The great outdoors (is testing my resolve)

Despite the heat wave, things are plugging along in the vegetable garden. Here, the Japanese black trifele tomatoes are getting ready to ripen. Don't they have a beautiful shape?

But lo...my precious tomato plant has been relegated to sticks!

If you don't know me, know this: I have a certain "respect" for insects - I see their place in the scheme of things. But the fact is, I hate them - and here's what I'll admit: it's because I'm scared. Of all garden insects, I've been most scared of tomato hornworms ever since I saw one covered in parasitic wasps on a website a few years ago. I've been so scared and disgusted by them that I think I've written several posts about them by now. Today, as I was up close inspecting the damage to my tomato plant, I ended up face to face with the dreaded tomato hornworm for the first time in real life... I identified it immediately. What I didn't expect was how big it would be in real life. I screamed. I ran. I got my daughter.

She read over my shoulder as I researched on the web. You would not believe the manipulation of this smart little kid. Knowing her dad is out of town, "Mom, I'll get rid of it for $5. Otherwise, it will stay in your garden and eat all your tomato plants". I readily paid. She removed the hornworm but then had the nerve to chase after me with the bucket. Luckily, I'm smarter and as I ran into the house, I threatened to lock her out.

Apparently, where there is frass there are hornworms. I also have a 5 year old so I'm all for cutesy names for poop, but look at the size of it! In my opinion, it's absolutely abnormal for any insect to have poop of this size. This is no frass. This is a full blown bowel movement. We found another hornworm, so the bill went up to $10. My skin was crawling so my inspection may not have been too thorough, but hopefully that was it.

And just to give me more of a fright since I was already freaked out, this guy was guarding the back door. I almost had a heart attack going back for this photo (I hope you appreciate it!).

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In an additional test of my resolve...

When I remember, I wear pants and a hoodie in the garden to keep from being eaten alive by mosquitoes. I've recently written about my problem with this. So as I type this, the mosquito bites on my neck, thumb knuckle, and little toe are itching the hell out of me (I'm going to start going out in a beekeeper's suit). Also, my right butt cheek is hurting because guess what? I got stung by a bee at the pool yesterday.

A funny thing I'm thinking of now - my 5 year old could tell her own bug story. This morning, I heard a little scream just before she ran over to me and grabbed onto my legs. Pointing to a little moth on the wall, she said, "I thought that was a heart sticker so I tried to get it but it was a moth!"

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Just so I don't have nightmares, I'll end with a nicer image - the pretty blooms of hairy vetch, saving the space for garlic to be planted in October.