A Garden to Dye For by Chris McLaughlin

Author:Chris McLaughlin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Lynn's Press
Published: 2016-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

Use the fresh, open flower petals or save them up as they bloom and use the dried flowers for the dye pot. Both ways work, but consider that protein fibers are going to be more impressive in this dye, for sure.

Coffee & Tea:

A Great Reason to Keep Your Caffeine Addiction.

I apologize. I didn’t even try to resist using the word “addiction” for this section (I sense a theme here). Anyway, I realize that most gardeners aren’t growing coffee (Coffea arabica) or tea (Camellia sinesis) in their gardens – although you could. But these two natural dye sources are just too good not to mention.

Don’t worry about mordanting anything. Coffee and tea do a bang-up job staining both animal and plant fibers equally. You may want to mordant items just for good measure – plus, the alum may bring a different shade. In fact, while cotton T-shirts often have a difficult time hanging onto many natural dyes, they absorb coffee quite well.

Color with Coffee: If you don’t drink coffee (as if), swing on by a local coffeehouse and ask them for their used coffee grounds; they often have them bagged and ready for gardeners to pick up anyway (yes, seriously). After you’ve had your way with them, toss them into the compost pile where they’ll now pull triple duty as an excellent soil amendment.

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