Friday, July 12, 2013

Our Garden: A Horror Story

I have to say that I'm surprised our garden even lasted this long. We don't have a lot of room in our side yard, and since it is a side yard, it only gets a small amount of sunshine each day. But last spring we took the chance... and it was glorious.

Baby plants and watering boots
We planted my favorites: tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, jalepenos, and five different herbs. June even pitched in to help watering it. It became her first chore. She loved it.

Sitting next to the garden, eating Otter Pops to cure the afternoon blues.
The jalepeno plant didn't last long. We got to eat a total of three strawberries, the rest were eaten by ants before we picked them. The herbs were used in various dishes. The cucumbers grew beautifully, and were as crisp and juicy as ever.

Taking a break from the pool to admire the plants.
Then our tomatoes finally came in. I was thrilled. I couldn't wait to add them to salads, sandwiches, bruschetta, and pasta dishes. They were plump and green, and almost ripe.

Showing her our glorious tomatoes.
Then the unthinkable happened: One morning we woke up, and the top half of the plants were gone. We puzzled over this. The next day, William came outside to water them, and noticed a "cute", "little" green caterpillar. But upon closer inspection, that "cute" caterpillar was a Tomato Hornworm, and seemed to have brought friends... or an army? There were hundreds... okay, maybe 20ish, but they were eating and pooping and destroying our beautiful lush tomato plants. What once looked like an appetizing treat, turned into a bloodbath (when William tore out the plants and threw them into our garbage can).
What's left of our garden and the ENEMY.

Next time, we'll be ready... and by "ready" I mean we're not planting tomatoes ever again.

Note: Yes, I realize most of these photos were not really focused on the garden, but on June. Sorrynotsorry?


5 comments:

  1. I just found out fungus is killing our pumpkin plants. How gross is that?? They're the crop I've been most excited for too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's disgusting. Remind me to not eat any of your home-grown, homemade pumpkin pie this year.

      Delete
  2. When I saw the "Taking a break from the pool to admire the plants" photo above I thought, "Look at all that sunlight up above the garden. What if they planted the garden on their roof?"

    Think about it...plenty of sunlight and hornworms and other bugs may have a hard time getting up there. (Though, where there's a will, there's a way!) It could be just like the conference center. You'd have to get a waterfall.

    Kiddingnotkidding.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robs you're a genius. Now move back to AZ and become our full time gardener. We'll let you live here but you're not allowed any food from our kitchen.

      kiddingnotkiddingbutreallykidding

      Delete
    2. I don't want hornworms invading our house. If we plant on the roof they will take it over!

      Delete