Garden Plans

The plans for the new gardens are underway. Seeds have been ordered from two different companies. Richter's Seeds, which I highly recommend has most of the herbs and dye plants that I wanted to replace. They have superb service and my packet of seeds came very quickly. The rest I ordered from William Dam, which sent a notice for a 3-6 week delivery delay. From checking out reviews, this seems to be standard with them for early orders. I'm still waiting for this packet. I had checked out seed catalogues from several Heritage seed companies. I noticed that the two companies I ordered from had many of the same seed varieties in packets with larger seed counts at about half the price.

The Dye Garden -

I decided not to replace absolutely everything the first year, but to get the basics established with a few extras as well...

replacement dye garden plants..............

- Golden Marguerite - easy to grow, self seeding, short lived perennial. It gives a very nice yellow and stores easily by tossing the flowers in a ziplock bag in the freezer.
- Woad - easy to grow blue. I've two different varieties myself and some seeds from a friend. One variety was originally from Richter's, the second was a gift. They have very different leaft types. Of the third from a friend, I'm not certain of their origin or variety.
-Chinese Woad - Never tried this variety officially before. I have an inkling it might be similar to my second variety, but this is the easiest way for me to tell.
Madder - I'll have to figure out where to put these seedlings so they can grow undisturbed for a few years. Hopefully this will be in an area where they can somewhat self seed and stem root.
Yellow Bedstraw- This gives a lovely soft yellow colour several times a year from cutting it back. The roots should give a red, but I've not been able to try them yet. It's another one which will take a couple of years before it gives reliably large harvests.
Weld - yellow - a grass which is easy to grow. It's a biennial so I'll have to plant some next year as well for a continuous harvest.
Yarrow (Red) - should give the same yellow as the white in the old garden, but with a red flower. It stinks when used in a dyebath, but one can always do it outside.
Coreopsis Tinctoria - these will get planted where they can't get mowed down by over zealous lawn mowers!

New for this year!

Black Hollyhocks... I don't know how useful these will be. They are self seeding though and I can toss some plants in by the barn and let them grow there. It was a whimsy selection, reminding me of a childhood home.

Elecampane - supposed to give yellows and oranges. It's another not so pretty flower but one I've been wanting to try for a while. It's listed in several medieval cookery books as an ingredient. It's supposed to attract bees and pollinators, so another good reason to have it.


Flowers -
Rudbekia Goldsturm - just 'cause it's one of my favourite late blooming perennials

Marigiolds - for pest repelling properties and because they're pretty

Herbs

Summer Savory,
winter Savory
Flat Leaf Parsley
Sweet Basil,
Chives
Greek Oregano
English Thyme
Borage
Lovage

brought from other house - Sage and Lavender

Veggies -

Garlic - planted this past fall
The following seeds are Open Pollinated and some are Heritage seeds

Scarlet Runner Beans
Blue Lake Bush Beans
Rocdor Yellow Bush Beans
Touchstone gold beets
Bandit Leeks
Elizafen long white German radish
Amish Paste tomato
Brandywine Red tomato
Yellow Pear tomato
Bloomsdale spinach
Arugula
Bon Vivant - summer lettuce mixture
Mesclun - early spring salad green mixture
National Pickling Cucumber

Honey Select sweet corn - hybrid
Rainbow carrots - hybrid

Other seeds - from store rack -

generic labeled green onion seeds
generic labeled sunflower seeds
Icelandic poppies


Isn't that enough for one year?
well, I wouldn't mind having a red or black cherry tomato, maybe a squash or pumpkin and a summer squash variety as well.