The flax in my community garden plot is growing nicely. It’s blooming and just starting to show some yellow in the stalks and some seed heads. The soil here is loose and very nice to work with – weeds pull out easily.
When the flax was about a foot tall, I added some string that criss-crosses the patch at a foot or so above the ground, to try and keep it from falling over in high winds. It seems to have helped, as we’ve had a few storms and it’s still standing.
The seed was planted on May 24th, so it should be ready to harvest in a few more weeks. Once there’s more yellow on the stalks, it’s probably ready to pull.
Here’s hoping we have a nice sunny spell when it’s ready to be dried.
How interesting to grow flax. What will you do with it? Years ago a lot of it used to be grown in Ireland for the linen industry. Now sadly gone forever.
Hi Bridget! I’m growing the flax in order to spin it up and weave with it. I’ve grown some in previous years, but this is a bigger batch for me and I still need some practice figuring out when the retting is complete. I’ve actually ordered some linen sheeting a few years ago from an Irish firm – Thomas Fergusons, and it is beautiful. I’m sorry to see the old textile firms disappearing, and I hope the remaining ones thrive again. I do read and love your blog, and hope that the environmental issues that you are facing in Ireland are handled in an intelligent way. I live in Canada, where we have plenty of issues too (tar sands, new pipeline projects, the list goes on). Best wishes for a lovely summer, Liz