Sunday, July 22

Cottage Garden 8

I just spent a little bit of time in my garden, inspecting the plants for bugs, and I was greatly rewarded. Found a few other things, as well, as noted in the pictures:

My first dahlia in bloom.


The hydrangea that was supposed to be blue that ended up pink and has now faded to green. Hmmm . . . Happily, I still like it.


Ripening Romas.



More tomatoes. I think these are beefsteaks??? They are huge already, and just packed onto the vine. Beautiful!



And this, the dreaded bugs. (Sorry, this is difficult to see due to the blurriness of the photo. My camera limits me too often. I love it, except for real close-up shots.) This is a cutworm loaded with eggs/larvae or something. I feel very fortunate to have found this one when I did, gross as it is! I asked my brave husband to dispose of it. (We both hate killing things.) I'm hoping he stomped on it, but he asked for a can of bug spray. So long as I never see one hundred small cutworms marching toward me, I guess it doesn't matter the manner of disposal. Ugh, ugh, ugh!

6 comments:

The Frequent Whistler from Misty Ridge said...

Good pictures, impressive bugs, Enjoy seeing your garden blooming.

Ann said...

I found worms on my lettuce and I haven't been able to eat it since. Does that make me a wimp? Instead... I'm growing sprouts inside, for my greens. No chance for nasty worms that way. :-).

Cheers
Kiersten

Lisa said...

Kristen, I came visiting via Heidi's. Very nice blog. I just thought I would tell you that beautiful caterpillar is a Tomato Horn Worm. If he has white eggs on his back you are supposed to let him live. Those are not his eggs they are the eggs of a parasitic wasp which will kill him and continue to help your garden.

Also,did you know that you can change the color of your hydrangea by changing the PH of your soil. I've never tried it but supposedly they can change from pink to blue depending upon the PH of your soil.

Your shoes are beautiful! You did a great job with special music yesterday! See ya later.

American Swede Photography said...

I am learning so much about gardening through blogging. Thanks for all the comments.

Lisa, thanks for the info about the worms. Next time I'll be happy to let the wasp kill the worm if I find eggs on it. !!

And Kiersten, I've been "wimped" by too many worms myself. I like sprouts, so they're a great alternative to wormy, sluggy lettuce!

Thanks again for the comments.

Alastair said...

Kristen,
I love the ripening tomatoes, I hope to be able to grow some next year if I can get my act together. Thanks for adding your name to Frapper on the website.

American Swede Photography said...

Thank you for the comment, Alastair. Since it's been over a month that I blogged about this post, I've learned a lot about tomatoes. Ha! They were wonderful for eating. -- I even put 5 quarts full in my freezer. Next time, though, they won't be right next to my house. -- They need full sun. I think their being under the eaves contributed to their gangliness. Don't know where all those cutworms came from, though!

Good luck with planting them next year! They're worth it.

I very-much enjoy your blog http://www.drumenagh.blogspot.com/.My husband and I would be privileged to come to your B&B someday, and learn from your gardens. I am envious of all the fruit trees you grow. We live in the woods, so anymore trees would suffocate us from the sunshine. So I enjoy everyone else's fruit trees, and hearing about your's.