What's In My Garden? Insect Addition

While we are still getting a good deal of tomatoes, I've come to realize that tomato season might be nearing its end over at the Morgan household. Mainly because these little suckers are eating my tomatoes!

One thing I've learned with having a vegetable garden, especially with growing tomatoes, is that you have to be aware of all the bugs that are near and around your veggies. Knowing which ones are good and bad will definitely help you keep your garden in good shape. The insect in question is a Tomato Hornworm, however I have reason to believe it's actually a Tobacco Hornworm because of the color horn. These worms are super easy to identify, if you can find them first, because of their colored horn on the back tail. Tobacco Hornworms have a red horn and Tomato Hornworms have a black horn. Both species can be found on tomato, pepper, eggplant, potato, and tobacco plants. I found mine on both my pepper and tomato plants. So, just because a hornworm is found on your tomato plant doesn't necessarily mean its a Tomato Hornworm. Anywho, these worms eat your tomatoes, are VERY hard to spot, and are EXTREMELY hard to peal off - it took Ray like 7 minutes just to peal it off - they don't give up with out a fight that's for sure. We used a spray that we picked up at Lowe's and for now we haven't seen that many "eaten" up tomatoes. I'm hoping that it is working.

Some More Advice if You Have Tomato/Tobacco Hornworm Problem

-Even though it's hard, peel off the worms!

-Use an insecticide that is designed to kill Hornworms! We used this one.

-Rotate your soil - larvae are laid in the soil not on the plant itself!

-Plant flowers that deter Hornworms, like Marigolds, around the base of your tomatoes.

-If you spot a worm with an eggsac on its back don't kill the worm! This is a parasite and will become a wasp. When the wasp hatches it feeds off of/kills the hornworm. Wasps are good for your garden!

-Look for black/dark brown spots (worm poop) on your plant! If you see some you probably have a worm nearby. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a happier note, since Hornworms obviously don't like cucumbers, my cucumber plant is flourishing! We've already picked 3 cucumbers and there are 2 more on the way. We had one in a salad with a few tomatoes from our garden and it was so delicious. So fresh!

In my flower garden, all my wildflower seeds that I planted in the spring are fully mature now! One grew into a beautiful sunflower (which I ended up not taking a picture of...oh well), and the other two plants I'm still determining what the flowers could be. Today one of these flowers finally bloomed!

To the right you can see my sunflower. To the left my mystery flower.

I think it might be a Calendula. What do you think? What's been going on in your garden?

What's Going On in My Garden?

Hey everyone! It's been a LONG time since I've posted on blogger and a lot has happened! Between trips, weddings, volunteer training at the WRMCSN, and getting in a car accident...I've been pretty busy. I will post on all these events soon, but today I want to fill you in on what's been going on in my garden. Okay, most of you already know that my husband and I had planter beds put in our backyard and side yard(one for flowers and the other for fruits & veggies). You can check out our Backyard Renovation here. When Ray and I planted our fruits & veggies, we didn't anticipate being full-fledged farmers right off the bat. We figured a tomato or two here and there and maybe a strawberry once in awhile. Nothing major. Well, this past month has been so exciting for us to see all that's been growing in our garden! Every day it seems like our produce is getting larger and that there are more and more veggies growing! Last week, we picked our first hearty red tomato (so delicious by the way), and there are 25 more on the way! We have 4 corn cobs growing and 6 green/red bell peppers growing as well! We never anticipated this happening at all. I can't wait to see more strawberries, blueberries, and cucumbers to pop up too! Check out my crop!

Tomatoes

Corn

6 Cornstalks 

Close-up of Corn Tassel
Tassel: Male flower of corn plant/produces pollen

Close-up of two Corn Ears and Corn Silk
Corn Silk: Female flower of the corn plant;
Stringy portion that is found on top of the ear of corn

Middle: 2 ears; Right: 2 ears

Peppers

Center: Green Bell Pepper; Upper right corner: Green Bell Pepper

Close-up of baby Green Bell Pepper

What's growing in my flower bed?

I planted mixed wildflower seeds about two months ago and some of them are finally starting to grow! I should have kept the original seed packets because I have no idea what kind of wildflowers are growing.  It's kind of like a birthday surprise...you don't know what you're gonna get. Luckily, there are flower identifiers online, but I think my seedlings are still at the early stages, so it's hard to identify. Any ideas what kind of flowers these plants could be?

What's growing in your garden?