Laura and I have grown and dyed with many different dye plants. This coming spring we really wanted to have a production garden solely for dye plants, including a large indigo plot. I have plenty of room at our place, but as our house is going on the market soon, I didn't want to plant anything. Laura's gardening space is filled up with silly stuff like herbs and veges. We knew about a garden space in town in Berea that was not being used, and though a series of fortunate conversations, we now have a gardening space! Here's what it looked like before we did anything:

I know. As pretty much everyone says when they hear our good news: "You have your work cut out for you!" I am inordinately excited about this half acre in town. We plan to have a market garden as well, 'cause you know, we don't have enough going on. It was well-tended in the past, so it's not like starting from scratch, and we will be working with a few other women to get it in shape. I love this time of year, and the whole month of December, when the seed catalogs start rollin' in. There is nothing like breaking out the graph paper and plotting out garden space. It's my favorite part of gardening, in direct contrast to weeding in July, which is my least favorite part. So, we're making beds this fall, planting garlic, and planning, planning, planning. I'm saving the best part for last- it's been my holy grail of 10 years of gardening. I can rock the fluorescent lights and start tomato and pepper seedlings like nobody's business, but I think it will take our plant starting to the next level. Check it-