A beautiful, green beast showed up in the garden over the weekend -- the dreaded tobacco hornworm. I found two three-inch long, chubby hornworms chewing on the sun gold plants. I find them beautiful to look at, but they are a beast.
Two rows over from the tomatoes, the okra plants are flowering and fruiting. The flowers are lovely and the fruits make a nice sauté along with fairy tale eggplants.
Outside the garden, birds are flocking to the alternate-leaved dogwood, gorging themselves on the dark blue fruits. Yesterday we watched a family of robins, a pair of kingbirds, and a red-eyed vireo vying for space in the tree. Such bounty in August.
Ellen, regarding the tomato hornworm, is that the "critter" that morphs into a moth sometimes called a hummingbird moth?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I want to say that looks like a very tasty sauté you prepared with your fairy tale eggplants! :-)
John
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteNo the hornworm morphs into a bland looking moth -- nothing wrong with the moth but its caterpillar - the hornworm - devours tomato plants. And if you have one you have many. So it is a daily task to remove the caterpillars and dispatch them. The caterpillars are so beautiful but they really are not compatible with growing tomatoes!
My mother-in-law made the saute with okra and fairy tales from our garden. She noted how beautiful the sliced fairy tales looked. So pretty she didn't want to eat them, but if course we did. She makes a special roast powder that makes anything sauted taste delicious.
Thanks for the comments.
Ellen