Summer of twenty sixteen

It has been a good, busy summer.  We have spent about half of our time at the cabin.  We try to be here during the week but have been here some on the weekends too, when Craig and Traci are here. 

The weather has been hot and humid but with air conditioners in both cabins the heat doesn't keep us away.  Lanny has been mowing the dam and lagoons for The Lake.  I have been 'doing' for Vi.  I have gardened.  I have gardened successfully in some areas and not so much in others.

The tomatoes took a hit when the green hornworm got in.  I started finding green tomatoes with bites out of them or half the tomato eaten away.  The tops of my tomato plants were being eaten down to nubbins and I thought perhaps a raccoon or possum was getting under the fence or over the gate so I built a screen for the gate.  Just in case, I put landscape timbers down around the fence perimeter to keep squinties out.  And still my plants were being gnawed on.
 

 

Vi, the neighbor lady came by in her golf cart to have a look.  She said, "I think it is the cut worm but I've never seen them eat the tomatoes.  Only the vines."  I waded in and started looking and sure enough I found hornworm poop.  I had looked in Google for information on the tomato cut worm and saw nice, clear photos of the hornworm poop. Isn't it just 'fun' what you can find in the internet?   

 

Now that I knew for sure what I was dealing with, I started looking for the green, greedy, voracious little worm.  I found two of the little culprits. I'm sure there were probably more but I threw caution to the wind, dug out the bottle of Sevin tomato dust and powdered them down good. I would go back after dark with a flash light to snatch naughty green hornworms.   

 

 

I kept this guy.  I put him in a gallon jar with some dirt in the bottom.  He ate up the first piece of tomato vine in just a short time.  I gave him two or three others and he gobbled his way right through them too, then turned his back on me, burrowed into the dirt and started his metamorphosis. He was on his way to becoming a Sphinx moth. 

 

Meanwhile, we have had many good cucumbers from our Amish-bought plants.  We have eaten our fill and shared them with Sally and Vi and our children.  I planted three Parks Whopper muskmelons and the vines have thrived.  We have harvested 4 super sweet, luscious, best ever melons.  There will be more! 

 

The asparagus put in last year has thrived; we'll be able to eat it next spring.  The onions didn't do so well and I have yet to dig potatoes because the melons and cukes have sprawled all over the place.  4 cabbage heads are sticking in there and we might get to harvest them. 

 

All in all, the garden has been a success and the tomatoes are coming back from the worm attack.  We might still get some decent tomatoes yet.

 

 

 

from the internet: Sphinx Moth