Mid April / Early May: Planting and Transplating (a Saga)
Whew! Hi everyone! It’s been a little while!
Probably not a surprise that santamente isn’t the only thing I do, but I didn’t realize I’d get so wrapped up in other things the last couple of months. I have more time now to dedicate to this dream and I’m really excited to dive in. That being said, let’s go back to where we left off!
Around mid April I transplanted the Indigo and some dyer’s chamomile, purple basil and marigolds that a friend gave me (thank you Lotta!!) I also had seeds for marigolds, chamomile and basil but it was hard not to take beautiful started seedlings. I’m so glad that I did!
Japanese Indigo
When I transplanted I also planted a ton of seeds - it took me a few days, but I planted St. John’s wort, more purple basil, more dyer’s chamomile, cosmos, dyer’s coreopsis, safflowers, zinnias, four varieties of marigold, two varieties of sunflowers, hollyhocks, and weld.
Then we got a frost.
And while the indigo and dyer’s chamomile made it, the straw we covered the seedlings with wasn’t enough to protect the started marigolds and basil, and it turned most of the seeds I planted directly to mush. The seeds that made it were the sunflowers and the safflowers.
The face of someone very proud of having planted a whole dang dye garden the first time,
unaware that most of the things I planted wouldn’t come up, ha!
Almost a month after the first planting, Amy and I did a second - we transplanted some new started purple basils, more hollyhocks, more marigolds, more St. John’s wort, more cosmos, more dyer’s coreopsis, more zinnias. We put the dahlia tubers in the ground, transplanted some hardy hibiscus, waited.
We thought little had come up from most of the direct seed plantings except for the zinnias but then, when we were weeding the “empty” beds and rows about a month after the second planting, we found all sorts of suprises (more on that later)! And between the second planting and the discoveries amongst the weeds, Amy planted more hollyhocks and zinnias for me, too
SO. Full into dye garden season and what did we end up with?
Plenty of:
Indigo
Dyer’s Chamomile
Hollyhocks
Dahlias
Sunflowers
Purple basil
Hardy hibiscus
Zinnias
Safflowers
Some:
Weld
Dyer’s coreopsis
Cosmos
No:
Marigolds
St. John’s Wort
What did we learn?
We need a little greenhouse next year to start as much as possible at the beginning of March.
We probably shouldn’t transplant till Mid-May.
Indigo and dyer’s chamomile are tough as heck!
When you look at a bare winter plot, worry not! Summer will fill it beautifully with a bountiful harvest!
More soon, friends! Thanks for reading <3
Lots of love to you all,