Tomato Eaters and Vine Killers

Tomato Horn Worm

We finally had a wonderful rain yesterday that cooled everything off and filled 2 of our rain barrels. Joy Joy and I went for a walk around the garden last night to see the happy well watered garden and found that something had eaten over half, and a half of our 2 biggest, still green tomatoes! We could not find the culprit, who I said probably hid from the rain, but it will be back in the morning. Sure enough! The girls went out this morning and found it. They hoped it would cocoon so
we looked it up here and found out that they drop off the plants and borrow into the ground to pupate.

So here is our new pet. We shall see if he does his thing and turns into a moth. His smaller siblings met their fate in the chicken pen. We will be checking for more of them in the days to come.

Zucchini plant with Vine Borer in it.
The bug was fed to the chickens.

Sadly all our Zucchini, pumpkin and Acorn plants had to come up because of Squash Vine Borer. We planted some watermelon in the kids 4-H plots in place of their pumpkins and hopefully they will do well.
I am going to have plenty of space for a fall garden.

Bugs and Beets

BUGS! I am bugged by bugs! We found squash bug eggs on the squash plants today, so spent a good amount of time getting those off the leaves, squashing the Squash bugs and spraying with Neem. I am hoping we caught it early enough. Frank's potatoes are being eaten by potato bugs. :-( Nasty things! We have been picking them off and putting them in a cup of soapy water.

I am praying for some good bugs!

We had a Praying Mantis one year that the kids found with a broken wing. We put it out in the garden and he lived all summer in there going from tomato plant to tomato plant. Praying Mantis is my favorite insect!

Co Potato Beetle

Squash bugs. 

Squash bug eggs.
Find the under the leave most of the time.

Some good news is, I brought in the best beet crop I have ever had tonight. Usually I grow them just for the greens (or these should be called purples.) but the beets themselves were small and fibrous. This year they are small but lovely. We have pretty hard soil, so I can be content with sweet little beets. I will blanch the greens and freeze them, and cook up the cute little beets. Yummy!

I have to tell you about the blue basket! I found it at a yard sale this past weekend for 2.00. I almost didn't get it, but I am SO glad I did. It is very handy for bringing in the produce, then it fits perfectly in the sink! My guests were laughing at me at my daughter's birthday party because I was so excited about my basket. (Yup, I am pretty easy to please!)

Well the server is not letting me upload any more pictures, so I will try to post the rest tomorrow.

It is not too late to join in the Blog Hop that I posted about in my last post. So join up.

Happy Gardening!