This is not a giant tampon. It’s a roll of greenhouse plastic.
Greenhouse plastic arrived last week! YEAH! A couple of the projects that lie ahead of me in this new greenhouse venture include covering the framework of the little dome with greenhouse plastic as well as re-covering the water tables with said plastic. Not really that difficult but still, it’s some work to do. See, the last folks in here used your standard untreated UV painting plastic – and no matter how thick that stuff is, it WILL break down when exposed to the sun over the course of the season. It breaks down to some flaky hell of a glorious mess. It’s like taking a stale croissant and repeatedly smooshing it then tossing those crumbs all over the greenhouse in a “making it rain” fashion. Broken down plastic isn’t quite as tasty as stale smooshed crumbly croissants though.
Here’s the little greenhouse frame to the left. I plan on making this a Nepenthes house, as well as maybe a place for cuttings or other things that would appreciate higher humidity. Maybe throw some Heliamphora up in there too. It’s so great to have this micro climate inside The Asylum. Nepenthes will be another genus that I’ll be exploring in the not so distant future! (Yeah, there goes my savings…) I’m glad that I have space to grow them now at least. The one thing that still needs to be worked on here is that sprinkler system. You can see the PVC pipes on the table, but those are linked to another water system that’s pretty high in PPM, and not on the standard city water that’s clean. This system is automated and fully programmable as well, which is a very nice plus for me!
Before I can do any covering here, I must clean up those weeds! To the right, you can see some of the weeds that have been growing under the benches. Gotta clean that outta here! Not just because I like to have stuff clean, but it’s for good growing hygiene. Those weeds are mos ‘def fugly and make my growing experience fugly-fied! They have the potential to harbor pests and diseases. In fact, there was still some whitefly on a few of those weeds! Dahlia and I spent a good part of the other day pulling these things. And HELL NO I don’t want to use Round Up cuz that stuff will jack your lungs – especially inhaling that stuff in enclosed spaces. After we pulled as much of those weeds out, I went back in and sprayed an organic weed killer used inside and along the footprint of this greenhouse. For weed control, I’ve also heard that vinegar works wonders, so that’s something that I’ll play around with in the future. I’ll have to continually keep the weeds in check, but it will be worth it to get this all under control. Oh, weeding is just one of the joys of gardening. Good times. After we get this cleaned up, I’ll start to trim the plastic and get that up and over the house!
My Sanctuary.
From a one bedroom condo in San Francisco with tiny patio years ago that I totally packed out, to a two bedroom condo with larger patio (check out the photo to the left – that was my patio in 2005) to my childhood home home with big ol’ yard and bright ol’ light and great water that let me grow many plants, to 1500 sq foot sub par greenhouse where I am at now… oh, it never ends. It really is a wild and awesome adventure. Don’t get me wrong though. I’m still thankful. It could of been a lot worse. It’s simply – life. Yes, a few plants are doing well in these conditions – Nepenthes, Heliamphora, and Cephalotus seem happy here, so it’s not a complete loss. But it could be better. Anyway – because of my less than ideal conditions, *many* plants were lost this year – perhaps in what was my worst year ever. It happens. Trying to negotiate the challenges at the current spot with the lighting, water, air circulation, and old facilities make it, well… let’s just say “difficult” at best. On top of that, I’ve gone through so much this in the past year. Letting go of the house, moving, a drastic change in employment – life’s been interesting lately. So many times this past year I’ve thought about walking away from this passion of growing plants. Yeah, it has gotten that bad at at times. 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. Is it madness to continue in this direction? Maybe. I am trying not to let the fear of failure get the best of me and if this new venture doesn’t work out – hell, I at least I can say, “I tried.” Giving up on growing has crossed my mind from time to time. No lie. However, the more I think about it – spending time in the garden and doing what I do with the plants was and is my form of non-destructive therapy to cope with all this “stuff” going on. Being surrounded by this living energy and seeing things grow (even in sucky conditions) has helped me to deal with all of life’s crazy moments. Gardening is part of me and I realize there’s no way I can ever separate myself from something so woven tightly in the the fabric of my being. Even when times look so fucked up, things manage to work out one way or another. I have to remember, it will all be okay. I am thankful for the encouragement from my friends and family. So thankful to have my wife, her encouragement and her patience with me throughout it all… And I’m so very thankful for all of you readers who allow me to share some of my insane passion and my life’s garden story with you. Like I said before: my garden is a living and breathing repository where life’s events are tucked away and recorded. It is my living journal – a collection of my memories. Each plant is an icon of an event: they are the witnesses, they are the scribes, and they are the story tellers.
Several Drosera binata’s hangin’ out. They are just OK for their condition. They are very long, and have gotten quite leggy – stretched due to the light.
The Dionaea. Some of the first ones to move out of here.
This is brighter. 
A new road… filled with much brighter housing!
Looking forward…
One of those nasty pots full of overgrown seedlings… This cross is a Sarracenia (leucophylla x oreophila) x catebaei – Sumatra, FL
