The Craft Dome at Garlinge Green Road, Chartham
CT4 5RU
Project - a community dye garden.
Site
The Craft Dome, CT4 5RU
Official beginning
30 March 2025
Team
(In progress)
To do list
Needed:
Tend over-wintering plants
Continue to nurture the new plants
Harvest the Coreopsis blooms as they appear
Continue to develop the main small garden
Acquire more large planters
Madder, Weld and direct-dyeing Woad
What we’ve accomplished:
1.
Raised Weld plants - now in their second season and almost ready to use. Update: now harvested, and seed saved for use in 2026!
2.
We have been given some mature plants of Tansy - also ready for use, although these will probably be used to propagate more. It is prolific and grows readily in poor soil, but can become invasive.
3.
Raised Madder plants, now in year two, but these need at least three years to mature, so no local red dye yet! Additionally, we’ve found a splendid tall pot for them, so hopefully they will produce some nice long roots. The plants are now huge!
Madder dye comes from the orange roots. They look like stringy carrots when freshly dug and washed.
4.
5.
WOAD - UPDATE:
Additionally, we are now experimenting with “poly roll wrapping'“. This uses less soil, but encloses the plants and soil with individual layers of bubble-wrap. This not only retains moisture, it encouages the roots to grow deep. This is particularly important with Woad, as it has a long tap root and does not do well if roots are stunted.
It has done well, but there was not really enough to harvest for dyeing, however there was sufficient for one school to see some of the colour, and the opportunity to see what the plants looked like.
More harvesting: The Coreopsis only has a few plants, but they have continued to produce flowers, which are picked had brought indoors by the Dome window to dry out. There are now a few handfuls of dried blossoms which can be used. The main colour is orange.