In some of our creative sessions we often use plants and natural materials to dye fabric, cord or paper. We needed a dedicated space to grow dye plants for our projects. The Makers Group members sowed the dye seeds in April. We started them off in pots and pricked them out a few weeks later to grow them on.
We began the build of the dye garden raised bed in May – constructing the frame with trustee Judith’s expertise, using donated timber from South Devon. We were also kindly donated a delivered bucket of municipal compost from Shillingford Organics, which topped the raised bed off after a layer of top soil from West Town Farm – deriving from some nutritious leaf mould.
At the beginning of June we planted the bed with The Makers Group, watering them in as we went. We have planted Dyers Chamomile (yellow), Weld (bright yellow), Coreopsis (orange-brown), Bronze fennel (beige), Tagetes Marigolds (gold), Hopi Black Sunflowers (purple/grey) and Safflower (pink). The flowers are growing really well and are providing a pleasant backdrop to all groups and projects that visit OrganicARTS.
