Matt’s Adventures in Northwest Gardening

Here is a picture of the bleeding heart that I posted about here.

As you can see, it has grown very large very quickly. We tried to plant a sister plant to this one last summer, but the dog dug it up. This one is so big, I think it would probably fight back.

Below is the promised picture of my garden, where I planted the peas, beets, carrots and radishes. I also have included a picture of the peas, since nothing else has sprouted yet. Jen was not happy that I put those white little stakes in the ground with the string tied to them - but the dog was being stupid and walking through it this week, so I wanted to give him a little discouragement. I figure that they will come out when there are some actual plants there and dog realizes it.

  Finally, here is a close up of my little asparagus that is trying to grow. I planted them last year. It grew and went to seed and died. You are not really sposed to see any real edible asparagus until the second season, so its encouraging to see it still alive.

According to the Wikipedia, the term Asparagus derives from the Greek aspharagos or asparagos, and the Greek term originates from the Persian asparag, meaning “sprout” or “shoot. We also often think about asparagus in terms of its unpleasent odor when you urinate. This, though, is not a universal trait - apparently only 40% of people can actually percieve a smell. I, dear readers, am on of the lucky 60%. Now you know.

Today, Baseball’s Opening Day 2007, I have decided that my mourning period over my lost tomatoes has ended. The carnage is done. The wounds have not completely healed, but Jen says I can’t punish the cat or I will have to sleep in my truck. Something about him not understanding, as well as being “ridiculously cute”.

So, below you will find pictures of my tomato plants from today. I re-potted them to these mid-size containers on Thursday night, with the intention of upsizing them again once more before I put them out in the green house. Last year, I put them in the ground the weekend before Mother’s Day. I think I will shoot for that again this year.

I also have planted some of my first seeds of the year in the garden. Going in last weekend were the beets, carrots and radishes. It immediately frosted over a bit the next morning, but it was light, and I doubt it effected the seeds. Today I planted to two rows of spinach, which grows well all year, but preferring the cold. I will put some pictures up tomorrow when the sun is out.

My mom also bought me a packet of these seeds:

They are called Donut Seeds. Um. I couldn’t help myself, I had to open it to see what was inside. Apparently, donuts are grown from what appears and smells like ground up cheerios. I wonder if I should start them indoors?

I woke up this AM and walked into the kitchen, trying to figure out what I was doing up at 8AM on a Saturday. I walked over to the window box and looked at my little tomatoes, about to wish them a good morning and best of luck growing for the day. And I found this:

The decapitated remains of 2 of my 3 Jolly Elf plants. The Horror!!!

Also victim were 4 of the 8 planter pots of Mortgage Lifters also fell prey to the evil perpetrator. Here is a photo of the villain, preparing for his next attack:

So, it’s back to drawing board for those little guys. Do I order more seeds get the next week and replant them and start all over? Or do order a live plant to be delivered at the end of April?

Now, the hardest part for any of us sensitive gardeners to handle is the part when we have to thin out our plants. These little things grew for us, after all, they are my little children. The first year I grew plants from seeds, I attempted to replant each of the little sprouts that I thinned from my little peat pot. Alas, by the end of that season, I had 4 plants to which I had given tons of attention that had remained healthy and produced wonderful fruit. I also had a sun deck of an old apartment covered with strange, half starved, odd shaped plants, in cruel sized pots, struggling to deliver even one edible fruit.

The idea behind planting more than one seed is to ensure that you are certain to have some growth; the result if this, unfortunately, means the death of those extra little plants. Each little planter had, as I mentioned, between 4-6 seeds, Each of these has produced more than one little sprout; some, of course, have as many as 6. Here is an overhead picture of them.

Now, I after reading the book Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon, my mind was put to ease. Mr Solomon makes the case that in nature, the odds that some seeds from the same pod, for example, will not survive, either due to low germination, too much frost, not enough sun, disease, etc. As he puts it, “Vegetables don’t mind being thinned. They actually like it.” It sure beats being neglected and broken like those plants on that apartment deck.

So that is the next step for these little guys. Don’t worry, sprouts are edible. Think about those bean sprouts you had last time with your Phở.

(Also, I highly recommend that book above by Steve Solomon. It is a great guide to understanding how to, you know, grow veggies west of the Cascades. Seriously, though, I can’t speak enough about it as an incredible resource for both old and new gardeners up here in the NW)

Well, it was sorta provoked.

Jen bought a Venus Fly Trap - which you can see here at her LiveJournal. If you look at the picture, you can see the outline of an unfortunate victim inside the plan. Did it end up there naturally? Well, it was alive and it was inside the plant. How they came together in such a way, I will leave that story up to Jen.

So, here is a bit of info about Dionaea muscipula - which we call commonly the Venus Fly Trap. They are found in nature in the steamy swamps of North and South Carolina. They are commonly sold at grocery stores, where I too acquired one as a kid. Unfortunately, they are very fickle plants, and, being from humid and warm areas naturally, they are not suited for regular home growth. Instead of buying a plant terrarium, Jen is going to use a nice cheese plate and cover to recreate that sweltering magic land.

VFTs lure flies through the release of a scent like a normal flower. After a fly lands inside the head brushing against the tiny little hairs inside the plant’s head, the VFT snaps - slowly - closed, and traps the fly between its little plant teeth, finally sealing the poor fellow up. The head of the plant hermetically seals, and the plant then proceeds to digest its prey in about 10 days.

They are able to be grown without eating flies and other insects - but what fun is that?

What happens when you feed it a small piece of cooked Chicken? Yup, it turns black and dies. It is like the old saying, give a venus fly trap a fish and it’ll eat for a day; Teach a venus fly trap how to fish and it’ll eat for a lifetime.

Well, it has been a while since I have updated this, I know. But below, you will see that it has been worth it. The tomatoes have started to sprout! I currently have them sitting in my window box in my kitchen, with a supplemental grow light for the afternoons and evenings.

In addition to the Mortgage Lifter and Costoluto Genovese I found 3 - count ‘em - 3 leftover seeds from my favorite variety I grew last year. They were called Jolly Elf grape tomatoes. I thought that I had a lot of them left, but it turned out just assuming that you have something doesn’t make it a reality. With the other two varieties, I planted 4-6 seeds in each little planter, ensuring that statistically I would have at least one of the seeds sprout, with the intention of thinning them out later.

So, I took a risk with my three little Jolly Elf seeds, and planted each of them in a separate containter - my hands were literally shaking with each one, finding that my fingers were big fat useless sausages with no dexterity. What if I dropped it? Would it still sprout? Are they too old? Did I store them properly? I so loved these tiny juicy little tomatoes!

Dear readers, I am more than pleased to report that today all three of the little seeds have sprouted. We can all calm down and watch them grow.

Yes people, it is technically 6-8 weeks before our last frost of the season. That is scheduled this year around March 23 according to the Farmer’s Almanac. So, yes, it is time to start those tiny little seeds indoors and let them start to grow.

Unfortunately it was VERY cold out today, so I opted for the indoor planting scenario. When my darling wife Jen found out what I was doing, she had a few choice comments about whether it was really a good idea to use potting soil and water over a white carpet. I could see her point, but man alive, it was nippy out. So below, you can see some of the tools of my craft. The potting soil is from McLendon Hardware, and my seed packets are from Territorial Seeds.

Stay Tuned… This is when it starts to get exciting!

At least that is what my Mom told me once. So, taking her at her word, I think that we should all take a moment and think about planting peas this year. I have invested in some inoculant for my peas - this is a powder you apply to your peas that is filled with Rhizobium bacteria - which helps it better fix nitrogen into the plant, and yield a larger bounty of delicious peas.

As a side note, it is not technically President’s Day - it is officially called “Washington’s Birthday“.

Here is a neat bit of American history most of us didn’t learn in 10th grade US History.

Back in the mid 19th Century, Europeans began to get all excited over what was literally Bat Sh*t. Apparently, they realized how potent this substance was for fertilizing crops. Immediately, the Big Players of the time went in search the valuable and rich deposits of this guano and attempted to acquire as many little islands full of this stuff as they could find. In strictly strategic terms, it would not be prudent to yield this resource (not to mention the land being acquired) to other nations of the world, when the USA itself could play in that same game!

So, in response to this came the Guano Island Act of 1856. The first bit of it says:

Whenever any citizen of the United States discovers a deposit of guano on any island, rock, or key, not within the lawful jurisdiction of any other government, and not occupied by the citizens of any other government, and takes peaceable possession thereof, and occupies the same, such island, rock, or key may, at the discretion of the President, be considered as appertaining to the United States.

In the end, we got something close to 100 islands all over the world, many of which we still claim today. It began, in reality, as the United States’ first dramatic motions toward non-continental American expansionism.

This is still an active law on the books, U.S. Code, Title 48, Chapter 8, Sections 1411–1419. So, If you were just moseying along in a boat somewhere in international free waters, and notice the there is a preponderance of bats, and a cave for them to poop in, do your civic duty and claim that sucker for Uncle Sam. K? Cool.

This site has a pretty decent run down on the basic history of this act and how it came about. I also posted here about Guano and its high nitrogen as a fertilizer. The only other thing I remember about Bat Guano was Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. Yep, high comedy that goes for the bat-toilet-humor crowd.

I bought a straw bale on Saturday at the aforementioned Reber Ranch in Kent. It was a little more than I expected, mainly because they only had one size available for purchase this weekend. It was $8 for the bale, which I paid and added to my costs for the project.

Usually at this place, you take your semi-truck and get a couple hundred bales of hay for your farm or whatever. I drove my little pickup and handed over my ticket for the one bale, which was promptly loaded on the back of my truck, and away we went.

The bale weighs 90 pounds. I have no idea if this will be a sufficient amount of straw for my project, but we’ll find out. Below is a picture of the bale in my truck on the way home. We left a pretty neat trail of little straw pieces from Kent to our house, I think.