

My question is: If we cut back those overgrown sections, are we at risk of killing the whole plant? I know lavender doesn’t respond well to hard pruning, especially into old wood, so I want to be careful not to harm it. We’ve also read now isn’t an ideal time, but we’d prefer not to wait until August/September.

Any advice on how to go about this — or whether it’s even worth trying to save — would be appreciated!

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