The Pitcher Plant Project

We are the music-makers, 
And we are the dreamers of dreams, 
Wandering by lone sea-breakers, 
And sitting by desolate streams; 
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams: 
Yet we are the movers and shakers 
Of the world for ever, it seems.
-Arthur O’Shaughnessy 

As of yesterday, 5 Aug 2012, all of the plants have been moved into the new greenhouse. (Uh, I still have to move supplies and stuff, but that can follow later. Plants all in at least!) I know that my posts lately have been few and far between, but things are finally settling down a little bit. I hope to start blogging again soon at a more regular frequency. It’s been a crazy busy yet fun time with this move. Am I masochistic? Maybe a little. Looking at the past few moves, I can’t help but be in awe of how far this is coming along. It has been exciting to say the least. In this previous post I mentioned, “I have thought about just dropping it all — and just walking away. I don’t know if any gardeners out there have faced anything like that — but damn, I sure have. Yep. It was that depressing for me.”

Yah, I’ve been going through a rough patch lately. Starting off with having to leave my childhood home, seeing the yard get emptied out, and moving the plants to this death cave of a greenhouse. After a few months, having to move YET AGAIN from that fucked up shitty hell hole into BETTER temporary housing… then from temporary housing into THIS grand refuge where I hope to stay longer than just a few months. Simultaneously with this last plant move – I also had to move my personal residence to keep the kids close to school before school started!! DUDE. Mos’ def a crazy summer-summer-summertime! I’m glad to report that things are finally settling down now. FINALLY.

Below are a few photos that Dahlia and I took documenting this second stage of this move. (First stage photos here…) The rest of this year will basically be just rest and recuperation for the plants. Like me, they’ve been through quite a bit. You’ll see how floppy and weak the old foliage has become because of this garbage; and you’ll notice some new growth looking much better as well. I need to let them rest and get their strength back to prepare for some amazing seasons ahead. There are already tell tale signs that they are loving the better light, air, and water here!

Again, I’m humbled and deeply thankful for my friends and family who have been there. It truly means a lot to me. I am forever grateful to my rad wifey Dahlia who has been that steadfast pillar of patience, love, and strength throughout this all. (Dude, talk about patient… I think anyone else would of either imploded or gone postal!) Again, a huge thank you everyone for encouraging me to continue to grow and more importantly — to dream…

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Clean up in effect!! Before moving the plants in, I had some clean up to do. There was a lot of old PVC pipes that were under the benches. These were used in the past for irrigation. If you notice, there’s built in water tables left for me! NICE! What is NOT nice: the plastic left behind is not UV stabilized. It’s only been in there for a few months and it’s breaking down into something FUGLY already! Crusty pastic – EW ew ew EW!

Inside the greenhouse that is inside the greenhouse! A huge bonus for me to have this space! Again, I had to rip off all this old plastic. Under the sun, this stuff will only last a season at most – it breaks down and gets crackly. I removed all of this and am waiting for some greenhouse plastic for a proper covering. This should be arriving in the next few weeks. Future Nepenthes house!

The clean up crew! My sons, Lucas and Josiah – along with my niece Akaela came in to help pull some weeds and move some plants!

Akaela attacks the weeds…

Me vs. weeds. Damn weeds put up a good fight, but we got these out!

Lucas getting in the act!

Weed removal. This was a huge priorty to remove because weeds will harbor pests. In my case – there were whiteflies were up in that mix. Straight up nasty.

The first tray in! YEAH!

Mike Wang in effect! Thankful for this homie. He spent the day helping me move plants and remove some of those nasty weeds under the benches.

Mike Wang, the Sarracenia ninja master homie brosef guy!

Lucas, hauling Sarracenia.

My young Sarracenia padawan.

Some artwork by the kiddoez on a nearby chalkboard. This provided a creative outlet from the hard labor.

My niece Akeala’s drawing of a carnivorous plant. Gotta love it!

I’m in love with this woman right hurrrr. Gettin’ dirty in the garden!

Space is filling up. Note the lanky and stretched foliage – a result of poor light at the old spot. It looks NASTY but I am hoping that the increased surface area of the leaf and brighter light equals greater energy stored in the rhizome for the next season!

Inspecting my babies.

I’m lost in a sea of Sarracenia.

My son Josiah and my niece Arielle helping with the move. 

It’s a race!

Dahlia’s doodle of a Sarracenia.

Dude. What a workout.

Arielle loves plants. I can see her having her own blog and tv show on plants! Pretty rad how she always wants to help me out in the garden/greenhouse.

Teamwork! Moving succulents…

Josiah and the bamboos on the move.

Josiah with the Psudosasa japonica.

Arielle admires the Drosophyllum lusitanicum…

… then she starts poking at the flytraps! Nooooo!!
(Well, it’s ok. I can’t resist doing that either…)

It’s a jungle!

My rad helpers!

The Asylum getting full of plants…

Dahlia helping me water!
Just as a side note – I used one of those fertilizer attachments to the hose, but instead filled it with activated filter charcoal and chloramine remover available at aquarium stores. Chloramine is an ammonia/chlorine type mixture that’s added to the tap water in my area. I don’t know if it works but the logic behind it was that as the water passes through the contraption, it would help reduce the chloramine levels in the tap water. (Maybe, who knows. Just something I was trying out…) The water at this new area is pretty clean though, so I won’t be needing it anyway. Awesome.

All the plants finally moved into this half of the green house. I’ll move the Sarracenia after I get the water tables set up on the other half of the house.

The jungle.

There’s still plenty of work to do. Here’s the skeleton of the greenhouse inside the greenhouse. Future Nepenthes house!

The water tables – just need some plastic! These are relatively shallow for water tables, but will do the job. I can leach the Sarracenia media out this way with the shallow tables – letting the water overflow as I water.  I won’t have to worry about too much mineral build up!

A mess, I know. But I love this mess. Only great things can come out of this now. I can only imagine how long it will take for me to pack THIS place out… 🙂

My Sanctuary.