Nerd Projects!

So, as long as I've known him, Caspian has had a weird fascination with carnivorous plants and has, many times, expressed interest in attempting to grow them from seeds. Last Christmas (2008), I almost bought him a little kit for growing carnivorous plants, but decided a wool coat would be more NORMAL.

About two weeks ago, his obsession got the best of him and he bought 10 varieties of carnivorous plant seeds and carefully read up on how to care for each plant. One group of seeds will be in the butter tray of our refrigerator for the next six weeks. The other group of seeds is being planted in the music room as I type these words. We must have spent an hour and a half this afternoon at Lowe's, where he purchased, after much consideration, a 100 watt full-spectrum fluorescent bulb and aluminum work lamp, a ginormous block of sphagnum peat moss that weighs as much as I do, two packages of decorators' sand and a pair of rubber gardening gloves. Most of his in-store time was spent worrying about whether or not each possible type of fluorescent bulb would provide the right spectrum and intensity for these apparently finicky plants.

After going out for pizza with my parents, we headed home, where he went out on the porch in the 20-degree weather and mixed peat moss with sand in equal parts and filled a plastic dome with it. He set up the work lamp next to his computer and is now planting three varieties of seeds that don't need a cold dormant period. He's putting a colored tack into the soil beside each variety and is nerdily and busily taking pictures and notes to document his project. I hope he's patient... It'll take between 1-3 months for those particular species to germinate.

I figure I can use the leftover peat moss to grow an herb and flower pot garden when the warm weather comes. Which makes me less annoyed that a huge brick of it now resides on the porch.