G called me out to the garden to SEE the hornworm. ICK!!!! And then I had to go back into the house to get a sandwich bag and clippers. I bagged the worm and his tomato dinner and G did what ever else was necessary. I don't know where these ugly things come from and I think this may be my first in this garden. G checked for others but they could still be really small. I think they double in weight really fast. Like in hours. This one had eaten all the leaves off the plant before starting in on the tomato.
Yes, blurry but I kept it so you could see my beautiful chard below and in back my cabbage patch. Isn't the color of the cabbage gorgeous? The black tubs hold my green (turning red) peppers.This morning I was up early and started right in on a large pot of vegetable soup. I have no idea where I will put it as the fridge is jammed packed with vegetables. Beets, corn and lettuce (from the grocery store) are taking up room and the crisper is full of zucchini that, I fear, is destined for the compost bucket. G says "grow less". I used one onion, a head of my own cabbage, one very large potato and four carrots for the soup. There is a zucchini, tomatoes and celery (my own) in there also. A huge pot of soup. Enough to satisfy my hungry tummy.
Yesterday I had a full sized Veggie from Subway (everything but green peppers, no mayo, no mustard) and it was ever so delicious. 630 calories. I stepped away after eating the first half and did some laundry folding and then returned to eat the second half. That was my lunch (at 3 pm) and a 100 calorie yogurt was my dinner. This is Day 8. I feel Virtuous. And I haven't had breakfast yet. My finger is not infected. Doesn't hurt unless I bump it. Tiny bandaid.
My horoscope for today says that things will not go right today (Mercury) but I shouldn't say I am fine, if I am not fine. Good to know.
I need a shower before work and I think my annual containers need a drink before I go forth and prosper (?) at work. And I will need to think about the soup storage problem. Move things about in the fridge. The soup will need time to cool and perhaps it will be fine on the stove until I get home from work? If I was home today, the soup would sit there for a few hours, at least, before being put away.
I will be teaching Dividing Perennials, Houseplants and Composting. Three classes. I had wanted to do a Fall/Winter Vegetable Garden class for all my gardening students so they would know what to do now. We can still be planting things and preparing the empty beds for early spring planting. So much to tell them and no class. Bummer.
Claire has a friend who feeds those hornworms to her pet lizard. It's pretty cool and her mother is relieved not to go to the pet store to buy crickets every week or so. This is a girl who is wild about reptiles. Some little girls are crazy about kitties or ponies, this girl is all about lizards.
ReplyDeleteBoy, that one is a beaut. When my tomatoes get infested, I pick the hornworms off (wearing gardening gloves) and toss them into a bucket of soapy water. Drowns the suckers.
ReplyDeleteI don't get too many tomato hornworms here. Where I lived before I always had an abundance and would pluck them off and drop them into a can I had put a little bit of gasoline or kerosene in.
ReplyDeleteWe used to get a type of wasp that would lay their eggs on the backs of the hornworms and when they hatched, the larvae would eat the hornworm. Not pretty but effective. I can't recall the kind of wasp it was but I would often see hornworms covered with eggs.
Yikes. The thought of wasp larvae eating the hornworm is more disgusting than the lizard eating the hornworm. Nature is vicious.
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