hornworms are back!

    A week or so ago, I saw the first hawk moth of the year flying in the garden. Hawk moths are large, beautiful flying insects with a lush furry appearance. Unfortunately, though, they portend the arrival of hornworms, the larval form of these critters. This morning I saw the first manduca sexta larva on the underside of a tomato leaf. The little bugger had already eaten a chunk of the leaf. I searched around the plants and found four more of these on the underside of the leaves.

    Note the tiny black "horn" on the posterior end, thus giving the name "hornworm" to these insects.

Manduca sexta larval form on tomato leaf

Manduca sexta on fingertip

first green tomatoes

Lately I've been reading more about local varieties of vegetables and how important it is to select the varieties that are known to do well in your area. I now have five different varieties of tomato plants growing, and interestingly, one variety already has fruit while the others are still only flowering. I have much to learn, and have started taking better notes in a gardening notebook. For example, one variety of tomato plant is already about 2 meters tall, but has very few flowers. Another variety is about a meter tall and already has green fruit. It will be interesting to see which eventually produces more, which takes up the most space, which tastes better, etc.

tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum)

tomatoes ripening in the compost bin

A few weeks ago I pulled up the old tomato vines so I could plant winter veggies. The worms in the compost bin are slowly doing their good work on the vines, but something interesting has been happening to the tomatoes. There were a few green tomatoes left on the vines, and over the past few weeks, the tomatoes have been ripening. I ate a few this morning and they were delicious.

still producing great tomatoes

It's mid-September now, and we are still getting lots of great tomatoes. As with the lettuce during the winter, we are getting far more than we can eat.

I've been enjoying having fresh tomatoes in sandwiches, salads, snacks, soups - just about anything. This morning I am giving away a big bunch to various neighbors. It's a great way to say Hi.

tomatoes, tomatoes!

The tomatoes are ripe now and delicious. Also a few yellow crookneck squash are still coming in. Life is good.

tomatoes