My back garden is to be the main subject of this journal. It is mostly a sample dye plant garden with a few herbs, some lettuce and tomatoes, a small deck area for our two blue chairs and a bird bath. The deck area is about 8′ X 8′ and can be moved each year to rotate our “crops”. I figured if we came home from work tired at the end of a long day, took a drink into the garden with our chairs and saw weeds we might pull some. It works—sort of!

This spring I have moved the Bedstraw to the other side of my bird bath to give my Madder plants more space. Both plants give a red dye. According to my books Madder likes compost, manure, lime and potash. It likes to be 18-20 inches apart well weeded and mulched.

I also weeded around my Wild Ginger and Bloodroot. The Bloodroot was just flowering and the flowers were opening as the day went along. I kept stopping to sketch and photograph them—one of the images appears at the top of this site. (I bought the Bloodroot and Madder several years ago from Well Sweep Herb Farm.)