Love hurts, as the Nazareth song says, it wounds and marks. Yes my dear readers, a dye garden is wonderful thing until …..
Let us not start at the pain - let’s look at the good and much is very good. The rain has helped a lot with the roses in the garden. The flaming orange/red rose closest to the camera is Meteor, Rose of the Year 2024 and it has settled in like a good'un. I am really impressed at how well this rose is doing already as I often think roses can take a year or two to really get going.
Earlier in the year the woad was flowering really well. There are florets of plants that will flower for next year so this is all going well.
The Motherwort has grown huge! Bees love it - it is fab. It is certainly big enough this year to start thinking about using it to make dye, apparently it makes a good green colour.
The Japanese indigo plant is doing well. It is more decorative than useful as it is not the best for indigo dye.
The marigolds are largely self sown from last year. I did sow a lot but I think they drowned in the Spring.
The madder is doing really well this year. This needs to grow for at least one more year before the roots will be big enough to use for dye. What an exciting wait this is.
The nasturtiums, always a must in my garden, are doing well and the zinnia and persicaria orientalis are growing well in on of the raised beds. These are not dye plants but they bring colour and bees to this area.
The sweetpeas are now getting into the swing of flowering, I sow late so that they flower for longer. The scent is wonderful.
I am delighted that the white passionflower made it through the winter and is flowering again. This is a major success for me. It is in a container so I pop it (that might not quite describe the effort this takes) into the greenhouse and this seeems to work.
I am growing onions for the first time in many years this year. They rightly fit in a dye garden as the skins make a good yellow dye. I uesd to grow onions alot but I found they often drowned if planted in the Autumn. These were planted this Spring and seem to be doing fine.
I also grow dahlias in this garden and look how lovely this one is trying to be - flipping slugs!
Did I mention pain? Yes my dear reader, this garden has caused me real pain.
Sorry for the picture of the ankle, but you can see the red weals of skin irritation. I think this was caused whilst brushing through the madder, but it also could have been caused by brushing through the motherwort. They are both close to each other so either one is a strong suspect but I mainly blame the madder. The ankle weals are just some of the damage, my lower legs were a criss-cross of itchy pain. Thankfully they are now healing well but it has taken a good seven days before I can say with confidence there is real improvement. It means I have to wear trousers as it is not an attractive look.
So take care out there dear readers, we all know that plants can get their revenge on us and we really should not forget this.
and no I have not started dyeing with these plants yet, but it is a yet, it will happen - promise.
Take care and be kind.
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