Bluebird Dye Gardens is a part of my family’s farm in southwest Colorado, overlooking Mesa Verde National Park, across hundreds of small family farms and ranches, and down the valley to the Ute Mountain Ute tribe and the Sleeping Ute Mountain. This region is the traditional and ancestral territory of the Nuchu (Ute), Apache, Puebloan, Hopi, Zuni and the Dine nations. The colors in the landscape reflect colors extracted from plants and minerals by Indigenous people, used for centuries – and still used today - in their weavings, basketry, and more.
My plants are grown organically, benefitting from mineral-rich soil and farm-made compost, and about 300 days of sunshine at 7,000’ elevation. They’re harvested at their peak and thoughtfully dried, out of direct sunlight, and packaged for sale across the country for use as botanical dyes. Many people are not aware of the rich tradition and time-honored techniques of extracting color for use on plant and animal fibers, but they are a match made in heaven! I offer workshops and garden tours to facilitate a connection with the dye plants so that people can experience some of the numerous ways to use botanical dyes.
I've been farming in southwest Colorado for 18 years, and last year I started Bluebird Dye Gardens to provide botanical dyes for a clothing designer friend who hand-dyes her garments. I got hooked on the rich and fascinating world of plants that yield an amazing array of color, from rich and deep to pale and subtle. And using them is art-science-farming-creativity all combined! Growing these special plants keeps me connected to the earth, and their gift of color connects me to community.