Garden Woes

Well, well, well it has taken awhile for our garden to get going with all of the crazy weather we had. As much as I hate the heat the tomatoes love it. Guess I have said that a few times.

I was like a new mother the other day. I called Mike and advised him our first born was here. Meaning I had seen our first heirloom tomato. Okay, it is kind of silly, but if you had waited as long as we have it is a blessing.

Oh, but to my dismay I saw the little black droppings of the worm that can suck the life out of a tomato plant. The Tomato Horn Worm (manduca quinquemaculata). I don't want them to stay around until the metamorphosis into The Five-Spotted Hawkmoth happens. The Hawkmoth is the size of a hummingbird  and not bad looking. I just wish their toddler stage was done on some other plant. Maybe the ugly shrubs in the yard, the weeds, we have plenty for them to eat. Get off my tomatoes, dammit. Okay not the best pic but you get the drift.

The zucchinis are, well do I really need to comment on this. One day they are two inches long, the next ten.

Lemon cucumbers are doing what they do best - climb. Beets are already picked and waiting to be roasted. Green beans are slow since we had to replant due to crappy soil, our bad.

Don't ever buy Kellogg soils. The are mostly wood, a tad of soil, and bat guano. Apparently, a bat flew over and pooped on it once. Oh yes, they did list it on the bag. The best soil is mushroom compost, organic matter, some cow or chicken manure. Let it sit after tilling it together. If you don't mix in the manure and let it sit, the soil will be to hot. Not weather hot but soil hot.

I think I'm done for right now, may go out and pick some worms. That is if I can find them, need the eyes of a hawk to spot them.

Ciao Bella