Dye garden- looking back at 2021 and forward to 2022

January blue sky.

Overlooking the dye garden this January

This is nearly a year since we sowed the first dye seeds on the roof terrace, in March 2021. This has been a learning experience, challenging at times, yet rewarding ! We’ve had time to reflect about what worked , what didn’t and how we can improve our methodology for the next season. We also understand better what impacts the weather conditions, wind, sunlight and water have and how they can affect the growth and the pigments of the dye plants.

The pick of the season for most of the dye plants is the hot summer days up to September- early October such as the Japanese Indigo and the woad. When the Japanese Indigo starts to flower, this announces the end of the harvesting season. Leaves can be dried and stored. Bouquets can be hanged to dry and seeds collected afterwards.

  • Japanese Indigo flowering in October.
After a couple of months the Japanese Indigo seeds dropped from the small pink flowers.
The woad looks very healthy, we will be able to get more pigments in the second year of their growth.

We have been harvesting Coreopsis and marigold flowers throughout the winter. We have been drying some flowers for later use. We’ve also collected some seeds ready to sow.

  • Marigold flowers drying

Whilst the Japanese Indigo plant has a 6 months life shell in the ground, from seed to flowers, woad grows over a period of 2 years, from seed to a plant that can reach 2m high!

In the photo bellow, the leaves of madder roots look like they are dead, the plant is in fact dormant during the winter. It will take two more years of growth before we can harvest them.

Madder roots dormant

We are getting ready and looking forward to more sowing and growing in Spring 2022!