dyeing and living

[dragonlady7]

Poor Z is sick. I'm not sure with what; sinuses and coughing but mostly what's floored him is feeling achy. He's Ibuprofened and Mucinex'd and I left him with some herbal tea and a pat on the head. He'd thought yesterday it was just the time change flattening him but he was quite creaky and ill by bedtime.
(Of course he was feeling amorous the night before, sigh, why do humans kiss, it's so gross, that's your germ hole on someone else's face, ew I'm doomed.) (Listen it is not my fault that romance is a fake idea that I've had burned away by bitter life experience and also the cold hard light of the truth. DON'T @ ME.)

I borrowed a couple of books on natural dyes and such from the library and have just discovered that the printer at work has a scanner function, so I scanned some of the relevant pages so I could revisit them once I'm actually at the farm. Listen, one of the books was mostly full of California-specific plants, and the other one I'll probably buy eventually but I'm still contributing to the author by getting it from the library. I'll probably go through the books and take notes too. I want to try some things, I have no idea how into this I'm going to get, and I'm trying to be cautious about overcommitting myself to a whole other like, lifestyle of crafting.
But. I have done a fair bit of chemical dyeing in my past, so. I still have a bunch of chemical dyes in my basement, and I figure I'll probably keep using them; it seems perfectly possible to get good results from natural dyes but there are just going to be some colors I'll want that are hard to get with local plants.

I need a source for woad seeds. Veg Manager already grows weld. And I had a line on some madder roots to transplant but I never followed up, so I should do that. VM already kind of has a dye garden-- I know he hasn't done any dyeing, but he worked really hard in his spare time (i know, he farms six days a week and usually spends his one day off working on personal gardening projects, I can't imagine-- he's like, no gardening is a hobby for me this is fun. he's always been like this, we can't stop him.) to clear out an old dying pear tree and its stumps from the hillside behind the house, and instead plant all the things he felt were too weedy/invasive for the picking garden. The patch gets crazy every year, and looks like a crazy pile of weeds, but he goes and lies up there on nice evenings sometimes, and that's where we harvested most of our tansy this past summer. Korean Mint, Tansy, weld, ladies' bedstraw-- I bet he'd let me put woad and madder in there, if I helped weed. I'll talk to him this weekend, though-- I'm going to the farm just for a visit, as the Maryland contingent is coming up for a visit too.

Anyway-- I forgot to bring my shoulder bag full of sewing projects, so no progress on hexies today, but here's yesterday's-- I pieced a few fragments and sewed them down, mostly just to keep my hand in. I need to cut more squares.

Comments

[unicornduke]

ever try dying anything with tumeric? I know it doesn't really grow in the area but when I was making the vindaloo it dyed my fingers and cutting board bright yellow. Although you can probably get that color from other things since yellow is more common in plants

[dragonlady7]

Yes, turmeric is on the list!!
They don't grow it at the farm, but Little Seed does, and a few other local places. So I figure I'll pick some up at some point.

I was excited to find out that you can use zinnia flower heads for yellow-- regardless of the color of the petals-- so I'll have something awesome to do with all the deadheads this year!

[unicornduke]

tumeric also lasts because there is still some on my fingers and the cutting board is permanently stained as far as I can tell.

I bought a little garlic from Fedco and I'm going to see if I can raise it in my apartment so I picked up a big tumeric root from the co op and I'm going to see if I can grow it too lmao who knows

[dragonlady7]

Does garlic do okay as a houseplant??? Or like on your balcony?

I've been sort of wistfully poking at the idea of growing some plants in pots but could I even get Dude to water them while I'm at the farm in the summer or is he going to like, not?? I don't know. Do I trust him?

I want to put in an herb garden, mostly, but I could grow some lavender too... and maybe... maybe I'm just being an idiot.

[unicornduke]

every time I have ever typed the word ginger, I've actually typed garlic. ginger. I meant ginger.

my mom got me a grow light for christmas, which I'm going to use to raise the weird shit for my field and some plants like herbs and stuff. the apartment runs east-west, so there's a little bit of morning light on the balcony and some afternoon light in my bedroom but not a ton. That's why my transplants were so bad last year.

but yeah, herbs. I love fresh oregano and thyme and I think I've got some other herbs as seeds. My parents have lavender, like a ton in pots right now. If they bear this year, I can probably get you some.

that's the plan. I actually need to get the table cleaned off and go buy some soil from home depot or whatever. I also need to find some plastic trays because I have all the actual plant trays but nothing for underneath and I don't really want to water my bedroom floor/the heating unit.

I mean, if the pot is big enough and you left them outside where they would get rain, you could probably keep them alive while they were gone. Mulch them and water them well before leaving.

[dragonlady7]

Oh Dave's aunt Ruta grew ginger on her windowsill once, she just saved a root from the grocery store. It got kind of leggy, and she was like i'm not sure what the point is here, I just wanted to see if I could do it. So.

If you're getting any seeds started at the farm they might sell you a bag of organic potting soil while you're there. I think they charge $6 or $7; I've been the one to do the run down to McEnroe to pick it up. (Columbia County, I think.) Not that it matters, just, it's the cheapest way to get non-Miracle-Gro soil.

I have a gro-light from a long-ago college-y run-in with growing weed (yeah long story), and it's even got bulbs in it, but I'm currently using it as a work light in my basement. I could start some seeds there, though. I guess if they tell me they have no room for some of the dye shit I've just suddenly decided I *must have*.

I could plant stuff directly into my yard, and in fact ought to; they tore out a bunch of my garden when they did our driveway the year before last, and it's all just... grass now, and not well-maintained. But if I plant stuff I have to weed it, and that's harrrrd wahh.

[unicornduke]

I'm hoping to get more ginger out than I put in. A half pound of ginger is actually just two hand sized roots. I have no idea how they grow, do they just grow bigger roots? idek. I need to google it. I'm assuming tumeric is similar.

I want to get my stuff started in the next week or so, and I'm not getting my plants started until later in the month. I don't care that much about what the soil is, I'm a lazy mf sometimes. Plus, I want one giant bag, bigger than the like, five quart bags that are the organic soils.

Weeding is truly The Worst.

[dragonlady7]

Oh they only do the big bags. We just-- go with a pickup truck and get a pallet of them, and then GPS cuts out and I wind up driving this giant truck around tiny back roads in counties i've never been to before. I wound up on the Berkshire spur of the Thruway and i was like "where the fuck am I" to the tollbooth operator and he was like "i don't know how to explain to you" so I just kept driving northish until I found signs for Troy.

They're like, 50 pound bags. IDK.

[unicornduke]

hmmm, I'd like that much, maybe two of htem. It mostly depends on timing. I'd like to get it soon although it won't be this weekend because PA. I'll chat with them next time I see them but it might not work out. Not too worried. Thanks!