Matt’s Adventures in Northwest Gardening

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.