Thursday, September 6, 2012

Capturing a Cycle of Life >> Our Sunflower Project

sunflowers
sunflowers

My favorite part of our garden this year was the giant sunflowers that we planted.  I'd always wanted to have my own little outdoor space full of sunflowers - they're sort of regal and such a definitive symbol of summertime. Back in the spring, I decided this year would be the year.

We started them from seeds, and Robbie built a small raised bed to plant them among the rest of our container veggies, herbs, and plants.  I have to admit that I was pretty enthusastic about the possibility of being able to watch them grow.  And grow they did.  So much, in fact, that eventually, they completely towered over all of the other plants.  Their petals unfolded into gorgeous, vibrant yellow flowers.  They reigned as queens of the garden for many weeks, through harsh rain storms and brutally hot days.  Then, slowly, the petals began to wilt and fall away, seeds formed, and they began to slump over, tired and worn.  Two days ago, they finally could no longer support their own weight and it was time to cut them down for the year. 

sunflowers

The same day that we said goodbye to my beloved sunnies, I was going through the images on my camera and discovered that both Robbie and I had taken an awful lot of photos of these sunflowers over the last few months.  I thought it was really cool to see the progression of their lives on 'film,' and decided to put the photos together in order.  It ended up being a completely unintentional project, since the images were randomly taken without the purpose of capturing the stages of the sunflowers' growth and decay.  But next year I think I might make an effort to be deliberately attentive to photographing individual plants and flowers in our garden as they go through their cycles of life, then piece them together into an album or video once the season comes to an end.

sunflower seeds

Fellow gardening nerds, have any of you ever taken pictures of your flowers/plants/herbs/veggies in their different stages throughout the season?

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15 comments:

  1. My mom tried to grow sunflowers in our backyard near the fence. They were gorgeous- except they hung right over the fence and faced our neighbor's yard! We didnt even get to enjoy them haha!
    kendrrat
    http://kendrrat.blogspot.com/

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  2. So pretty. I love how you captured the whole process.

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  3. Great post Melissa! I <3 Sunflowers...every year my husband swoons over the wild sunflowers in the pastures...hahaha....he really wants next year to be our year to plant the sunflower!!! :) I especially love the macro shots! And to answer the question, yes, I obsessively photograph my plants!

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  4. Oh my gosh such pretty pictures and so neat to see the progression!!! I would loooove to try this next year!!!

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  5. How funny that you should ask this right now! I actually just did a post on the progression of my tomato plants. I made a gif (though not with nearly as many photos as yours). You can see it here:
    http://beckieexplainsitall.blogspot.com/2012/09/tomato-tomahto.html
    It's always really exciting to look back and be reminded of how much something (you planted!) has grown : ]

    And I love sunflowers! They are my favorite flower. My cousin had his wedding a couple months ago and they planted like 200 sunflowers from seeds that were supposed to bloom by the day of the wedding (the wedding color was yellow). I asked my cousin's parents (the planters) if I could have one and of course they said yes so I took it home and nurtured it. Mine bloomed awhile ago and is falling over now, but there are 3 smaller blooms on the same stalk (?) so I haven't had the heart to "kill it" yet haha. Hopefully when those ones dry out I'll be able to dry it and save it! Yours are just gorgeous! And I love all the pictures of the different stages. Next year you should try red sunflowers. They're SO pretty!!

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    1. Great minds Beckie! Your tomatoes look amazing! And funny enough, I attempted to create a gif from my images as well but there were so many of them that the quality of the finished gif was really awful. So I spread them out instead. Glad to see I'm not the only one who loves capturing the progression of garden plants and flowers! :)

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  6. There are so many kinds of sun flowers. ours are still going strong, but we have none that look like yours.

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  7. This is such a nifty post! I loved watching your sunflowers grow. They're such a beautiful flower!
    xo Mandy
    missindieblog.com

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  8. How fun! We don't have any cool flowers in our yard, just a garden that's 80% dead now because I'm apparently about as good at keeping plants alive as I am at doing math. Did most of your plants survive the scorching heat?

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  9. gorgeous pics & garden. how did you make the text move on them?

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  10. I've always wanted sunflowers too. Maybe next year I'll be able to grow some!! :)

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  11. it just shows how much you have in common that you would photograph the same thing. it's such a season of time, in your life. :)

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  12. Pretty photos. I love planting flowers in our backyard too. Had planted several flowers last spring. I hope they will still alive after winter comes.

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