Posts Tagged ‘Lupin’
garden escapes: having fun
I have been working at my garden escapes project for almost a month now. Many of the poems are simple free verse, usually evenly divided in stanzas of four to seven lines, often consisting of regular numbers of syllables. I have also tried some other forms, the pantoum and the ghazal. And most fun of all, for a few poems, I have tried shape poems, using the lines of the poem to create shapes reflective of the subject matter.
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Here is a poem that goes a step further. The shape shows the shape of lupins growing in the ditch; the colours are the colours of the flowers.
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And, a poem about chokecherries, in the shape of the hanging blossoms or berries.
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I will continue to work with these, perhaps aiming to make the poem read sensibly no matter which way you approach it.
I’d appreciate any comments, positive or negative!
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This work was made possible by a Creations Grant from artsnb!
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All my best,
doing my best to stay in my shape,
Jane
garden escapes: lupins
In late June and early July, the ditches of some roads in New Brunswick are filled with colour as lupins become the dominant flower.
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Lupins are legumes and enrich the soil with nitrogen. In spite of this, there is an old tale that lupins impoverish the soil, hence the name derived from ‘lupe,’ the word for wolf.
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Lupins make pretty bouquets but, in my experience, have an unpleasant, peppery smell that keeps me from ever bringing them into the house.
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Lupin has been grown as an ornamental and, in earlier times, as a food source. They are great escape artists and spread easily into the countryside. Some species are considered invasive in Europe, New Zealand and places in North America.
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Lupins do not occur along all roads, but when they do, they may have originated in the gardens of early communities. For example, lupins line the ditches of the road to Giants Glen, north of Stanley, New Brunswick. Giants Glen was settled by the Irish in 1850.
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The Giants of the Glen
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lupins escape The Glen
scramble to roadsides
fix nitrogen
repair poor soil
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fingered leaves like hands
collect the river wind
lean together
work as one
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stand tall in spikes
pink, purple and blue
grey as summer wears
rattles their seeds
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This work was made possible by a Creations Grant from artsnb!
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All my best!
Stay safe.
Jane
an attempt at ecoprinting
After our drive to Canterbury over the weekend, I was anxious to capture some of the roadside flower colour in my ‘harvesting colour’ experiments. I decided to try a technique described by India Flint in her book Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles (Interweave Press, 2010). ‘Ecoprinting’ involves bringing a plant into close contact with a fabric in order to transfer the colour to the cloth. I am very impressed with the effects shown in Eco Colour – prints of leaves, flowers and berries.
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For my experiment I tried a handful of the Forget-me-nots I collected on our weekend drive …
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Forget-me-nots in the woods
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a bundle of the purple Lupins growing along the road in my community …
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Lupins along the road
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and a bunch of a ground cover plant growing in my yard, Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans) …
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Bugleweed in the orchard
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basket of Bugleweed
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I only used small samples of cloth … my idea is to use these ‘patches’ to make a little quilt to show the results of my ‘colour harvest’. I arranged a few of the flowers, both petals and leaves, inside the cloth …
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Forget-me-nots on cotton
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Lupin petals and leaves on cotton
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Bugleweed on cotton
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Then I folded the cloth in half, enclosing the flowers like a sandwich …
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flowers folded in cotton
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and rolled the cloth up tightly …
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rolling the bundle tightly
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and tied it with cotton thread …
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flower and cotton bundles
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I put my bundles in a wire basket and steamed them for an hour …
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flower and cotton bundles steaming (as usual I have thrown in a bit of woods and sky)
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After cooling, I opened the bundles, discarded the leaves and flowers, and rinsed the cloth. I was quite pleased with the results. After ironing, I have a pale array of colour. The Bugleweed left a definite lime green. The Lupin a more indefinite green and pale violet. The Forget-me-nots left a faint violet-grey.
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pale colour
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I did not get the flower and leaf impressions I expected, but I will keep trying. There are so many variables, steaming time and ‘unbundling’ time among them. I do hope to see that lovely lime green again!!!
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
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