Sunprints

Remember the collard plant from my first tend post that wintered over? Well we're letting it go to seed so we can harvest the seeds. One morning a few weeks ago I was out in the garden with my film camera. The bees (mostly honey bees) were swirling around the collard blooms, the sun was warm and beating down, and it was simply a glorious morning. Can you see the bees?

On another sunny day this past weekend I made a few sunprints from one of the collard stems (pictured above left). For the second sunprint pictured I picked a weed that had an interesting leaf pattern. I believe it is wild carrot, or something of that nature. Making sunprints is another way I like to bring the garden inside. Have you made them before? The process is straightforward and a fun activity for kids to see art and science overlap.

And the sugar snap trellis:

Last week you commented you'd like to see the sugar snap trellis made from last year's okra plants. We literally left the okra stalks in their original row in the ground over the winter. Then this spring planted sugar snaps beneath them. Since the sugar snaps are now four feet tall or so we added stakes for additional support and have simply leaned the plants to the stakes. The sugar snaps attach on their own. You could string the plants to the stakes for a tidier appearance. Ah, I see it's time to pick sugar snaps!