Goosegrass aka sticky willy

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
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 

Thing is I now have dark brown stained finger tips, which no amount of scrubbing has got rid of

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.)

Just watched 'The Good Life', where Barbara is making dye from nettles!

Tom's new suit is a gem!