And then there was a close encounter with what I took to be a tomato horn worm. He was on the tomatoes and had a horn, so, after taking his picture, I snipped him in half, feeling bad about it but wanting to protect my lovely Cherokee Purple tomatoes. Now, having looked in one of my bug books, I'm not so sure --maybe he was a Great Ash Sphinx larvae and it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh, the karmic burden! It's too bad, because because sphinx moths are so cool -- they feed at dusk, hovering before the flowers like humming birds.
The sunflowers -- more volunteers, planted by chance and by chipmunks -- are beginning to open. The spiral pattern of their seeds is a true marvel -- right up there in geometric ( if that's the adjective I'm looking for) beauty with the Chambered Nautilus and ripples on a pond.
8 comments:
Life and death in a garden...definitley. Unfortunately, the death for me always seems to involve anything I've planted.
Love the dog picture.
Take heart! I killed no end of plants when I first started gardening. And there are still things that mysteriously fail to thrive. But eventually, the survivors begin to outnumber the victims.
One of my favorite garden quotes is: "A perennial is a plant that, had it lived, would have bloomed year after year."
Vicki, that worm looks like what we scour our tomato plants for and what we call the tomato horned worm. I wonder if we've been wrong in our definition. I haven't found any yet, but then my eyesight has gotten worse over the years, and those worms do blend in so well. Your sunflowers are beautiful. Mine have been nimbled into extinction by what I assume are rabbits after they get to be 3 or so inches high. I'm disappointed.
I'm just going to assume that whatever he was, he was up to no good on my maters.
And now I've got to get out there and finish my weeding. Happy summer morning!
HA ... I took a 'dog nose' picture of my Doberman years back ... I thought it was the neatest thing. HAHAHA!!!
We haven't seen any 'tomato worms' so far this year, thank goodness. Right now it's so hot/dry over here that everything is at a standstill in my garden, even the weeds. Imagine that!!!
Not too hot here but definitely too dry.
Love the Dog nose picture! Is that William or the bigger hound type dog? (Maggie?--sorry, brain freeze...)
Looks like a tomato worm to me. And if it wasn't it shouldn't have been hanging out near them 'maters! The picture of the iris is very pretty. We call those 'blue flags' around here, and they are what most of the old timers had in their yards. Much of my yard is filled with starts from my own "Dessie"--Edrie. Loved plants and flowers and worked hard all her like. Wasn't 90 lbs soaking wet. Lovely, characters these old timers.
Tammy
Hey, Tammy. The dog nose is Maggie's. And yes, they call them blue flags around here too.
I love the fact that so many of the plants in my yard were gifts from folks now gone -- and I've tried, in turn, to give starts whenever I can.
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