tilden botanic garden

The Bay Area never ceases to amaze me with its rich beauty, culture and community. Having moved here to be a part of a botanical garden and steeping myself into the plant world for the past 7 years I just simply cannot understand why my first visit to the Tilden Botanic Garden was only last month!

The garden is laid out with respect to California's diverse floristic province.

The garden is free and open to the public 7 days a week! Every plant is labelled which provides great opportunity to learn some ID.

Pack a lunch, bring a book or sketch pad and spend a few hours in this garden. You will truly feel transported to another world and ever inspired by the beauty of our CA native plants.

backyard dyes

two heads of purple cabbage used in the dye pot

i've been dyeing for a while now, but i have had little or no garden space in the places i've lived so i have met neighbors to harvest dye plants, collected material from community and public gardens that i've worked in and done the occasional foraging from trees and shrubs in my local environment. 

dyer's coreopsis on left,  zinnia elegans on right

this summer i had my first taste of garden to garment using all dyes i had grown in my backyard. this experience was more than divine and gave me a deep appreciation for the slow process of creating regenerative textiles. 

mint leaves, an abundant local source of yellow and green dyes. and an absolutely essential kitchen herb!

now that the plantspeople garden is in progress i look forward to growing many dyes to use and share. stay tuned!