Tomatoes Are Now Planted!

It is time for tomatoes. We planted the outdoor tomatoes this past Sunday.

Aren't they tall?

This is probably the best thing I have loaded into the wheelbarrow this season. Some of these tomato plants are nearly 3feet tall. These are the most impressive tomatoes we have ever grown.

This one is loaded with blossoms.

We planted 12 in total. 9 outside and 3 in the greenhouse. 6 different varieties. 

Unfortunately, the weather decided to get a little wet and cold on us and we had to cover the tomatoes up.

There is a lot of potential food being protected here.

All tucked in for the night.

How are your tomatoes doing?

Potted Pepper Method

The traditional last frost date for the Spokane area is said to be May 15th. So, you should be able to plant tomatoes and peppers on the 15th according to that recommendation. We have found that in our area, this date is not accurate. We have lost warm weather plants to frost as late as June 10th. Because of this, when we do plant our tomatoes and peppers we use great caution. We check and double check the forecast for the week. Then we go for it if all is 'clear'.

Yesterday 5/29/11 was that day. It was beautiful and sunny all afternoon. We are trying a method for our peppers this year that we had some success with last season.

We are planting all of our peppers and eggplant in pots, in the ground. The reason behind this is so that once the flowers are pollenated and we are near the end of the season. We can move the plants inside to the greenhouse. We can extend the growing season by a good month within the greenhouse. We tried this method with a few plants last year and had some success. 

This year we went all out. All 10 of our pepper plants and all 4 eggplants are in pots, in the ground.

To underscore the unpredictability of Spokane's weather.

Shortly after I finished planting, a wind and rain storm came to our area. Strong winds and tropical down pour. Somethings you just can't predict. I guess we should leave the row cover on for a few days.

Least the pees don't mind a little rain.

How is your garden doing?

Booby Trapped Greenhouse

This is Herman, Herman is a Venous Fly Trap and North American Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia) plant, planted together. He resides in the greenhouse during warmer months and inside the house during the winter. I bought this plant when I was in Portland a couple years ago. The venous fly trap hasn't really come back yet since over wintering the plant. The Sarracenia is growing strong though and has these long beautiful hollow tubes that attract the insects down. The insect is then trapped and dissolved by enzymes so that the plant may use that insect as food! Learn more about the process HERE

Looks like a great place to crawl into right?

Some days I like to inspect the plant and see if I can see any bugs trapped in those long tubes.

That's when I saw this bee. He had chewed a hole about half way down the tube. In this hole the bee was half in the tube and half way out.

If you click the picture you can see where the wasp has chewed a hole to get out. The bee is still alive in this photo. I tried to help him get out with a little stick. It wasn't helpful, the little bee tried grabbing the stick, but when I pulled the stick the bee was too weak to hold the stick. Since I am not a big fan of being stung by bees, I had to leave him there. Being digested by wonderful enzymes.

This is a wonderful plant for the greenhouse. It helps trap all sorts of little flying bugs that could be eating your plants instead. Very rarely does it catch a bee. I would recommend one to everyone. Beautiful, nice conversation piece, and easy to care for. 

I bought it when it was this size for around ten dollars at some sort of street fair in Portland. Here is the website http://cobraplant.com/. They have a schedule of events on the website. I really love this plant!

Do you plant any exotic plants? Any recommendations? I would love to expand to several more varieties of exotic plants.