Plants to Dye For & Other Spring Farm Classes

Winnowing seeds probably stimulated the dreams of Mary Taylor Haque. She’s one of those people who color your life and stains you like the first time you saw a massive, glowing, stained glass window.

In her class, we saw photos of Italian gardens with surprise water jets designed to give visitors a sudden dousing when they stepped on a certain stone. Elegant, mod, New York City Gardens tucked into skyscrapers – I remember the exact moment I learned the term ‘pocket garden.’  She showed us gardens where children control the flow of water in fountains. She encouraged dozens of Clemson Horticulture students like me to apply for internships in California, Scotland, and, of course, Italy as if hayseeds like me knew how to get to Italy, even if we did get hired there.

To help us raise money for student field trips, she encouraged a crew of us, all horticulture students, to harvest liriope seeds from all across the Clemson campus. “You all can do plant sales. That’s fun, but it's dependent on folks deciding at the moment to buy or not. Park Seed Company has told you they’ll buy all the liriope seeds you can send; that’s certain sales. That’s your bus and hotel to the conference in Orlando.” she said. 

We harvested tons and tons of seeds, winnowed and cleaned them, then sold them by the pound to Parks. We all went to Orlando for the American Hort Sciences conference. 

I can’t pretend to have Mary Taylor Haque’s indelible influence, but I can do one thing she did. I can say, “Y’all just have to try it. You can figure it out, and it might be fun.”

Get out there and collect some seeds before winter really sets in. You don’t have to have a winnowing set. Use a piece of screen or a burlap bag if you have one lying around. A winnowing set does make a cool gift for a gardener (FYI, they are sold as soil sieves on amazon.)

Winnowing Seeds For Dyeing Class & Tours

Yesterday, I focused on collecting seeds of plants that can be used to dye yellow cosmos, Hopi Red Amaranth, and two colors of coreopsis. These seed will be planted next spring. Come on a farm tour next spring and see them growing — back in full color and flower.

Or sign up for our Fabric and Yard Dying Class on the Lily Farm, and use the flowers. Participants will get a pack of seeds to grow along with us; then, in mid-summer, we’ll all get together on the farm with botanist Linda Lee, who’ll lead us in harvesting flowers, prepping dye and getting some color into fabric. Details and reservations for this and other farm events will be announced in January.

But right now, we’re booking groups of friends or gardeners for private lunch and learn events. Y’all know the farm is cool. Now, we have a professional, retired chef doing lunches. She does food the way we do plants — healthy, thoughtful, creative, and aware. You and 12 of your friends can schedule a private tour and lunch now, for late March through June.

My new book is available at that link too under the shopping tab.