January/February: Making Preparations for a Dye Garden
The half of the dye garden with raised beds!
Growing our own dye garden is new and exciting, and as far as starting the journey goes, we’ve got all we need! A list of what we want to plant, a little land, and some seeds. Pictured above is half of the garden, covered in straw to keep the weeds away over the winter. Once it stops snowing (and it’s snowed more than usual this year) we will get to planting!
This little plot of land is in Ivy, Virginia, on Monacan land. As an artist I so admire (Meesha Goldberg) put it recently: as settlers on this land, we are responsible for being the best guests we can be. We plan to be kind to this plot and treat it with love and respect through the process of planting and cultivating the dye garden. My mother in law, Amy, will be helping me along the way - she and my late father in law purchased this land in the late nineties. She’s kindly offered to let me use some of the land to grow dye plants, and we’re going to tackle their care and cultivation together. I’m very fortunate, in so many ways. I want to share anything I learn along the way with you all, here’s to hoping you can benefit from it too!
So what are we planting this year?! You’ll find a list below, divided into perennials, biennials and annuals and with a little description of the colors that I’m excited about gleaning from each plant. They’ll be planted in these groups in order for them to be able to cycle together.
Perennials:
Dahlias (oranges), Purple Basil (sage, dark green, dark purple), Dyer's Chamomile (greens, orangey yellows), St. John's Wort (burgundy and orangey yellows), Hardy Hibiscus (plums and dark greens)
Annuals:
Marigolds (orangey browns), Cosmos (oranges and orangey yellows), Dyer's Coreopsis (browns and oranges), , Sunflowers (greens, purples and blacks), Indigo (blues) * The photos above are of Indigo seeds from The Dogwood Dyer*
Biennials:
Hollyhock (plums, browns, oranges, orangey yellows), and Weld (yellow, orange, mustard)
How did we know what to plant? We’ve been referring to this amazing little book I will share with you below - it’s not super easy to find but it’s really amazing. Along with the plants and the regions they can grow in, you get a range of swatches of the dye on different fabrics etc.
‘A Dyer’s Garden’
by Rita Buchanan
In the meantime, Amy’s been checking the pH of her soil and getting it to a healthy place before we even get to planting.
It’s all so very exciting - I can’t wait to share more with you all as we go! Next steps include starting some Indigo inside from the seeds pictured above. Stay tuned!
Colin standing outside the other half of the garden plot, without raised beds