A visit to LCF dye gardens on Mare street

To the East of London, one of London College of Fashion’s premises has been growing a dye garden for over 18 years, winning Green Gown awards for their sustainable impact.

We met Sarah Weightman who has been involved in looking after the dye gardens in the recent years after a colleague had originally started the project. Sarah guided us through the different areas of the dye gardens surrounding the building: sunny back garden, shady front side garden and a well hidden, wild garden along one side of the building.

The dye garden at the back of the building shows a variety of plants, classic dye plants such as madder roots, woad and dyers camomile, others have also culinary property like rosemary or medicinal benefit like the valerian flowers. It is inviting and colourful, a refuge for the bees and butterflies, with benches to sit in the sun to enjoy the scenery.

Red valerian flowers in full bloom.
Tansy and Sarah walking through the dye back garden. Woad in the background with their yellow flowers.

Armed with shovels and gloves Sarah take us to the side front garden of the building. Some of the madder is mixed with nettles and others weeds. We are invited to dig up some of the Madder roots.

Tansy and I having a go at untangling the sticky madder leaves amongst the plants, following the stem to its roots. The madder plant has long thin leaves. It takes 2 to 3 years before the Madder roots are big enough to dig out.

The madder roots showing the orange matter of the pigment.

There are more madder roots in the 3rd, locked and hidden garden. Madder roots can be very invasive and it had the freedom to well established itself over the years. This is a wild garden with no straightforward path. Sarah and Laura walk bravely through the nettles to a good spot to excavate the madder roots.

The madder roots growing by the side of the building.
A bag filled with madder roots.
The madder roots after being washed.

After our tour of the gardens Sarah shows us some of her naturally dyed samples on cotton, silk and wool. She points out how the modifiers can transform the initial colour subsequently.

Fabric samples from madder roots.
Fabric samples dyed in Dyers camomile and in Red Valerian.

Thank you to Sarah for our visit of the dye gardens and for the bag of madder roots.

It is great to see the commitment to the dye gardens and how it has benefited the local environment and community over the years including the well being of staff and students and the wild life.