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 My previous blog, interviewing Bonnie regarding her raised bed gardens, has received so much positive feedback that I asked Bonnie if she’d be interested in writing a guest blog. She was more than happy to, and below you will find a little more information about just went through her mind when she was deciding which heirloom tomato varieties to plant in her garden:
 Webster’s definition of heirloom: A family possession handed down from generation to generation. When I think of heirloom tomatoes, it evokes a sort of nostalgic feeling in me; a feeling of tradition and continuity. Call me sentimental, but there is something very grounding about seeds, passed down from grandparent to grandchild.
 I’ve been aware of the term “heirloom plants” for a long time, but it wasn’t until a few years ago, when I bought a tomato variety called Brandywine from a local roadside stand, that I became enamored. Not only was I intrigued by all the interesting differences among the varieties, I was also happy to move away from the boring hybrid tomatoes offered through the big box stores. And when I found out this year that an area greenhouse offered heirloom tomatoes and had 50 different varieties to choose from, I felt like a kid in a candy shop!
How could I make a decision? I couldn’t fit 50 plants into my beds! I ended up settling on 14 varieties. You might ask how I came about selecting the ones that I did. It’s sort of the way I choose wine….whether or not the label makes me chuckle or if I like the color or the shape of the bottle. You may say I’m a real connoisseur… then again, you may not!
 As I walked through the green house, I read the tags, looked at the pictures of the mature fruit and talked to the very knowledgeable proprietor for input. Green Zebra, Mr. Stripey, Egg Yolk  and Royal Hillbilly were a no-brainer for me….just based on the names alone.! I chose to buy 4 of the San Marzano because the owner said they make a good sauce (mmmmm….) And I also chose the Russian heirloom, Black Krim, for its rich deep color, Sungold Select for it’s warm sound, and Woodle Orange just because it’s fun to say. Okay, so I’m not an expert, I’m just an avid gardener having fun with my food!
The tomatoes are now nestled into my beds developing into nature’s beautiful works of art. Each one is different in color, shape and size. And soon my tomatoes will ripen and I will be able to enjoy the tomato tasting extravaganza I’ve been anticipating! Peace and happy gardening!!!!!
  As mentioned in Bonnie’s guest blog above, asking your local garden expert for their advice and recommendations is a great way to make a more informed decision. There are many different varieties of heirloom seeds—each one offering different qualities—so asking the experts is highly recommended!
Thank you, Bonnie, for your explanation of how you chose your heirloom tomatoes. I think it’s important to have fun with your gardening, and the idea of choosing your seeds based on the humor in their names is fantastic! To all my readers, I hope you’ve enjoyed this guest post. See my interview with Bonnie in my previous blog! Until next time, take care and happy gardening!
 A short while ago I did a blog on raised bed gardening. One of my readers (who happens to also be a friend) read the blog and told me I just HAD to talk to her mother-in-law! After making our connections, I learned that Bonnie (said gardener) has an amazing raised bed garden. After seeing some pictures, I asked her if I could do a short email interview with her. She was happy to oblige! Following are the handful of questions I asked her and her responses. I hope you all enjoy!
1. When and why did you first start gardening?
My first exposure to gardening was as my grandfather’s “apprentice”. Growing up, I lived next door to my grandfather who was an avid gardener and, as a little girl, I spent many hours watching him care for his gardens. I remember helping him plant the seeds in his basement in the spring and setting them under the grow lights. We’d check them daily and raise the lights as the plants grew.
In our area, Memorial Day was the time to plant. The anticipation of planting day was felt weeks before. When the “frost free” day finally arrived, he would show me how to plant the seeds and set in the seedling after hardening them off. He would always put a paper ring around the tomatoes to protect them from the cutworms.
He would have me weed (my least favorite garden chore!) for him. And he would pay me 10 cents a piece for every “cabbage moth” I could catch…..I didn’t make a whole lot of money, they are not easy to catch in flight! I think it was his way of getting me out from under foot! And as the summer months progressed, he would ask me to sit with him in lawn chairs just outside the gardens edge to “watch the garden grow” with him. The memory of how good the vegetables tasted, still warm from the sun, has always driven my desire to grow my own.
 I have been gardening with perennials for many years but it wasn’t till 2003, that my husband and I decided to try our luck with a vegetable garden. We started off small the first few years and slowly expanded our garden to about 30 ft by 40 ft. We wanted fresh, organic produce rather than the tasteless produce that’s found in most grocery stores today. We also added a flock of laying hens to our family 4 years ago. You can’t imagine how nice it is to wake up in the morning, walk over to the garden, pick some fresh veggies, gather a few eggs and make an omelet…..it doesn’t get any better! A true slice of Heaven on earth.
2. Why did you decide to use raised beds to garden?
I’ve wanted to build raised beds for years. My first exposure to them was back in the 70’s. A good friend built some and convinced me that it was the way to go.
It had been difficult to keep up with the weeding (even with mulching between the rows) in our large garden. And I have to admit that for several years, the weeds won! We also had a few years of squash bug and cucumber beetle infestations. Very frustrating and disappointing!
 After struggling with gardening in a big open plot for a few years, it became clear to me that it was time to build some beds. It took some convincing on the part of my husband. He loves his rototiller and was reluctant to give up the spring ritual.
In March of this year, we constructed 10 boxes. We put down landscaping screen between the rows and topped it off with about 3 inches of pea stone. No more tracking garden mud into the house! Now that the beds are complete and the garden is thriving, he’s a raised bed convert!
3. What is something you’ve learned about gardening because of using raised beds?
I think the best thing I’ve learned is that gardening doesn’t have to be a tedious chore. It has actually become a pleasurable thing to do. Even the weeding has become an almost Zen-like experience. I look forward to walking out to the garden just as the sun comes up with a cup of coffee in hand and the birds singing their morning songs. It has become peaceful place to be.
4. Do you find that you use more, less, or the same amount of fertilizer with raised beds?
 Without a doubt, less fertilizer. This year, I’ve used Neptune’s Harvest with great success. I also find that it takes less water. I am able to water each individual box rather the the whole plot.
5. What is one of your favorite vegetables to grow in your garden?
Well, that’s a difficult question. They all have something to offer. This year, I would have to say it’s tomatoes. I found a wonderful greenhouse in my area that offers heirloom plants. They had 50 different varieties of tomatoes this year! For our garden, I chose 14 different varieties to put in and have enjoyed watching the fruit develop into really cool shapes and shades. I am looking forward to taste testing them!
6. Do you have a favorite recipe to prepare with vegetables grown in your garden?
Another difficult question! My husband loves my stuffed zucchini and it’s a good way to use up zucchini that has gotten a little too big. I slice a zucchini length-wise and remove the seeds. Then I place it, cut side down, on a paper towel in the microwave and nuke until it’s just starting to get tender. Not too long because you will finish cooking it in the oven.
While that’s cooking, I chop up what ever I have around the house, usually a small onion, some mushrooms, celery, carrots, peppers, tomatoes and sauté them in olive oil til just tender. Then I toss the veggies in a bowl with some grated Parmesan cheese and some bread crumbs and a little salt and pepper and maybe some fresh basil and oregano. Sometimes I might add some browned sausage which makes it a meal in itself.
After it’s blended, stuff the two halves of the squash and sprinkle with some additional cheese and bake in and oven at 350 for about ½ hour. I usually turn the broiler on at the end of cooking to brown up the top.
 7. Do you have any regrets/would you do anything different if you could do it all over again?
I actually have no regrets as yet. The only thing I would do differently (IF I were rich!) would be to use cedar rather that hemlock for the beds. But that was just financially out of reach for us. Hemlock was the next best thing.
8. What is your top piece of advice for any new gardener using raised beds?
I would suggest a few things. When constructing the beds, make sure you leave enough space between them to maneuver a small wheel barrel and make sure that they are not too wide. Ours are 4 feet wide allowing us to reach the middle from both sides. Make sure the soil you use to fill your beds has plenty of organic matter.
When we constructed our beds, we attached a piece of 1 inch pvc piping to the inside of the box every couple of feet equally on either side. Then we insert a length of ½ pvc pipe from one side to the other forming arches all along the length of the box. It can be used to drape plastic or shade cloth to form a row cover. It worked like a charm this spring as we were able to protect our tomatoes from a couple of killing frosts!
I hope you all enjoyed this interview! I know I did. Bonnie Keaveny is a Certified Licensed Massage Therapist and Reiki Practitioner who lives and works in Gardner, Massachusetts (Couldn’t be more perfect, right?!) Her office is at Fitness Concepts Health Club, 696 West Broadway in Gardner, MA 01440. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and see her! Until next time, take care and happy gardening!
Lynda’s Backyard Garden Oasis
When I was still living in Ohio many years ago, I started working with a woman named Stevie. As friendships tend to go, I eventually was invited to her home for a get-together. At the time, Stevie was staying in her childhood home with her mother, Lynda. For one reason or another, a bunch of us ended up in Lynda’s backyard, and I have to tell you, I did not want to leave!
As soon as we stepped out the back door and onto her deck, I was absolutely mesmerized by Lynda’s backyard. It…was…breathtaking! I never knew a backyard garden could be so beautiful–especially in the city!
Lynda lives in a Cleveland suburb called Cuyahoga Falls. It’s a small, quiet, community-based city. Right around 200 years old, it’s a great mixture of old and new, tradition and trend. Lynda lives in a neighborhood developed in the late 1940’s, in a typical 1940’s home, with a typical 1940’s lot–less than a 1/4 of an acre.
But somehow Lynda has managed, through hard work, dedication, and a pure love for gardening, to transform her backyard into a wonderland. From the first moment I saw Lynda’s backyard, I told her and her daughter, Stevie, that I wanted to vacation there. It became a joke over time, me saying I was going to pitch a tent in Lynda’s backyard and just stay for a few days, but the truth is, if I had had a tent (and if they wouldn’t have thought I was completely nuts!), I would have done it.
 Walking through Lynda’s backyard garden makes you completely forget you’re in the city. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it feels like you’re in a dream. The mixture of colorful flowers, luscious greens, the trickling waterfall, the antique out-buildings, the hidden “workshop”, the trellised vines, the brick pathways…UH! I can’t even contain my joy!
Lynda’s backyard is an oasis–a welcome sight to anyone thirsty for beauty, nature, and the desire to imagine that city life can be more than any gardener could dream possible! I hope to one day have a backyard garden like this. It is an absolute inspiration to anyone who dares to imagine.
Thank you, Lynda, for sharing your garden and always putting up with my drooling every time I got a chance to see it! And thank you, Stevie, for taking the time to capture some wonderful shots of it!
There were too many to include here in the blog, so I have created a photoset on Flickr for all to see: Lynda’s Backyard Garden Oasis. Please readers, take a moment to visit the photoset and soak it all in.
Until next time, take care and happy gardening!
I came across this article a few weeks ago while doing some research for blog topics, and I just knew I was going to have to “cover” it! As the very beginning of the article states, the important thing to keep in mind is we need to eat more vegetables! Regardless of HOW you eat them, it’s better to have eaten a vegetable and gained some nutritional value from it, than to have never eaten it at all!
So, let’s examine the myths:
 1.) Frozen veggies are not as good as fresh veggies. I hate to tell ya this, but this is one of those “it depends” situations. If the quality of the produce available at your grocery store is not good, I would suggest going with frozen. But try to get a quality brand like Bird’s Eye or Green Giant. Also, if the selection of organic produce is slim, check the frozen food section to see if your grocery store carries organic frozen veggies.
2.) Raw veggies are more nutritious than cooked veggies. Here it depends on the vegetables and what nutrients you’re looking to get out if them. It’s not going to hurt you to do a little research and figure out the best way to prepare your veggies. One things for sure, steaming them is always better than boiling them. And ANYTHING is better than canned veggies!
3.) Iceberg lettuce is more trouble than it’s worth! Although the article does point out that iceberg lettuce DOES contain SOME nutrients, I still think it’s so much more worth your while (and money!) to purchase and eat darker lettuces like leaf lettuce, arugula, and romaine.
4.) Local is always less expensive. Not necessarily. True, selling local cuts a lot of the overhead cost, theoretically making locally grown produce less expensive, but that’s not always the case. Locally grown is often times organically grown, and sadly, organic veggies tend to cost more. Pretty much, you have to “scope-out” the scene. You may find it’s less expensive to simply grow your own!
5.) Potatoes are fattening. Why? Because they’re high in carbohydrates? Gimme a break! Perhaps it’s the butter, sour cream, cheese, and bacon we’re piling on top of them. Potatoes have been a stable food for hundreds and hundreds of years! Obesity has only become a problem relatively recently. Don’t blame the vegetable; blame how the vegetable is being prepared.
6.) Bagged salads (and other pre-packaged produce) are ready to eat right out of the bag. FALSE! Recent studies make it extremely clear that we need to be washing any pre-packaged produce. These items are prepared in factory settings. Factories are not all that clean. Would you eat lettuce right off a factory conveyor belt? So why will you eat it right out of a bag that just came off that conveyor belt?
7.) Farmer’s markets DO carry both conventional and organically grown veggies. Please do not assume that because it’s local, it’s organic. Farmer’s market’s are FAN-tastic, but you still need to ask questions to know more about the foods you’re buying and consuming. We all know what happens when assumptions are made!
Can you think of any other myths? Please share them! Your feedback and input is most welcome! Until next time, take care and happy gardening!
Gardening with raised beds has been on the increase in the last decade or so–and there are reasons for it! Following are just a few of them:
 1. Raised beds give the gardener the ability to control the soil they’re growing in. It used to be that if you lived in an area where you had poor soil, it was difficult to garden successfully. You had to til the ground where you wanted to plant, trying to remove as many rocks, weeds, and roots as possible, and then truck-in a good amount of top soil to place on top of the spot you’ve just spend hours upon hours getting “garden-ready.” Even after all that, you’d then have to face the fact that as time went on, you would loose a lot of that fertile soil you spent good money on due to drainage and erosion.
Now, with raised beds, a gardener can purchase good, fertile soil–soil rich with nutrients and that will drain well–and plop it right down in to their bed! The soil will stay put and retain a lot of its goodness for years to come–much longer than it would if it were just placed on top of the tilled ground.
2. With raised beds, especially in vegetable gardening, you can get a bigger bang for your buck when it comes to yield. In traditional gardening, you need to leave enough space in between rows to be able to walk and kneel between them. With raised beds, you can plant closer because, not only can you move all around the garden, but it’s higher up and easier to reach.
The accessibility a raised bed affords the gardener is one of the key benefits. So, not only is it easier to garden, but it’s much more worthwhile because you can get more crop in less space and by exerting less energy. Who wouldn’t love that?!
 3. In addition to saving you time, energy, and money by producing more for you, you will also save money when it comes to fertilizing and tending to your plants. Less of your fertilizer will leach out into the surrounding ground. What that means is that more of it will get to your plants!
You will end up spending much less on pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides because many of these issues can be dealt with quicker–before anything gets out of control! Hand-picking your weeds and removing pests by hand is much easier with a raised bed because of the accessibility.
You will also find that you will have less pests and less weeds, in general. It’s just simply harder for pests and weeds to invade your garden if it is raised above the surrounding ground. Because water drainage is easier, fungus will not grow as easily and plant disease will be reduced.
There are many benefits to raised bed gardening, but these are the top 3 that really standout to me. Why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of a gardening technique that will save you time, money, energy, AND give you more rewards?! You’d have to be crazy not to! Until next time, take care and happy gardening!
I truly believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. For me, breakfast gives me a reason to wake up every morning. Not only will eating breakfast take care of the grumblings going on in my tummy by the time I wake up, but it just tastes good!
A few years ago I decided to stop being a “breakfast-on-the-go” type of person (poptart, bagel, toast as I run out the door for work), and started waking up an extra 15 minutes earlier to cook myself a real breakfast.
Fortunately, I worked in an environment where it was okay for me to pack my breakfast-up and take it to work with me, eating it at my desk as my work day began. I now work from home, so obviously it’s still a-okay for me to eat at my desk.
Over time, I’ve become an expert at making a quick, nutritious breakfast in 15 minutes or less. It’s all about routine and multi-tasking. Years of being a server in high school and college has probably also contributed to my lightening fast speed!
In addition, as time has gone by, I’ve left conventionally grown foods behind and have switched to a mostly all organic diet. In my opinion, breakfast, being the most important meal of the day, needs to set a precedent for how a person will eat throughout the rest of the day. If you’re gonna do it, do it right!
 So, my day begins with a cup of coffee, brewed from organic coffee beans from my local co-op store, Tidal Creek. Sweetened with organic cane sugar and organic half and half from the same co-op. For food, I always make sure to have one organic, free range egg (over-easy), purchased at my local Farmer’s Market and raised locally.
In addition, I make my own hash browns using a cheese grater to shred a potato I’ve baked (I bake 3 or 4 at a time, to conserve energy) and frying the shredded potato in a skillet using a little bit of organic sunflower oil. The potatoes are, of course, organic and purchased either at the Farmer’s Market or the co-op.
I do like my meat, I have to admit, so I alternate between breakfast sausage one day and bacon the next, both of which I buy at my Farmer’s Market from a local farmer who feeds her animals organically and treats them very humanely. Sometimes, if I’m really hungry, it’s a double meat day!
And I also have to admit that I love my carbs. Despite all the hype about carbohydrates, the truth is, they are good for us in moderation, and human beings do need carbohydrates to maintain a healthy diet. So, I always make sure to have one piece of toast, either whole wheat or sourdough, buttered with organic butter, all purchased from the co-op.
To top it off, I’ll have some kind of fruit with my breakfast, whether it’s strawberries, orange wedges, raspberries, etc., the fruit is always grown organically and locally, and purchased at the co-op or the Farmer’s Market.
 Sometimes I’ll even have some grits, flavored with butter, milk, and sea salt–all organic, of course!
This meal, which I have every morning, takes me less than 15 minutes to prepare. My potatoes are baked and shredded once every 3-4 days and I just store them in my fridge, frying up just enough for me every morning. I cook my entire package of bacon at one time and then store the cooked bacon in my fridge, warming the strips for a few seconds in the microwave on the days I want bacon with breakfast.
Everything can be prepared at the same time–one skillet is going with the hash browns, one with the sausage and then egg, bread is toasting in the toaster, coffee is a-brewing, I wash and prepare the fruit while the other food is cooking, and if I have grits or bacon (instead of sausage), the microwave is doing its thing.
Fifteen minutes later, I am sitting down to a balanced, healthy, organic meal. I savor the fruits of my work, I taste the rich flavor of the different foods, independently and as they compliment each other. I enjoy knowing most of what I am eating was grown locally and that all of what I’m eating is organic, whole foods. I am satisfied, content, and no longer hungry…ready to start my day.
Man! All this talk of breakfast, I think this calls for double meat and definitely some grits with breakfast today! Bon appetit! Until next time, take care and happy gardening!
With many gardeners becoming more conscious of how they garden–the chemicals they use on their plants–there have been many organic fertilizer companies popping up left and right. Where once it was difficult for an organic gardener to find resources at their local garden center, now it is almost to the point where the choices are overwhelming. Below I will list just a handful of well trusted organic brands who have been around for a number of years and have become trusted in the organic community. When all else fails, and you find the choices swimming in your head, these are just a few good ones to choose from!
Bradfield Organics
Bradfield Organics® products are high-performance, organic fertilizers that are safe for children, animals and the environment. The products are composed of non-synthetic, natural sources of nutrients that help build organic matter and nourish soil microbe fertility, encouraging the production of vigorous plants with deep, robust root systems.
• Safe for people, pets and pasture animals
• Clean, convenient and easy to use
• Non-polluting, safe to use around lakes and streams
• Perfect for lawns, trees, shrubs and pastures, as well as vegetable, fruit, herb, flower and rose gardens
• Designed for long-lasting results
• Alfalfa-based with other natural ingredients including molasses, sulfate of potash and meat meal
 Down To Earth
For 30 years, Down To Earth has been one of the country’s leading manufacturers and distributors of natural fertilizers and premium gardening products. We take pride in presenting only the highest quality organic ingredients, which provide a sustainable and environmentally friendly approach to soil management and crop fertilization.
Organic Fertilizers derived from plant, animal or mineral resources combined with organic matter are ideal for enhancing soil fertility and stimulating plant growth in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Organic fertilizers add nutrients to the soil for uptake by plants and for use by the myriad of microorganisms that inhabit healthy, productive soil. Fertilizers are available as single ingredient nutrients or as complete blends with multiple applications.
 FoxFarm
FoxFarm is a small, family-run business dedicated to producing the finest quality garden products available anywhere. Because organic ingredients play such a large role in our company, all formulas are handcrafted in small batches to ensure superior consistency and quality control. We offer custom blended soil mixes, natural and organic fertilizers as well as organic-based products that Combine the Best of Technology with the Goodness of Nature.
We are known as the Microbrewery of Premium Plant Foods and Soil Mixes. Our fertilizers are built around the use of earthworm castings, nature’s finest soil amendment. Not only the end product, but the complete process of caring for the earthworm cultures is under our direct supervision. FoxFarm has been a “hands-on” Bioneer for over 17 years in developing and producing superior organic plant foods and extra-strength soil mixes.
Until next time, take care and happy gardening!
 I happened upon this article, and just thought it was such a cool and innovative idea, I wanted to share it with my readers! Many times we’re faced with conditions that don’t really allow us to grow the way we’d like to–whether it be not enough sun, too many pests (including animals), lack of space, or a number of other reasons. When faced with dilemmas like this (wanting to grow but not being able to) that is when our imagination must step in and help us out.
The old saying “necessity breeds innovation” couldn’t be any more true in this particular instance. Suzanne Forsling, and avid grower, was faced with uninviting circumstances. Having moved from Iowa to Alaska, her growing conditions were as far from familiarity as possible!
Brainstorming, and remembering back to a gardening class she had taken, she came up with the idea to purchase some rain gutters and mount them on the side of her house which got the most sun.
By doing this, she was able to use good, fertile soil, raise the temperature of the soil, reduce pests, take advantage of the sun, and control many other factors she would not have been able to control had she tried to plant conventionally in the ground.
 Suzanne’s experience is unique to her; I don’t think many of us will find ourselves living in Alaska anytime soon! But the point of my sharing this article is to show that plants are pretty resilient and with a little bit of help and some creative thinking, we can provide a home for them in some of the harshest, weirdest, or most inconvenient of places.
Something that always has a way of taking my breath away is when I see some kind of flower or plant popping its head through a crack in the sidewalk. We can cover it with cement, we can deny it sunshine and water, but that little plant will find a way to make its presence known. Not only will it survive, but it will prevail and stick its tongue out at as!
I encourage you to get creative! Think outside he box! Try something new! If it doesn’t work, just try again!
Until next time, take care and happy gardening!
About two months ago, I decided to switch to an all organic diet. I try my best to eat fresh foods, grown and treated organically, and mostly from my local area. It’s obviously difficult to stick to this way of eating when I go out to lunch or dinner, when I visit with a friend or family member, and when traveling. But because I eat probably 95% of my meals at home, I’ve been able to stick to an organic diet pretty well.
Last week I had to travel to Ohio for four days to attend a funeral. My brother, sister-in-law and I drove to Ohio on Monday and returned to NC on Thursday. We were on a very tight schedule, staying with friends one night and family the next, and spending a total of 26 hours in the car.
One of the drawbacks to traveling with someone else, and having that someone else be the owner of the car your traveling in, is that you’re basically on their schedule and you go where they want to go. Which means, most of my meals throughout the four days consisted of fast food and junk food out of rest stop vending machines. I can admit that I did not eat one healthy thing the entire trip.
 At first I was kind of excited–ROAD TRIP! I was looking forward to eating bad food for a few days. But I soon discovered that fast food and junk food were no longer my friends (were they ever?)
By Tuesday evening, I started to notice that my feet looked a little swollen. I thought maybe it was from wearing heels and standing a lot during the service, but my feet didn’t hurt or anything. By Wednesday morning, they were much worse. Still no pain, but they were swollen enough to look like I had broken my feet or ankles! I got a chance to get online Wednesday night and do a little research on why this may have been happening. All signs pointed to my drastic change in diet.
Because my body is no longer used to eating processed foods high in sodium, my body was retaining water like crazy! Because a person’s feet are the lowest part of their body, gravity takes over and this is where the water goes. My poor diet, consisting of fast food and junk food, had caused my feet to blow-up like balloons!
I never thought this change in diet would effect me as much as it did! I couldn’t believe it! Unfortunately, there really wasn’t anything I could do about it–not driving, not in charge.
I’m happy to say that once I got home and back on my normal diet, the swelling went down in less than 24 hours and my feet are back to normal.
 All I can say is anyone who doesn’t think eating organic makes a difference, my feet beg to differ! Even if I had just had access to fresh foods, not highly processed foods with tons of preservatives and sodium, I think I would have been okay. One thing I have learned is that next time I go on any kind of a trip, I’m packing a cooler for the ride and stopping at a grocery store once I get to where I’m going!
I realize this blog doesn’t have anything to do with gardening, but gardening, especially organically, is all about being healthier for you, your family, and your environment. I wanted to share my experience of what happened to me when I was not eating food that was healthy for me, anyone else, or my environment. I’ll stick to my fresh, organic foods, thank you very much!
I know the pictures are not fantastic (and please don’t judge me for my feet!), but you can get the idea when comparing the the two pics. Until next time, take care and happy gardening (and eating)!
 Maybe the title was a bit extreme. I mean, as long as you’re not a relatively small insect, you’re probably 100% safe from the death-grip of the Venus Flytrap. But the mere mention of one of these plants can definitely stir-up some pretty wild imaginations–especially since the movie, Little Shop of Horrors, was released in 1986.
The truth is, these are some pretty awesome plants! They are native only to the boggy marshes of the Carolinas, specifically in a 50-60 mile radius of the North Carolina coastal town of Wilmington. Because they are such neat plants, many people have collected and removed them from nature. Removing the plants from their natural habitat has caused them to decline so much in numbers, that they are now on the Endangered Species List.
In addition to removing them from their homes, humans have also played a part in reducing and destroying their habitat, obviously aiding in the speed of the plant’s demise. We (humans) need to become better practitioners of “Look, don’t touch” and “Leave it be.” The sad truth is, the overwhelming majority of Venus Flytraps are now grown commercially in greenhouses. If you’re fortunate enough to ever see one in nature, take a picture. The picture will live longer than the plant anyways!
So, How Does a Venus Flytrap Work?
 Much of the nutrients a flytrap feeds off of are supplied by insects it captures in its leaves. The leaves have cilia, or little finger-like projections, surrounding the outer edge of each leaf. When the flytrap is ready to eat, it simply spreads its leaves out, almost like a clam opening up it’s two shells. On the inside of these leaves are little hair-like structures which are very sensitive. But insects don’t notice these hairs…they notice the sweet nectar drops the plant secretes.
If an insects lands or crawls inside the open “shell” of the two leaves, it runs the risk of bumping into one of these trigger hairs. If one of them is touched, a 20 second timer starts. If another hair is touched within those 20 seconds, the two leaves snap shut in less than one second, trapping the insect inside the closed shell!
The leaves do not close all the way at first, and this is so that smaller insects–insects that will take much energy to digest and offer very little nutrition–have a few seconds to crawl out between the openings in the cilia. Likewise, if the insect is too large, it can most likely escape. This is good, because if the meal is too large, the plant cannot digest it correctly.
Once those few seconds are up, the leaves close all the way, and whatever insect was unlucky enough to stumble upon the “mouth” of this carnivorous plant is now doomed. See a video clip of a Venus Flytrap in action, courtesy of The Discovery Channel’s series, Life.
Now the fun begins…the plant will release digestive juices inside the airtight sealed casing the leaves have now created to hold the insect. Over the next 6-10 days, the plant will digest all the “meat” of the insect, but not the outer shell of it (the exoskeleton). Once all the fleshy parts of the insect have been digested, the “stomach” juices are absorbed back into the plant and the leaves slowly open back up, allowing the leftover shell of the insect to be removed by wind or rain. Now the process begins all over again. What a life, huh?!
I’m sure you can now understand the fascination many people have with this plant. It’s a cool little carnivorous creature to have in your home or garden, but be respectful and environmentally conscious–purchase one that has been grown in a greenhouse, not taken from nature. I would also suggest not allowing little kids to watch The Little Shop of Horrors if you have a Venus Flytrap at home–many unnecessary nightmares may ensue! Until next time, take care and happy gardening!
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Natural Fertilizer Sources
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