Comments on: Trying to grow

By: Debra

Debra — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 02:15:42 +0000

Howdy, (I'm one of the BlogHer hobby editors getting familiar with the blogs on our roll).

I know a bit about gardening, almost nothing about natural dye gardening, but I know an expert:\http://www.prairiefibers.com/

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 16:38:40 +0000

Zone 7!!!?? Really, I can’t get past that. Just be glad that you aren’t in Zone 3! I can’t get anything to grow because my growing season’s something like 7 days. Good luck. It looks like you received lots of good advice.

By: jpt

jpt — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 14:20:22 +0000

Pinetree Seeds has a section of their catalog devoted to medicinal and dye plants–in the on-line catalog, check the bottom of the Herb page. They also have great prices, because they package their seed for small-plot gardeners.

Don’t forget the bull’s blood beets. (I promise, beets are very easy to germinate–the hardest part will be thinning the seedlings.)

By: Dharia

Dharia — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 18:49:46 +0000

i feel your pain! i have a notoriously ‘black thumb’.

Its not a dye plant, but i have one that i love and is very easy to keep. (or rather, impossible to kilL!) its “Oxalis”, it has really cool purple leaves that open up in the daytime and fold down at night. When its very happy it makes really pretty little pink flowers. Even when i forget to water it for MONTHS or leave it outside when its too cold, it always pops back to life and recovers. i’ve had it for 5 years now, which is a record!

By: HibiscuitsGirl

HibiscuitsGirl — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 17:54:50 +0000

Congrats on your nomination!

I had the EXACT SAME chili pepper! Just one. Out of TWELVE plants. I also planted six tomato plants, then forgot to harvest them. By the time I remembered, they were all rotten on the vine!

By: Jasmin

Jasmin — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 23:31:38 +0000

A dye garden is something I’d definitely want to explore when I move into a place with an actual yard.

By: Dani

Dani — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 19:44:42 +0000

I do have a green thumb, but there are certain plants that are just hard for everyone to manage… My tomato plants were awful this year and I did the same thing. I had a small handful of cherry tomatoes and simply let them rott away on the counter! GOod luck to you and your plants

By: heather cameron

heather cameron — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 17:15:36 +0000

I’ve grown all kinds of dye plants, inspired by Rita Buchanan’s book, which is excellent. Problem turned out to be, in BC’s climate we don’t usually get enough sun and warmth to really develop strong colour, so you have to grow masses of plants to get anything. But it is a very interesting and satisfying process, if only for a learning experience. (Other problem, esp. with coreopsis and marigold, you really have to stay on top of harvesting the blooms.)

There are actually many good sources of dyeplants that grow wild. One especially good one we have lots of here is a lichen, lobaria pulmonaria, which you can find on the ground in wooded areas after a big windstorm. It gives a lovely deep orangey-brown, very lightfast.

By: Pioggia

Pioggia — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 04:30:08 +0000

Good luck with those dye plants. You make me wish I had a garden too!

By: Pauline

Pauline — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 22:48:25 +0000

I have thumbs very much like your own. For the last 10 years or so I’ve gone the silk and plastic route. We don’t have a yard so everything is in pots out on the front porch. We do have a few jade trees which are hardy and I can’t seem to kill. They are all from the plants downstairs and all I do is stick a little bit that falls off of the mama plant in dirt and 6 months later it’s growing. Even my boss told me I couldn’t water the one plant we have at work.