The Compost Bin

Could I get a moment of silence for my Colocasia gigantea Thailand Giant Strain. The poor fella just didn't have a chance outside in the cold of winter.

This giant elephant ear is not at all hardy but due to the perfect storm of excuses, I wasn't able to overwinter it this year.

Last year, I brought it in the house and it overwintered in my living room and I thought that I'd do the same this year. I actually did bring it into the living room which is no easy feat because the pot is really heavy. The pot's diameter is 22" and it holds a lot of soil in there. Probably about the equivalent of the state of Rhode Island in this behemoth of a flower pot. Well in my warm house, the bugs that decided to overwinter in the pot got confused and assumed it was spring. After a few hours inside, my living room was like a scene from the 10 Commandments when Moses sent the locusts after the Pharaoh. Except Pharaoh didn't have to get his pool net to catch all the bugs that flew way up to his 16' cathedral ceilings. So let it be written that I would not be overwintering the Giant Elephant ear in the living room, so let it be done.

The next option was my garage. It's a disaster in there and you can barely walk around. In fact the only way that you can walk in there is to walk on top of stuff. I'm usually pretty organized but the garage just totally got away from me. You see, my 10' x 12' metal shed that was filled to the rim, collapsed last year. There was about a foot of ice on the roof and the thing just totally caved in. So when it rains outside, it now rains in my shed too. Of course all of that junk had to go somewhere and the garage is where it went. So I just didn't have the space in my garage to overwinter my giant elephant ear.

My last plan was to wrap it up and insulate it. This way it could be overwintered outside. My grandfather had a 10 foot fig tree that he overwintered outside, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Well my grandfather was retired and had plenty of time to build a structure with 2x4s and roofing paper that he stuffed with insulation every year. And his fig palace would have no doubt stood up to winter better than my shed did. But never the less, I didn't have enough free time to wrap my plant either.

Now, we're in the middle of winter and I'm left with a sad looking pot, that's filled with nothing but the state of Rhode Island and a bunch of hibernating locusts that were sent by Moses. Next year I guess I should put some lamb's blood on my front door. I think I have some in the garage.