Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Chatting on the Plot => Topic started by: mumofstig on June 02, 2022, 22:44
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There was a big patch of it along the bottom of the hedge, so just waded in and started pulling it out - bad mistake....
I ended up with the sticky balls all over me and spent ages sat on the bench picking them all off ::) Thing is I now have dark brown stained finger tips, which no amount of scrubbing has got rid of :ohmy:
The garden looks tidier now though - I just need to weed under the roses now, but that's no hardship when they have so many flowers right now :)
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We grow Goose Grass for England, and I'm forever hoiking it out, but the brown staining is new to me...
We sometimes get that from Wistaria, especially if it gets caight up in the windows and gets crushed in the frame!
Like the idea of weeding near open flowers, it's a great pastime!
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Thing is I now have dark brown stained finger tips, which no amount of scrubbing has got rid of :ohmy:
Goose grass is a very close relative of the well known dye plant Madder. Other members of the gallium/bedstraw family are also traditional dye plants, for example ladies bedstraw, the small frothy yellow flowers you find commonly in hay fields. It is the roots that are used for deliberate dyeing but as you have discovered there is dye in the whole plant!
(This from Mrs Windy, who dyes our wool with various witches brews.)
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That explains it then, c&w, thanks for the info - I will certainly wear gloves and a 'throw away' top, next time I clear it. As my fingers are still a bit muddy looking ::)
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Just watched 'The Good Life', where Barbara is making dye from nettles!
Tom's new suit is a gem!