Grow #Flax For #Linen In Your Garden

By Cindy Conner

"Growing flax to process into linen was a common activity on homesteads before the Industrial Revolution. In fact, a quarter acre per person might have been planted to take care of clothing and other #textile needs for the year. When choosing a variety of flax to plant for linen, make sure the botanical name is Linum usitatissimum. The variety I’ve found to be available is Marilyn.

"If you are just starting out and don’t know if you really want to get into this yet, you can get enough material to work with from just a small space in your garden. In that case, you may want to buy seed by the packet, if it is available. If you want to have enough to really play with, plant a pound of seeds. I bought seed through The Heirloom Seed Project at the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Their one pound package of seeds indicates it is enough to plant 400 square feet. My main source of information about growing flax to linen has been the book Linen: From Flax Seed to Woven Cloth by Linda Heinrich. That book suggests that one pound of seed is enough to plant 300 square feet."
#NaturalFibers #MakeClothesThatLast

Read more:
https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/grow-flax-for-linen-in-your-garden-zbcz1703

Better yet, wear clothes made of shorn #wool, #hemp, #bamboo, #flax, or #OrganicCotton.

How do you tackle #microplastics? Start with your washing machine.
Simple filters could help remove #microfiber pollution from your #laundry. But experts say a broader portfolio of solutions is needed to address the problem.

by Saqib Rahim, Apr 19, 2023

"As environmental challenges go, microfiber pollution has come from practically out of nowhere. It was only a decade or so ago that scientists first suspected our #clothing, increasingly made of #synthetic materials like #polyester and #nylon, might be major contributors to the global #plastic problem.

"Today a growing body of science suggests the tiny strands that slough off #clothes are everywhere and in everything. By one estimate, they account for as much as one-third of all microplastics released to the ocean. They’ve been found on #MountEverest and in the #MarianaTrench, along with tap #water, #plankton, shrimp guts, and our poo."

Read more: https://grist.org/technology/how-do-you-tackle-microplastics-start-with-your-washing-machine/?utm_source=pocket-newtab