SUNFLOWER COMPETITION 2013

 

Get ready, get steady.........GO!

 

 

 

Roll up, roll up.

The sunflowers are here again.

Place your bets to see who will win the tallest sunflower competition 2013.

 

Grab your sunflower while stocks last.

 

 

 

Natural Dyes

 

In the garden we are dedicating a small patch for plants that are ideal for dyeing fabric. We’ve picked out just some of many plants that we can grow on the farm and may be even try them out for dyeing later on in the year.

 

This is the first of our collection; this is Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius).

This little seedling will soon become a large annual that will give us red and yellow dyes.

 

 All grown up...

 

 

 

This plant goes as far back as the ancient Egyptians where even Tutankhamun had safflower garlands round his neck in his tomb. The plant can be used for dye and most commonly for vegetable oil used across the world.

 

 

 

Other natural dye plants;

 

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)– Yellow and Browns

Woad (Isatis tinctoria) – True blues

Madder (Rubia tintorum) – Intense oranges, scarlet and plum

Hollyhocks – Yellow, Mahogany, Green, Reds and Blues

Indigo (Indigofera tinctoria) – Indigo blue.

 

Indigo is probably one of the best known natural dye so we will try and get some for our dye bed.

 

  

 

 

Indigo dye bath in India...

 

 

 

This lovely green/blue is made from Hollyhocks...

 

 

 

 

Have you got any ideas?

NEW workshop

 

Cock-a-dooodle-do....

 

Our new workshop coming up in April is going to be chicken-tastic.

Book now before places fly away.

 

 

Make lots of plants from one!

 

 

So have you got any large clumps of plants in the garden that arn't really performing like they used to? Well then its time to start dividing them up to give them a new sprig of life.

 

We've been dividing Sedum's in the garden this week and my goodness they are tough.

 

It's very simple to do, you just need two forks to tear them apart and your away, just don't be too precious about the plants, you will hear some crunchy noises.

 

 

Bit of a struggle this one...

 



Look how many we've got now...

 



 

 

 

Alex being as helpful as ever potting up the new Sedum plants...

 

 

 

 

 

Ta dah!

 

 

 

Spring is springing and hopping and popping

 

 

Spring is springing out everywhere. Along the River Wandle there is some beautiful white blossom out.

 

 

 

 

Can you spot what we have in our pond?

 

 

 

 

 Crocus, with their beautiful purple veins of colour.



 



 

 

Mr Fritillaria persica popping up.

 

 

 

 

Tete a tete's smiling outside the greenhouse.

 

 

Basil babys.

 

 

Our crocus have popped out and the first chicks have hatched. This finishes off our spring medley.....for now.

 

 

 

 

 



Wheelbarrow boat

 

Andrew and his beautiful boat/wheelbarrow to go with his wheelbarrow/bus. 

 

 



Read all about it.....

Spring time plant stall *NOW OPEN*

 

Our Daffodil 'Scarlet O Hara' grown by garden volunteers.

Now FOR SALE for a bargain £3 per pot.

 



 

Our Tulip triumph mixed, planted by garden volunteer Mini

now FOR SALE for only £3 per pot.

We will be adding many more plants throughout the year,

so keep an eye out.

 

 

A perfect idea......

 



A good idea

 

 Short on space? not to fret, we have found an answer!

 

Grow a salad on the side of any wall space!

 

I came across this fun idea at clairepotterdesign.com. We are thinking this would be a great thing to do down at our allotment project in the summer.

 

Maybe you can think of somewhere you could do it too? 

 



Out to play in the garden

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Morning Morning Morning

 

 

I would just like to share a nice link to a blog...

Out to play in the garden.

There is a little something about the garden and farm written on it and some sunny day photos...

out2playinthegarden blogspot


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