Capturing a Cycle of Life >> Our Sunflower Project

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. 

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.

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