All posts by Jordan Charbonneau

Garden Advice

Planning a Dye Garden: 15 Plants to Grow

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For many gardeners part of the reason they labor is to provide healthy, natural food for themselves and their family. For some gardening leads to a desire to get back to natural products in other aspects of their lives as well. One way to achieve this is to use natural fabrics like wool, linen, and cotton which can all then be dyed with natural dyes.

Whether you’re a spinning, knitting fiber arts fanatic or would just like to try your hand at some all natural tie-dye planting a dye garden can be a fun way to connect with the land. You don’t have to be an expert. If you already garden adding some dye plants to your plot is very simple.

Onions

New York Early Dry Bulb Onion

Onions are a great, easy dual purpose crop for your dye garden. The papery onion skin is actually the only part used to make the dye so you still get to use the onion in the kitchen! Yellow onions will give you a dark yellow or orange collar while purple onion dye can be anything from light pink to maroon to brown.

Beets

Detroit Dark Red Beet

Beet dye uses the roots and can color fiber anywhere from light pink to red. You can add a few extra to your veggie garden for some gorgeous home dyed cloth and still eat the greens.

Black Beans

Black Turtle Bush Dry Bean

Black beans make a gorgeous light blue/purplish color dye. Plus for dyeing you only use the water they’ve been soaked in before cooking so you still get to eat your harvest.

St. John’s Wort

St. Johnswort

St. Johnswort is a highly medicinal herb typically grown for its anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, and anti-depressant properties. However its also a wonderful dye plant being used to create yellow, green, and red dyes.

Carrots

Scarlet Nantes (Coreless, Nantes Half Long) Carrots

Both carrot roots and leaves can be used for dyeing, the roots for orange and the tops for green.

Parsley

Moss Curled Parsley

Parsley is often used to make lovely shades of green.

Chamomile

German Chamomile

Chamomile is most often grown for tea however it also makes cheerful yellow dye. Both German Chamomile and Dyer’s Chamomile varieties can be used for dye despite the names.

Fennel

Florence Fennel

Fennel produces a variety of shades of yellow. While all parts of the plant can be used the flowering tops are best.

Coreopsis

Dyer’s Coreopsis Mix

Coreopsis can be used to produce wonderful bright oranges, yellows, and reds. It also has the awesome benefit of being a native plant that attracts bees and birds to your garden.

Red Cabbage

Red Acre Cabbage

Forget the coleslaw, you can make beautiful green, blue, and purple dyes with your red cabbage. Start a few extra this spring.

Mint

Mint

Mint will make your garden and home smell amazing when harvesting and proccessing it into a green dye.

Bachelor’s Buttons

Blue Boy Bachelor’s Button

Bachelor’s Buttons make a great option for dyers because they’re easy to grow, produce beautiful blue dye, and can easily be dried and used for dye projects during the winter.

Wormwood/Sweet Annie

Sweet Wormwood (Sweet Annie)

Sweet Wormwood or Sweet Annie (Artemisia annua) and Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) are both commonly used herbal dyes and can be used to create browns, yellows, and greens.

Spinach

Abundant Bloomsdale Spinach

Spinach produces green dyes. It’s an easy natural dye to grow by just adding a little extra to your vegetable garden.

Rudbeckia

Goldsturm Rudbeckia

Rudbeckia is a pretty and easy to grow flower that also produces wonderful green and yellow dyes.

*Note*: Natural dyes will vary a lot! The color can very with the age of the plant, the part of the plant, how long it’s proccessed in a dye bath, any addition to a dye bath like mordants, and also the type of fiber you’re dyeing like cotton versus wool. You can also use one dye after another to get a different color, a proccess called overdyeing.

Add some of these plants to your garden (or a few extra if you already grow them) to start dyeing your own clothes, fabrics, or yarn. It’s a great project to get kids interested in gardening too!

Garden Advice

10 Ways to Encourage Gardening in Your Community

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If you’ve lived in your neighborhood for awhile you may have noticed the slow but steady disappearance of backyard gardens. More and more people are letting their plots go back to lawns in favor of the ease and convenience of the supermarket.

Small gardens, even those who don’t provide a large amount of a family’s food intake, are so important. They give people, especially children, the opportunity to learn about where their food comes from and how to grow food with their own two hands. They provide a social connection for neighbors. They increase neighborhoods self-sufficiency and decrease their reliance on imported food and fossil fuel. Backyard gardens keep people healthy by providing outside time, a connection to the land, exercise, and fresh food. They’re also a great way to keep crop diversity strong even when big farms have switched to monocultures.

Don’t let your community’s treasures disappear. Read on for some great ways to keep gardens blooming in your area.

Share compost.

If you have a large compost pile offer to share with others who garden or might be starting gardens. Seasoned gardeners will truly appreciate your odd homegrown generosity and new gardeners will be much more likely to stick with it if your nutrient-rich compost affords them a good harvest their first year.

Alternatively, if you need more compost, ask friends and neighbors to save food scraps, leaves, grass clippings and other compostables for you. You’ll gain more compost and an opportunity to share some of your gardening wisdom.

Organize a harvest swap.

A harvest swap is when people get together and bring backyard produce in designated increments to trade with one another. For example, the swap could be based on $5 increments and someone could trade $5 worth of extra tomatoes to a neighbor for $5 worth of apples.

To get non-gardeners in on it you could also allow homemade products like baked goods, honey, jams, or even crafts to be traded.

Start a seed swap.

Bloody Butcher Corn

One of the best parts about backyard gardens is that they encourage a lot of crop diversity. Keep that motion going by organizing a seed swap in your community each fall. People can meet other gardeners and get seeds they need with first-hand advice about growing them.

Set out a free produce stand.

If you have a surplus, consider putting out a free produce stand and sharing your harvest. Your tasty produce might inspire people to grow their own or it might help someone in need. You can also allow others to add their garden excess to the pile. If you end up with way too much, donating to a food pantry could be a good option.

If you’re feeling ambitious you could start a community garden.

Community gardens are great for those without access to land and/or tools. They can also be great places for people to learn gardening techniques, produce local food, and get to know their neighbors.

Encourage your local library to stock garden-themed books.

Most libraries get some funding to purchase new books. If that’s the case suggest gardening books you’d like to read. You never know who might check them out after you and give it a go. You could also consider donating garden books you’ve already read. If you ever need them for reference you could still go check them out.

Offer a class.

While many of us have gotten some garden lessons from our parents or grandparents some people may have never had any hands-on garden experience. Teaching a free or cheap class can help people learn who may be too intimidated to try on their own. You could also consider more specialty classes like canning strawberry jam if you have a particular skill.

Plant your garden close to the road.

Gardening in view of neighbors and passersby can be a great way to plant the gardening seed in someone’s mind so to speak. I’ve seen so many great conversations started in roadside gardens. For the extra dedicated, add a section of free PYO produce. Whether it’s blackberry bushes or tomato plants people may be encouraged to learn to grow their own after finding out how good homegrown food tastes.

Divide your perennials and offer free starts to friends and neighbors. 

Many beloved, hardy perennials are perfect for new gardeners and multiply quickly. Plants like mint, lemon balm, and chives can easily be divided to let someone you know start a patch of their very own.

Talk to anyone who will listen.

Spend time chatting with anyone who shows an interest in your gardening activities. Who knows you might inspire a child who grows up to be a farmer or get the best tip from someone who has grown great tomatoes their entire life!

 

Small gardens are great ways to provide local food, connect with neighbors, help the environment, and stay healthy. Encouraging gardening in your community can be a wonderful, easy way to lend a helping hand.

How have you supported gardening in your community?

 

Garden Advice

How to Store Crops Without a Root Cellar

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Tan Cheese Pumpkin

For many crops the preferred storage method negates the need for a root cellar. Anything that is canned, dried, or frozen can be kept right in your kitchen without any change from store bought groceries. However there are some crops that are stored fresh but require specific conditions. Things like winter squash, beets, and cabbages would have traditionally been kept in a root cellar. Unfortunately most modern houses don’t include that feature. Unless you’re ready to invest in building one, a little creativity can help keep your winter produce without a lot of effort.

Make a root clamp.

Root clamps are an old way of storing vegetables underground without an actual root cellar. They’re simple holes in the ground to store cabbages, potatoes, and other root vegetables. The vegetables can be layered with straw or hay, keeping a thick layer between them and the dirt to keep out any frost. On top is an especially thick layer followed by a couple whole bails to cover the top. You also want the straw or hay to be between each individual vegetable.

Today some people add an old cooler or clean trash can as a liner for the root clamp. Coolers however are not deep enough to avoid frost in cold climates.

Keep it in the garden.

In places where the ground doesn’t freeze very early storing root crops right in the garden can be an excellent choice. For crops like beets, carrots, turnips, potatoes, and radishes just leave them in their bed and cover them with a good amount of hay or straw. They can then be dug as needed.

You can also grow greens and brassicas through the winter by using cold frames, row cover, or backyard hoop or green houses.

Utilize cool places in your home.

Whether it’s a garage, a basement, under a bed, a certain cabinet, or a closet many of us have a spot in our home which stays rather cool. Crops like sweet potatoes, onions, and squashes that prefer cool, dry storage can just be stuck in baskets in these places. They will last longer if they aren’t piled up too much and have good air circulation.

Fruit crops like storage apples and pears can also be stored in this manner. However many people advise wrapping each individual fruit in newspaper to help them keep longer and discourage any rot from spreading.

Crops like potatoes, carrots, beets, and other roots that need damper conditions can also be stored in these same places. For these crops you’ll need containers and a packing material like shredded newspaper, straw, or sand. This material should then be kept damp (not wet!). You can use a spray bottle to add moisture as needed. You should trim the tops off the vegetables leaving about 1/2 inch then layer them in your container with your material in between so that none are touching.

Cabbages can be stored with their roots in damp sand or in just a basket like squash. They do better in damper places than squash does though.

Refrigerate root crops.

Root crops can also be refrigerated. For those with leafy tops trim the leaves to 1/2 inch. Potatoes also store well in the refrigerator.

Use them as decor.

Some squash, onions, and soft neck garlic store fairly well at room temperature and can double as some farmhouse type decor. Squash looks great on fall table settings and onions and garlic look gorgeous braided and hung in the kitchen or pantry.

Maintaining your storage crops.

It’s important to note that none of these methods are leave it and forget solutions. Even with a proper root cellar it’s important to periodically go through your produce and check for ones that are starting to rot or mold. If you don’t remove them the rot will spread to the rest hence the saying, “one bad apple can spoil the bunch.” Ideally you can catch them while they’re still useable.

You should also pay attention to your different varieties. From radishes to pumpkins different varieties have different storage capabilities. using varieties in order of how long you can expect them to keep is just another part of gardening and seasonal eating.

 

While these methods may not be as idyllic as a farmhouse root cellar they can work just as well. Keeping food properly in storage can help you save money on groceries, give you more self-sufficiency, and lessen your environmental impact. So pack your carrots in a container in the closet or store baskets of sweet potatoes under your bed, and stock that winter larder!