A few years ago, I decided to expand my garden beyond primarily growing edible plants. I had been getting into making my own paint pigments from things around our yard, like clay and blackberries. However, I wanted to broaden my color palette choices and explore more options.

That winter, I sat by the wood stove, compiling a list of dye plants I wanted to grow and began sketching layout ideas for them. I had a lot of fun playing with different dye garden ideas and themes, and finally decided on something that would work well for my dye goals.

I had already picked out a spot—a sloping hillside that faced north. It wasn't ideal for growing food crops, but it would benefit from being planted, to prevent future erosion issues.

We had a huge pile of bark pieces from our firewood that we weren't sure how to use. Each piece was about 4 by 12 inches, too large for standard mulching. As I pondered ways to smother the grass without using cardboard, these bark slabs got a new home. I carefully covered the grass on the hillside with the slabs, making sure any gaps were filled by layering on more bark pieces.

With the beds enriched by compost and pathways lined with cedar chips, the area was ready for planting. I ordered my seeds and eagerly awaited the moment to plant them in a few months' time.

Today, I call this my "Dry, Dye, DIY" garden—and it's thriving! In the summer, I love sitting in the pathways, watching the rainbow of colors tower over me against the deep blue sky. Each plant offers something new to experiment with.

A dye garden is a canvas of possibility. Depending on your goals, climate, and experience, there are endless ways to select, combine, and layout your dye plants. Plus, these gardens offer environmental benefits too.

What really interests me (what can I say, I'm overly practical sometimes) is that many dye plants have multiple purposes. Some make excellent cut flowers for bouquets, while others are particularly attractive to pollinators. Some are even edible, like the Hopi Black Dye Sunflower, and others are perfect for herbal teas, like nettles or fennel.

Throughout this article, I’ll share different ideas for how to group dye plants by their colors, history, growing needs, and other qualities.  Since I'm a visual learner, I paired all of the layout ideas with visual diagrams to help you see how everthing would look in your own backyard.

Keep scrolling to get inspired by a variety of dye garden layout ideas so you can plan out perfect setup for your space.

🔴 Important Disclaimer: Before you explore this list of dye plants, please note that some of these plants can be invasive and spread rapidly in gardens, potentially harming local ecosystems. Always check your state's regulations and plant status before adding them to your garden. Additionally, while some plants on this list are edible and have a history of use in herbal medicine, this does not ensure their safety for consumption. Certain plants may require special preparation or may no longer be recommended for use. Always conduct thorough research and consult with a healthcare professional before using plants in a medicinal capacity.

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Dye Garden Layout Ideas

The Classics

When thinking about what to plant in your dye garden, these essential plants will provide you with a rainbow of reliable color.

One thing to note: Many of these plants won't give you a harvest until their second year. That's because woad, weld, dyer's chamomile, teasel, and alkanet are biennials. In their first year, they'll just form what's called a "rosette" or a flat grouping of leaves. In their second year, though, they'll explode in height and harvests.

Madder is a little bit different. While it will grow its first few seasons, you're going to be harvesting some of the root system for your dyestuff. So you'll want the plant to be at least 3 years old before you start to take some of it out of the ground. In that way, the madder has some reserves to fall back on so it can continue to thrive.

With first year harvests from your Indigo, Coreopsis and Safflower, you can play with mixing and matching the blues, yellows, oranges, and even pinks that come from these plants while you wait.

• Indigo: Blue
• Woad: Blue, Yellow, Green
• Weld: Yellow
• Dyer's Chamomile: Yellow
• Dyer's Coreopsis: Yellow, Orange
• Madder: Red, Pink, Orange
• Alkanet: Purple
• Safflower: Pinks, Orange
• Teasel: Gray

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Part Shade Dye Garden

If you're primarily a vegetable gardener like me, you might not have a lot of full-sun garden space left in your backyard. That's where these plants come in. They're tolerant of part shade, so you can grow a dye garden in an area where you wouldn't otherwise plant fruits and veg.

• Dyer's Woodruff: Red (from roots, pick first year and beyond)
• Alkanet: Purple (from roots)
• Nettles: Yellow, Green
• Bloodroot: Red (from roots)
• Blackberry: Purple to Gray (will need a mordant)
• Barberry: Yellow (from stems or roots)

Related Info: A Database of 81 Shade-Tolerant Edible Crops For Low-Light Areas of Your Garden

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Fast Growing + Quick Yielding Dye Garden: Herb Spiral Style

All of these plants are fast-growing annuals that will provide you with heaps of dye material for your crafts and projects. If you live in a mild climate or have normal rainfall in the winter, you might notice that many of these plants will self-sow. I'd definitely recommend starting each of these plants from seed again in the spring in order to be certain that you'll continue to get a harvest, though.

I designed the herb spiral in this way so that the taller plants, like amaranth and sunflower, are in the middle. Dyer's coreopsis and bachelor's button will likely sprawl over the edges of your spiral, forming a carpet of color. As a bonus, corn poppy seedpods and safflower blooms make excellent additions to dried flower bouquets!

• Marigold: Yellow
• Safflower: Yellow, Orange, Pink
• Dyer’s Coreopsis: Yellow
• Hopi Red Dye Amaranth: Red, Purple
• Hopi Black Dye Sunflower: Black, Gray
• Japanese Indigo: Blue
• Corn Poppy: Red
• Black Bachelor's Button: Purple, Gray

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An Edible Dye Orchard

If you're growing an orchard or even a hedgerow, why not get a double harvest out of your edible perennials and experiment with color?

Some of these plants, like blackberry and elderberry, won't produce a lightfast dye. A teacher of plant dyes and fibre crafts, Fran in South Wales, did an experiment to show how these plants will shift color over time. I still think that the process is fun, and as the color evolves, it adds some interest and mystery to your wardrobe.

• Blackberry: Gray Purple
• Red Currant: Brown (with alum)
• Sea Buckthorn Red; you'll need 1 male plant to pollinate your female plants
• Russian Olive: Red; Can be a biomordant
• Medlar: Peach, Pink
• Red Mulberry: Yellow, Purple, Brown
• Black Elderberry: Yellow, Purple, Brown
• Serviceberry: Black
• Hawthorn: Yellow, Red

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Ornamental Dye Plants

While all dye plants are gorgeous, these are the ones that are extra swoon-worthy. I'm a huge fan of the towering bold hollyhock, the uninhibited bachelor's button, and the bright smile of sunflower. Scabious, sorgum, marigold, and cosmos also make excellent additions to bouquets. Once the flowers are no longer fresh in the vase, let them dry and add them to the dye pot when they call to you.

• Hollyhock: Grayish Blue, Green, Purple
• Dyer's Woad: Yellow
• Safflower: Orange, Pink
• Black Knight Scabiosa: Gray, Green, Purple
• Tango Cosmos: Orange, Yellow
• Japanese Indigo: Blue
• Dyer's Woodruff: Red, Pink

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Before you go...

Want more inspiration for your dye garden? I've created a visual in-depth database of over 150 dye plants. Click over to learn about the colors that each plant yields, along with other tips and information. If you are looking for something more rare, from a specific culture, or want to sort plants by their dye color possibilities, you'll want to check this out!

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