One of the reasons I love to grow my own food is that it connects me to the Earth and affirms my commitment to environmental stewardship. Another reason is that I love the variety of foods that would otherwise not be available to my family. One thing that I’ve realized during the course of my seed-starting adventures is that I need not limit myself to food production; there are other great things we can produce in the garden besides food.
First, inspired by my pal the Crunchy Domestic Goddess, I have decided to grow some dye plants in hopes of using natural Easter Egg dye next spring. So I’ve started some marigolds (their crushed seeds produce a yellow dye) and Hopi Red Dye Amaranth in the basement, and also hope to start some Hopi Black Dye Sunflowers and bull’s-blood beets in the garden a little later in the season. If anyone else knows of some good heat & drought-tolerant dye plants, please send them my way, as I’m just beginning my research on this.
Second, I’m going to be putting in a larger-than-ever-before cut flower garden. I love having cut flowers in the house and would have them every day all year long if only I didn’t realize where cut flowers come from in the off season. You see, tulips cut in Europe or South America and shipped in refrigerated cars to my local florist just don’t pass my enviro-meter 
That’s why I have African violets and zygocactus for houseplants and force bulbs just about every year.
Anyhow, the local greenhouse had a 3-for-1 sale going this week and, enchanted as I was by the 80 degree temperatures yesterday, I bought the following seeds for my cut flower garden:
- Heirloom Titan & Sun Samba Sunflowers
- Virginian & Ten Week Bouquet Stock
- Bachelor buttons (both blue & multi-colored!)
- Snapdragons
- Four varieties of Zinnias (I love zinnias!)
- Quinoa (yes, the edible kind is also nice for bouquets!)
- Cleome
- Coreopsis
I also got a free packet of the “Denver Daisy” rudbeckia that Denver Botanic Gardens is giving out in honor of the 150 year anniversary of Denver’s founding. Oh, and I bought “Big Max” pumpkin seeds last week. You know, the kind that grow up to 100 pounds. I’m thinking the kids will enjoy having those growing in their secret garden out behind the sandbox.
As an aside, yesterday’s sunny spring weather was replaced today with 2 inches of snow! Happy May Day, Colorado!
