Hornworm Predators

With the help of parasitic wasps and ladybugs, the war on hornworms has begun.  This morning I found a wasp eating the head of a small hornworm right next to a ladybug feasting on the larvae.  I killed four, so hopefully together we can prevail.

Pickling

Made my Grandma's Freezer Pickles several days ago and left them in the fridge in tupperwares.  This morning I put them in jars and into the deep freeze.  I also sliced up pickle spears for dills. They seem a little trickier, because I am probably going to have to sterilize and pasteurize.

Freezer Pickles going into jars.

Freezer Pickles

Dill Pickle spears chilling in salt water.

Cooler Weather

It got down to 65 degrees last night.  Felt so nice to be chilly in a t-shirt this morning.  This coupled with a really good watering yesterday, and the garden has kind of bounced back.

Green zebra tomato that almost got eaten by a hornworm.

Garden peach tomatoes starting to get peachy.

The corn should be pollinating right now.  

Tomatillos

Yellow pear tomatoes.

Terrible Drought

Two months with very little rain.  I think we are 3+ inches behind.  It was so hot the last three weeks. It seemed like it was over 105 the whole time.  The grass looks burnt (you can see it behind the picture of the hornworm on the trowel) and it has been impossible to water the garden as much as is necessary. 

Still looks like I will get a lot of tomatoes, and we got tons of cucumbers.  Corn and green beans might be a lost cause at this point.  At least the weather is cooler and I am hoping for a little rain.  As always.

Hornworm right before execution.

Hornworm on my plant!

Hornworm Scat

Hornworm damage.

Love-In-A-Mist

Love-In-A-Mist

Primrose Sunflower

Primrose Sunflower

Five Lined Skink

Cucumbers for dill pickles.

Preparing for Albuquerque

In just a little over a week I fly back to Albuquerque to pack up all our things.  My list of things I want to accomplish before leaving is still long.  Most important is to clear out the area where the dog pen will be and at least put up one dog run.  I have been diligently weeding the garden so the growth won't be too bad when I get back, I hope.  I am still on the fence about whether or not to transplant tomatoes in peppers into the garden because they're still small and were recently transplanted.

The garden is looking good, though.  I planted all my herbs and some more flowers this week.  Sunflowers and marigolds are coming up nicely and I am waiting for the carrots and potatoes to pop up any day.

Everyday I wake up and can't wait to go outside.

Flowers around here seem to understand the color wheel.

Beets, beets, beets.

I kinds wanna roll in the lettuce.

 
                                     

Tee-peas! (for the peas)

Every evening the sun slips away too fast.

The Sunshine Garden: Missouri Chapter

The Sunshine Garden has packed up and moved to the Midwest. My first crops have been fairly successful with the exception being peas. Somethings eating them. One of the biggest differences so far is that you don't HAVE to amend the soil, though I wouldn't mind a little mulch to keep the weeds down. Mostly watering isn't necessary, and you can't plant if the soil is too wet (which is often the case), and the weeds grow really fast!