Last week Penny Coupland and Emily Smith gave a wonderful workshop on natural dyeing at the MOP Garden. Participants brought jars and animal fibers to practice some eco-alchemy. Penny and Emily showed us beautiful samples of naturally dyed wool and cotton. Many of the women at the workshop were into fleece: the wild, woolly women of Vancouver!
Those really bright pieces of raw wool are actually dyed with Kool-aid.
As Penny gave us a tour of the dye plants in the garden a fritillary landed on Sharon's hat. Penny has been experimenting with Natural Dyes for about a year and she highly recommends the book Wild Color by Jenny Dean.
Some dye stuffs such as golden rod (which is blooming right now) can be frozen or "canned" as a dye stuff if you don't have time to use it while it's fresh. Preserving the flowers this way will give a brighter color than the dried blossoms.
We all headed into the garden and chose plants for our jars. Then the participants poured water from the kettle into the jars. Some plants will lose color if you get them too hot, whereas others need to be made into a decoction and boiled.
Sharon got good results with these bright pink geranium petals.
Some people tried using Rudbeckia and others the blossoms of the tall coneflowers.
As a general rule of thumb you need about the same weight of plant stuffs as your fibers. We added a small pinch of alum as a co-mordant.
Todd got some good yellow color with the roots of Oregon grape.
Some people made "cocktails" of mixed plants.
Penny also noted that the internet is a great source for info on eco-dyes but you can often find conflicting results due to many wild cards such as ph readings and different varieties of plants.
Penny says you can get a pink color from rose hips and rose petals. Tansy will give a neon yellow color when the pollen is fresh and a duller browner yellow when the flower is older or dried. Emily reminded us to keep all dye containers separate from food containers because many dye stuffs are toxic. Some should be handed with gloves because they contain skin irritants as well.
This past Thursday evening as the August sun was creating patterns of shadown in the MOP Garden, we had the final talk in a series created between MOPARRC and Evergreen. The speaker was Andrew Appleton, who is the Regional Project Manager of Evergreen in Vancouver. Evergreen is an organization that creates, supports and implements urban greening projects and school greening projects. Andrew has years of experience ripping out invasive species and planting native plants in areas such as Jericho Park, and Still Creek in the Grandview cut. He gave us some great advice on which native plants good to plant inVancouver and how to deal with some of those nasty invasive species in our gardens.
First of all, Andrew explained that it takes about three years to establish many native plants. In the first years they may look less than robust, but you just have to have patience and faith that they will eventually look healthy. Of course, you have to match the plant with the right location in your garden, and sometimes even a couple of feet can make all the difference. Evergreen seeks to plant small areas with a diversity of species, a community of plants that work well together to promote biodiversity.
With the help of volunteers from the community they install shade plants, flowers and berries, bushes and trees. Some favorites include Red Flowering Currant (be sure you get the native Ribes sanguineum as the nurseries will only have cultivars in stock), Mock Orange (Philadelphus lewisii), Pacific Ninebark (Physocarpus capitatus), Oval Leaf Blueberries, Red Osier Dogwood, Rosa nutkana and bald-hipped roses (Rosa gymnocarpa). The three most popular ground covers are Fringe Cup (Tellumia), Piggy Back Plant (Tolmea) and Foam Flower (Tiarella).
For some of the troublesome invasive plants such as lamium and goutweed, Andrew recommends putting down sheet mulch--cardboard or paper and bark mulch and digging right through those layers to do your planting. Some of the more tenacious plants like broom require special treatment--removal with root wrenches and vigilant removal of any seedlings because the seeds are viable for up to 30 years. One of the plants that was just declared a noxious weed is yellow flag iris, a European transplant that colonizes bogs with its huge root systems. Evergreen holds work parties where volunteers don rubber boots and dig out the iris rhizomes.
Once native plants are established they require less water and care than exotic plants and they support the native birds, insects and specific pollinators. Urban environments often contain a variety of cultivars which often contribute to biodiversity, but a wide variety of native plants makes for healthier city ecosystems. Climate changes mean that Andrew keeps an eye on the micro-climates Evergreen targets for their restoration projects. He says they no longer plant Red Cedar, our provincial tree because it has become generally too dry to have a successful survival rate here. Andrew also took a look at the native garden at the MOP. One plant that he says is not doing too well because it needs more water is our elderberry tree but our Arbutus tree and Ocean Spray (holodiscus) are thriving.
Evergreen works with the community and they are always looking for volunteers. They also work with offices and businesses to create team-building exercises with their urban greening projects. If you are interesting in helping out, check out the Evergreen BC web site. The best way to get a free education is to volunteer. It's good exercise and you can think of it as a form of horticultural therapy! Evergreen supplies the tools and snacks. In fact you can come to Jericho Park this Sunday (August 13) to lend a hand from 9 am to noon.
Don't sleep the summer away! Come out to the engaging and informative talks at the Means of Production Garden! This summer MOPARRC has partnered with Evergreen to give some fabulous talks at our garden. We've had two so far and there are two more to come. They are informal, in depth talks with plenty of opportunity for dialogue, so to tempt you to come to our August talks, I will present some sneek peeks at what's gone on so far.
(BTW this is a mystery plant that's popped up in one of our beds. Anyone have any idea what it is? It's sprawling and over five feet tall.)
Erin, a student intern from Evergreen presented a talk on growing your own sprouts at home and she brought us some tasty treats and the recipes.
This is the correct angle to tip the jar while growing your sprouts.
This was a delicious sprouted hummus we got to try. We also sampled some incredible bliss balls made with sprouted almonds. Helen from Evergreen is going to be blogging in depth about the talks, so I will post a link to those blog posts soon.
The talks are from 6-8 pm in the garden and people are encouraged to bring a picnic supper if they like.
Those who come early can pick ripe berries from the garden!
You can watch the summer mason bees carry mud and pollen to their condos.
You can relax to the sound of the honeybees in the blossoms.
Last week we had a fantastic presentation by Todd DeVries who is an accomplished cedar weaver.
Todd told us about his journey of discovering his art through a special vision and meeting other weavers and Haida elders.
I gave him some New Zealand flax from the garden and he quickly braided it and twisted it into a small rope.
Hats take about a month to make, and are finished in unique ways that are a part of the artisan's and the tribe's signature.
This hat was made with two contrasting tones of cedar.
I love this contemporary application for an ancient skill--the water bottle holder.
As I walked home from Todd's talk I took some photos of the linden trees blooming on Broadway while a crow warned me away from her nest.
There you go! Now don't miss our final two talks:
(COME SEE) THE FRENECIRCES: A two-thirds scale Ottoman/Czarist styled gondola remembers journeys between oasis caravanserai. It absorbs solar energy during the day and at night it emits light, and text (wirelessly), and skitters along its support wire. Intermittently, the gondola will transmit prose to ground-based wireless handsets (iPhones or other WiFi equiped devices). The text alludes to Marco Polo-like traveller(s) in mid journey between oases, and to the context of the original gondola among the opulent architecture near the resort city of Gagri on Georgia's Black Sea. The Park-to-Spa line once carried czars, dukes, and aristocrats.
These are the solar lights designed by Peter Courtemanche and created by the community in a workshop at The Britannia Community Centre for the Light Headed Lanterns below.
Naomi Singer is the Artistic Director of the Secret Lantern Society and has been a practising artist since graduating with honours from the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1989. She has created and participated in countless festivals and community projects as an artist, performer, director and designer and has taught workshops throughout BC and Alberta. She continues to produce and direct the annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival in multiple Vancouver neighbourhoods, collaborating with over 500 artists and performers, dozens of community associations and countless volunteers. Over 15,000 participants attend this annual event.
Light-Headed Lanterns: In a workshop for the commmunity, participants created head-shaped lanterns using tissue paper, petals, twigs and natural materials from the MOP garden. Once complete the new lanterns were outfitted with solar technology created by participants in a workshop with Peter Courtemanche. Light-headed is a solar powered lantern project that plays on the concept of personal illumination. Ten head-shaped portrait lanterns will invoke the "eureka moment" we hope to inspire regarding the conversation between art and science. A head lit from within is inspired, it contains spirit, it holds an idea. And when we put our heads together, anything is possible.
Les Serveuses! Sharon Kallis and Jody MacDonald serve up garden tea and bannock.
Lori Weidenhammer is a Vancouver performance-based artist originally from Saskatchewan. For four years she has been appearing as the persona Madame Beespeaker on a regular basis. Lori created an Artist Run Bee Garden at the MOP (2009). Her collaborative media works with Peter Courtemanche have been shown in Canada and abroad. As a food security volunteer and activist Weidenhammer works with colleagues and students of all ages on identifying native plants, eating locally, gardening for pollinators, and guerilla gardening.
In her installation and performance Lori Weidenhammer will embody a psychic medium called Madame Moth appearing in an illuminated cocoon. She will enter into a trance state with the help of a sound track she listens to created from fortunes from a vintage scale and 19th century recipes. Moths have eaten away at the memory of Madame Moth as she struggles to channel her own past.
