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A Primer on Growing Your Own Dyes

Dying your own fabrics and yarns can be fun, but to do it on your own, you’ll need a dyer’s garden. Choose an area specifically for this special garden where the plants will have the sunlight needed. When planting your dyer’s garden, be sure the location of the herbs allows you to take them without injuring others nearby. Prepare it as you would for your kitchen herbs.

Creating dyes from herbs usually requires a mordant – an ingredient that binds the dye to the material. Different mordants will produce different colors from the same herbs, giving you a broader range of colors depending on the mordant chosen. Common mordants are alum, chrome, iron, and tin.

Growing Conditions

Agrimony:

Barberry:

Betony:

Bloodroot:

Broom:

Chamomile:

Comfrey:

Dandelion:

Dock:

Elderberry:

Fennel:

Foxglove:

Goldenrod:

Hops:

Lady’s Bedstraw:

Lavender Cotton:

Madder:

Onion:

Oregon Grape:

Plantain:

Pokeweed:

Rosemary:

Safflower:

Sage:

St. John’s Wort:

Sweet Woodruff:

Tansy:

Uva-ursi:

Woad:

Yarrow:

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