Talk: An allotment to dye for

On Saturday I gave me talk to the Coventry Guild of the Weaver’s Spinners and Dyers. As usual I took pieces of several dye plants and squares of silk dyed in different colours. One of the participants emailed me after the talk saying ‘I have always shyed off trying natural dyes before, thinking they just dyed green and yellow. I am now keen to try again and am definitely going to try Woad’.
On Sunday I had a stall at the Tolkien Weekend in Birmingham, and knight in full armour came to have a look at the dye plants, as well as several vikings and a prehistoric man.

Cutting down woad plants

Last week the woad flowers started to set into seed. I begun cutting the flower stalks, otherwise, I would have woad seed germinating everywhere on my alloment. The stalks are quite tough and need cutting in small pieces to put in the compost. This is taking a long time, and the compost heap (made of 10 bales of straw) is overflowing. I am leaving two woad plants intact, to collect fresh seeds. The next job is to dig the old plants up. I had a go with my lady size spade and they did not budge. I will borrow a bigger spade this weekend and have another go at them.