So I love composting because of it's sustainability and also..
Added 2024-01-24 20:34:18 +0000 UTCSo I love composting because of it's sustainability and also because it's great fertilizer for my plants.
And... I love PLANTS! Specifically, dye plants. The majority of plants I grow are used to make natural dyes which I use for my art work.
This plant right here is a really, really special one to me. Can you guess what it is? ... It's INDIGO! You're going to hear me talk A LOT about this plant because I am truly obsessed with it for a variety of reasons. That's right, it's not just a color, indigo comes from a plant. ;.)
Nowadays, synthetic indigo is used to dye jeans because of economic costs and mass production, but I like the real deal stuff, straight from the source! The chemically synthesized indigo isn't the same in my opinion. The smell and color is so different to me. And you can't return it back to earth once you're finished with it. It's truly a labor of love to grow the plant from seed, tend to it, harvest the leaves, and extract the dye from the leaves. It's a whole journey -- and I'm so excited to share it with you. I can't wait for you to witness how we get the color blue from these leaves. I hope you don't mind me nerding out about it :-)
The way I start the seeds is I just scatter them around in some seed starting mix and then I separate them by hand later. These little guys are surprisingly so hearty and can withstand a lot of moving around.
