I’m moving the plants. Again.
You read that right. I know it was only a few months ago that I moved into this greenhouse, but as the season continued I saw that the place I am in now is less than ideal for growing — and not just that. It’s not large enough to house the Sarracenia madness. I’ve noticed that all my moves also seem to coincide with my gardens fullness. Once the garden hits full capacity, I move. Seriously. As soon as the garden is packed out, I end up getting transplanted.
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.
This dark chapter of my garden’s story is drawing to a close. The next chapter has a very bright future. I’ll keep you all updated on this transition as it happens while throwing in posts about the plants and other ventures in between all the moving updates.
Here’s a few photos from this weekend.
Yah. Here we go, again…
The greenhouse I am in now is packed – you can see how crowded and colorless the plants are, and how stretched they have become. I thought this would be enough space, and I wasn’t expecting it to be this dim in the middle of the summer. The fiberglass as you can see in some of these posts, is quite old and blocks out much of the needed light.
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.
Still a jumbled mess ! Disorganized from the move a few months ago. Oh well. I am looking forward to rebuilding and expanding soon.
The Dionaea. Some of the first ones to move out of here.
Hybrids toppled. This sight *irritates* me to no end.
This is PAINFUL to look at. You would not believe how some of these seedlings looked last year. Now they all look compost worthy.
At the new place, I hope to nurse these babies back to their former glory and beyond.
This sucks … the good news is that it will all be much better soon.
Packing Pinguicula and Dionaea in my trunk… these were the first few trays to move out.
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This is brighter. But this is NOT the final spot I am moving to. It is simply temporary housing – a holding location – until the spot close by opens up. I am so excited to get in there and start sharing the madness with you all once again. This holding place is great because it will serve as an area to “harden” the plants off to stronger light. Plants would otherwise burn if I just moved them from the dark to the bright light…
First few trays moved in at the end of the row.
They look kinda lonely…
A new road… filled with much brighter housing!
Looking forward…
