Home Improvements and Gardening

Just so you know … I DON’T touch tomato worms! It was all I could do to hold my hand this close while I took a pic. This fat guy was too obese to move very fast, anyway, but it still gave me the willies to put my hand so close to him.

I had picked off about two dozen baby tomato worms a couple days before, but I must have missed this guy. Obviously, he went right to work eating and chewing and chomping away at my tomato plants … just LOOK at the size of him! The baby worms were only a half inch long, very skinny, and brown. Apparently, tomato leaves are VERY fattening! And they don’t do much for your coloring either! I found him because he had stripped several limbs completely bare. He was really hard to see because he looks an awful lot like a rolled up leaf.

A few days later, I found another worm, about the same size … and I also found these two tomatoes that had been a meal for someone. I shot an email with this pic off to my mom, and she informed me that the tomato worm was the culprit … grrrr! I’m not liking these guys at all.

The same day, I noticed several stink bugs. I removed them, but over the next few days there were more and more … too many to remove. I read that during dry spells, stink bugs move out from their home in grassy areas and into the garden in search of moisture. We had been without rain for a couple weeks and the high temps were drying everything out. I had to resort to Sevin Dust. I was trying to do without it, but I’m not willing to let our veggies be a bug buffet. I sprinkled a very light dust of the white powder, and the stink bugs immediately took flight!

These tomatoes aren’t from my garden, but I wanted to show you how a tomato looks when it has been stung by stink bugs. Gross, huh? Stink bugs damage the tomato by injecting an enzyme underneath the tomato skin. The enzyme turns a small area of the tomato into liquid so the stink bug can suck the juice out. This process leaves the tomato with a yellowish knot at each sting site.

I haven’t harvested any edible tomatoes from my garden yet. I have had to throw several bug damaged tomatoes out and also a few tomatoes with blossom end rot … but I have my eye on a clump of healthy looking Better Boy tomatoes that will soon be ready for a slice of bread and mayo! Mmm, Mmm … I LOVE fresh tomato sandwiches!

Keeping it real,

Raised Bed Gardening – Summer Vegetables Week 6
Making their first appearance in the garden this week is the Burpless Cucumber … two to be exact! I planted three of these cucumber vines when I started the garden, but because there was no room inside the raised bed, I decided to plant them next to the fence.

The ground is weedy and filled with roots in this area, and I didn’t add enough garden soil with perlite when I planted the vines, so it doesn’t hold the moisture well. Two of the vines died right away, but this one is hanging on for dear life. If these two cukes make it to maturity, I’ll feel good about it because they were given a less than desirable growing situation.

Next season, I plan to build a narrow raised bed next to the fence because it provides the perfect support for vines. I’m SO thankful that I left enough room so a narrow bed will fit and still leave a walkway between the two raised beds.

The watermelon is really growing now, AND it has company! A new golf ball sized melon appeared on the other vine this week. I had noticed a ‘bulb’ on the other vine last week, but this week it is bigger and looking more like a melon. The two cantaloupe vines have a profusion of blossoms, but no fruit yet.

The Better Boy tomatoes are growing steadily and looking really healthy. They are nearly the size of my fist now. I can hardly wait for a fresh BLT! The Roma tomatoes continue to be a magnet for tomato worms and stink bugs, but they haven’t bothered the Better Boy plants at all. I’m not sure why …

Keeping it real,