Memory garden

Like many no doubt we have a small and modest garden but over the years it has become populated by plants and objects which hold special memories, evoking a moment from a while ago or of friends and relatives, some no longer with us. There are the Mothers Day gifts of primulas bought by children and brought from an earlier house, a birthday rose from a friend sadly taken too soon, plants from our parents’ gardens and so on. Each year the flowers emerge and we are reminded for a moment of those special times and people, and it has occurred to me it would be nice to make a photo book over the seasons of these special plants. I already have a few photos in my archive but by making this into a project I can concentrate on catching them at their best.

What other photo assignments do others have in mind?

Completely with you on this one Robl. We have just lost during a hard frost a much loved Camellia that came from late parents and it is like losing an old friend, now I am searching for photographs of it. I shall adopt your approach and have a photo book made. Good luck with yours.

What a good idea.

There are a number of indoor plants on our window ledges where we know the species but not the variety so we call them by the name of the person who gave them to us (or the person who gave them to the person who...). Some others are known by the place we got them - including 'Pub Plant' because we grew it from a surrepticiously acquired bit of a plant in a pub while having a meal. I've wondered about turning the camera on them, but never got round to it.

Then there was the year I tried to take an 'interesting' photograph (i.e. not accurate but bland record shot) of every type of flower in the garden. The result was a lot of files on the hard drive that still need to be sorted and processed.

And then there are the sempervivums (houseleeks). It started with an annual record shot to keep track of what variety was where otherwise you're hopelessly lost if labels disappear or become unreadable. Then it became a couple of shots each year for the same purpose, as a single shot was not good enough for varieties that change a lot through the year. Now I'm wondering about trying to capture their annual cycle of changes in a way that shows them at their best rather than taking just purely functional shots.

You may have prodded me into getting on with all the above... when the garden itself is not demanding immediate and lengthy attention!

Steve