Our Fun Life!

Freaked

So the other day I was in my garden chatting with my neighbor. She was telling me about this huge green worm that was eating her tomato plants when she looked up at the top of one of mine and said that it looks like I may have one too since the new growth was chewed off. I hadn't noticed the minor damage.
So we started hunt for it and a few minutes later I saw the beast. It was about 1/2 inch thick and about 4 inches long. I was freaking out trying to get it off of the plant but then ended up breaking the branch off. I put it in a jar w/ lid to show Hunter when he got home later that night. We didn't know what it was so after some research, the beast was a tomato horn worm except mine was missing the horn.
I forgot about it until the next morning until I walked in the kitchen and saw the jar open w/ the lid on the counter. I assumed someone let it go. Boy was I wrong. I don't know how it got out!
We looked for it for several hours. I was so freaked out that the green monster was roaming my house and that it might crawl on me at night....eeeeewwwwwww.
Later in the day I noticed Kitty (aka as inspector gadget) was following something and there it was, crawling quickly along the kitchen baseboard. After Hunter got a good look at it, he put it back in the jar, walked across the neighborhood and let it loose.
Lesson learned- never bring creatures into the house!

I think the hornworms win as the nastiest thing I have found in the garden. So far I have gotten rid of 5 of them! Ick. They are hard to see but their poo is easy to spot on leaves or the ground since it looks like round ribbed grenades. Very unique. I have noticed they like to feast on the upper new growth. All were found on my Sweet 100 tomato plant which is actually my favorite small tomato since it tastes like sugar.
Other creatures that I regularly battle with insecticidal soap are beetles, cabbage worms, white flies, and zucchini bugs which look like stink bugs to me. eww.

Here's the small guy (compared to the other 4) I found today...oh the goosebumps.

Garden Veggies

Oh boy oh boy oh boy are we enjoying our first garden! All of the hard work has paid off.
It's been an explosion of zucchini and tomatoes! Well over a hundred pounds of zucchini and probably 75 so far for the tomatoes. This garden tastes so GOOD! I have shared w/ neighbors and co-workers too. The big tomatoes are really coming in now. Most of the tomato bushes are almost at my height but many have trailing stems that if extended would be over 7-8 feet long. Next year I will need to get much bigger cages. We used the biggest ones but also had to stake them since they got so large from the 'magic dirt' but now I am thinking that we'll need to make our own cages so they be sturdy and tall.

I've been keeping track of most of the loot with photos. These are a few taken on different days.

You can see my first picking of German queen and Mr. Stripey tomatoes at the top right:

This cabbage is the only one that has not been chewed on by cabbage worms! It's a beauty and is still growing.

 

I think the purple bush beans (that turn green when cooked) aren't all that good. Next year I will put in some other kind of bean. I would like some that I don't have to stake. Suggestions?

The brussel sprouts haven't produced anything yet but are still growing. The beets and carrots are growing really slow (maybe because it is so hot) but they are chugging along. We had baby beets the other night with dinner and Helen couldn't get enough.

I want to try making fried zucchini blossoms. The recipes I have seen looked pretty good.

Well the radishes sure looked pretty but were hot hot hot and we didn't eat them! Oh well.

Building an Organic Garden

Bill and Hunter built a me a garden. They started last fall making two 6x20' raised beds and filling them with super rich compost dirt that was trucked in. This spring they drilled big holes with a rented auger and buried each eight foot post two feet into the ground and added concrete. 

Tilling was fun to watch as the machine dug up all kinds of rocks from the ground. Chicken wire was laid in an 'L' shape under the ground and up the sides of the posts two feet to keep out digging animals like rabbits. Deer netting was put all around the posts. In the fall pickets will be put up to surround the garden.

Eventually after we get more of the magic compost dirt, I plan to have three foot deep beds in front of the fence on both sides of the arbor for herbs and other plants that the deer won't eat.
I would like to have some kind of climbing plant for the arbor after a little gate is built and attached. I still haven't decided if I want the fence to be white or brown. What do you think would be the best color?

Inside the garden will be flowers in the ground and vegetables in the raised beds. A little stone path walkway will be made coming off of the deck and to the garden.

In the raised bed on the right side, I planted all seeds:
zucchini, brussel sprouts, purple bush beans, three kinds of beets

In the raised bed on the left side, I put in all plants and a few seeds:
three kinds of carrots, three kinds of radishes, 10 tomato plants in eight different varieties, fennel, white onions, six kinds of peppers, eggplant, okra, cabbage, 20 herbs (will move these when the front bed is ready)