Young Dye Plant Seedlings

"Wonderful weather for the Bank Holiday." My companion, Elinor Gotland peered into the trays of seedlings that had been carried outdoors to enjoy a day of direct sunshine. "I think your coreopsis could do with a drop of water."

"Hmmm. The Impatiens balsamina seedlings are still damp but it's done them no good, they've all flopped anyway. Looks pretty terminal to me. I think their stalks grew too leggy by the window indoors to cope without a greenhouse. Even in this warm weather." I slid my glasses back up my sweaty nose to focus on the other trays. "No sign at all of the woad germinating. Possibly two miniscule weld plants are sprouting. Or maybe they're weeds."
"Ooo, you've got more than half a dozen Japanese Indigo coming up. That's good isn't it?"

"Not sure where I can grow Japanese Indigo plants if they do survive. When I tried to dig a hole in the garden to put that clematis in, I found a solid foot of builders' rubble two inches below ground. Not exactly a cool moist root run."
Elinor sighed. "The very thought is dehydrating. Get the kettle on, Beaut."

"Fancy a walk?"  Elinor finished the Diabolical Sudoku and put her newspaper down.
"Suppose the dog needs an airing." 
"You could do with some sunshine too, you mouldy old Grouch Bag. Dig your sandals out and let's go and enjoy the lambs in the fields and Spring just bursting up everywhere."
"I'd gladly wear the usual woolly jumper, hat, scarf, coat and bring an umbrella if we didn't have Lockdown. Spring ought to mean going to Wonderwool, shopping for fibre, meeting all my friends and eating cake and I'm just sad that none of that will be happening."

"Chocolate cake! Crack on with the baking Beaut, it's practically Easter." Elinor dumped a bag of shopping on the kitchen floor. "Got all the ingredients for you. Did I mention I've gone Vegan?"
Including avocados in both the sponge and the icing had strangely contrary effects. Far from being cooked in 25 minutes, the cake mix stayed gloopy in the middle for over an hour, by which time the frosting seemed to have solidified. Luckily, it softened up again in an improvised Bain Marie over the broccoli soup. 
I yelped as the tea towel slipped off a hot cake tin when at last I could turn the sponges out.
"Couldn't you just have bought some custard creams, Elinor? They're vegan."
"Never." She looked at me severely over her specs. "The palm oil in them is not sustainably sourced."
"Heaven forbid you should eat an unethical biscuit." 

"No animals were harmed in the making of this chocolate cake." said my companion with great satisfaction.
Sucking the burn on my thumb, I reflected that this was not entirely true. 
Happy Easter Everyone 

Free Woad, Weld and Other Dye Plant Seeds

Free Woad, Weld, Madder, Coreopsis Tinctoria, Japanese Indigo and Impatiens Balsamina Seeds

Now all gone, thanks everybody 
Small envelopes of dye plant seeds saved from my garden last autumn are available for free with free postage, because I shan't be taking them to talks and workshops this spring and would be delighted to find them good homes. UK only, offer ends when the seeds run out.

*******

I practically choked on my tea when I saw the envelopes. "However did you find those dye plant seeds?"
My companion, Elinor Gotland just smiled and shrugged.
"Perseverance, Beaut. With all those stacks of boxes you've got piled up, I knew it was odds on there'd a few seeds saved in one of them."

I moved house last winter. 
Truth be told, I have still not entirely unpacked and was not in the least prepared for visitors. In practice, the whole virus crisis has caused me only the most minor of inconveniences. When Elinor appeared on my new doorstep, masked and gowned in sterile whites, my first thought was that himself must have dropped off another loo roll. Then the swathed shape swanned indoors demanding tea.
"You wouldn't believe what a journey I've had. Eerie, the quiet on the streets, absolute nightmare finding a cab across Paris to the Eurostar. Feels like I just caught the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City."

Brushing aside COVID -19 precautions as not applicable to sheep, my companion gave me a hug and ensconced herself in the spare room. Next morning she returned home from Asda with a clanking bag of shopping and a sack of seed compost.
"Life's little essentials for me and a gift for you, Beaut. Probably not peat free, but fair play, needs must. Still reusing those old plastic seed trays?"
"Well, that's very kind but I'm not really organised for gardening, Elinor. I mean, there's no greenhouse here, just a north facing yard. In any case, I didn't buy a 2020 biodynamic calendar and I've no idea when the moon will be right."

Elinor tipped the woad seeds into a jar of water.
"Give the silicles 24 hours to soak, isn't that what you used to do? We can sow your seeds tomorrow."
Next day I did find some small seed trays, filled them with damp compost and sure enough, the little yellow woad seeds were easy to strip out of the middle of their sodden silicles. It didn't take long to lay a dozen out in a grid, cover them with a dusting of compost, press it down to get them in good contact with the soil, then label and wrap the tray in clingfilm.

Once in the swing of it, I carried on sprinkling trays with Coreopsis tinctoria, Impatiens balsamina and Japanese Indigo, none of which need to be soaked in advance and even remembered that weld seeds need maximum light and should be surface sown without any top covering of compost. 

Looking at the filled trays, my cheery mood evaporated.
"Oh hell and damnation, Elinor. The only room in this house that gets much direct sun hasn't any windowsills." 

"What a good job you've got all those boxes. Shove them over to the light, right up against the wall, don't stand there like a lemon."

That was five days ago and things seem to be working out. The Coreopsis sprouted after three days and this morning, when I turned the tray in which seedlings are already stretching for the light, I noticed that the Impatiens seeds are also germinating. A whole new dye plant garden remains a long way off, but as a start, I think this is good enough.