Making Natural Dyes from Hedgerow Plants

Why Hedgerow Dyeing Is Worth the Faff

There is something quietly satisfying about pulling on a scarf you dyed yourself with leaves picked from a lane you walk every week. The colours are rarely shouty. They are the soft, dusty shades of the British countryside in late summer — sage, oatmeal, faded plum, butter yellow — and they sit beautifully next to each other. What they lack in neon brightness they make up for in depth and in the story attached to them.

The good news is that you do not need much kit. A large stainless steel or enamel pan you are happy never to cook in again, a wooden spoon, a jam thermometer, some scales, and a bag of alum. Everything else the hedgerow will supply, given a little patience.

Foraging with a Light Hand

Pick from abundance, never from scarcity. A hedgerow in a good year holds far more elderberries than the birds can manage, so taking a few heads from the middle of a bush does no harm. Take leaves sparsely from a number of plants rather than stripping one, and never dig up roots without the landowner's permission — under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is an offence to uproot any wild plant without authorisation, and some species are protected outright.

Keep away from verges that are sprayed, and avoid busy road edges where exhaust residue settles on the leaves. Wash everything well before it goes in the pot. A carrier bag of leaves goes a surprisingly long way: as a rough rule, you want roughly the same weight of plant material as the dry weight of the fibre you intend to dye.

Three Dependable Hedgerow Dyes

• Hazel leaves — the young leaves of May and early June give a buttery yellow-green on alum-mordanted wool. Later in the season the same leaves drift towards a soft tan. Pick them before midsummer if you want the brighter end of the range.
• Nettles — the most generous plant in the hedge. Tops and leaves give a soft sage green, and the roots, lifted in autumn with permission, give a clear yellow. Wear gloves, and cut rather than pull so the patch regrows.
• Elderberries — stripped from the stalks, they give a purplish mauve on wool that is quite different from anything synthetic. On cotton and linen it will be duller, and it is the least lightfast of the three, so keep dyed pieces out of strong sun.

Other useful additions to your notebook include oak bark (tan), meadowsweet tops (yellow), and sloe berries (a greyish purple). All reward experimentation.

The Alum Mordant, Step by Step

Mordanting is simply treating the fibre so the dye has something to grip. Alum — potassium aluminium sulphate — is the safest and most reliable choice for a beginner.

For 100g of dry fibre, weigh out 15g of alum and 6g of cream of tartar. Dissolve both in a little hot water, then top up the pan with enough lukewarm water to let the fibre move freely. Add the fibre once it has been thoroughly wetted out, bring it slowly to a gentle simmer, and hold it there for about an hour. Stir occasionally with the wooden spoon, but do not agitate wool or you will felt it. Turn off the heat and leave the fibre to cool in the bath overnight. It can then be dried or used straight away, still damp.

Cellulose fibres such as cotton and linen take up alum less readily. Give them a tannin bath first — a strong brew of black tea or a simmer with oak galls — then mordant as above.

Sample First, Dye Later

This is the single most useful habit in natural dyeing. Before committing a whole jumper's worth of wool, dye a few small skeins or squares of the same fabric you plan to use. Four little samples in jam jars on the stove will tell you more than any book.

Try one with alum alone, one with a splash of iron water (a rusty nail left in vinegar and water for a week) to sadden the colour, one with a teaspoon of vinegar added to shift it warmer, and one left longer in the bath. Label them with the plant, the date, and the mordant. Within a season you will have a swatch book worth more than anything you can buy.

For the dye bath itself, simmer your plant material in soft water for about an hour, strain it, then add the damp mordanted fibre and simmer gently for forty-five minutes to an hour. Let it cool in the bath — overnight if you can bear the wait. Rinse in water of a similar temperature until it runs clear, then wash gently in a pH-neutral soap.

Notes from the Kitchen Table

Hard water areas will dull your colours, so rainwater is worth collecting if you can. Iron pans will darken everything and should be avoided unless that is exactly what you want. And do keep a dedicated pan: alum and plant tannins are not things you want in your Sunday gravy.

Above all, keep notes. Half the pleasure of hedgerow dyeing is the slow accumulation of knowledge — knowing that the nettles behind the churchyard give a better green than the ones by the road, and that this year's elderberries were darker than last. That is countryside living at its best: a walk, a basket, and a pan of something quietly beautiful simmering on the stove.