Garden Horns and Tales

In many ways, Alexis is a miniature version of me. That's why it's not really surprising that she's a fan of gardening. She happily pulls weeds (don't bother to ask for her help--she does it, but she doesn't do it well). She will diligently water every last plant in the yard. She is a beast with a pair of pruners. Most of all, though, she loves to plant seeds.

Somewhere around the last week of June, Alexis conned me into buying a zillionth pack of seeds. I didn't even really look at them because I was too busy rolling my eyes at how the kid had been the victim of some crazy marketing scheme. The seeds were Sesame Street brand and had Abby Cadabby's face plastered all over the packet. We already had a huge pile of seeds to plant, but I let her have them anyway. While she's a sucker for Sesame Street, I'm a sucker for her asking nicely.

We planted the seeds in the ground and exactly five days later, the Abby Cadabby Pumpkins sprouted.

You'll have to trust me that they are over there on the left, right behind the tomato cages.

Apparently, Abby Cadabby sprinkled some magic in that seed packet because HOLY RAVIOLI, those suckers are now threatening to take over the universe:

All told, I think the pumpkin patch is about 20 feet long and 8 feet wide. All that, in one month's time.

I'm kinda thinking we don't need quite THAT many pumpkins (they're mini ones, which means they're sort of useless for carving and the sort), so I spent about an hour the other night ripping some of them out (the photo was taken AFTER the carnage . . . that's how insane they have grown). Along my way, I happened to glance at the tomato plants and spotted this:

While I maintain that things with more than four legs are gross, that little bug was actually kind of cool looking. I took some time to take a few thousand photos before relocating it to the field behind our house. Since I'm a superdork, I even looked up what it was--a Tobacco Hornworm. I can now tell you that the difference between a Tomato Hornworm and a Tobacco Hornworm is the horn's color. I'm all fancy and smart and stuff now. You're welcome.

Fast forward a day and I pulled into the driveway and immediately spotted carnage. The previously huge tomato plants had been nearly totally mowed down. I found four new Tobacco Hornworms in there (definitely new because they were much bigger . . . and much grosser). I relocated them and then took their invasion as a declaration of war.

I dumped half a container of pesticide all over that part of the garden. So what if Alexis eats the tomatoes right off the plant, right? A little pesticide never hurt anyone. Much.

(Honestly, I *hate* using pesticide. The little prickers left me no choice when they declared war.)

Anyway, today as Alexis and I pulled into the driveway, she asked to see if there were any "Alice cappalillers." At some point during the Tobacco Hornworm invasion, I had pointed out to Alexis that the things look like the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, so she was a bit obsessed with them. She has no interest in actually touching one, but she will stare for several minutes. We headed over to the tomato plants to see if any had returned.

As we walked over, I warned Alexis that I had put some "yucky stuff" on the plants to ward off the bugs. There was some 'splaining to do, but I think she figured out that if she wants to eat tomatoes this summer, she has to deal with a lack of Alice cappalillers. Maybe.

OK, maybe not.

Once she was certain that there really weren't any Alice cappalillers, Alexis looked me straight in the eye and asked if we could go buy some capaliller seeds. She wants to plant them right next to the pumpkins.

Comments

[Colleen - Mommy Always Wins]

LOVE that last shot. LOVE.

You can let her come to my house and plant some stuff! You just have to promise to bring her back (all the way to Milwaukee - heh) every two weeks or so cuz this Momma ain't weedin' nothin'!

[Katie in MA]

"Alice capalillers" - nice! I thought that's what they looked, too.

And then my thoughts went from, "Well, grab some and put them in a little terrarium for her" to "Hey, I bet they'd plug the leaks in the pond quite nicely" in a disturbingly short amount of time. :)

[Michelle (burghbaby)]

@Katie--I may have wondered if I could feed them to the frogs a time or ten. Maybe.

[Dave (Scrumpy Daddy)]

LOVE that photo! We planted some regular sized pumpkins this year, and one plant has almost completely taken over our garden. I saw a small pumpkin starting on the vine two or three weeks ago, and now it is gone. I don't know what stole it, but no new ones have started growing, despite the flowers all over the vine.

Do you ever have problems with deer or small wildlife eating your plants? Any strategies to keep them away? (We just enclosed the entire garden with six-foot fence, but I'd like to plant some things in various open areas, but the deer around us devour anything out in the open.)

Good shot of the Hornworm, too!

[Michelle (burghbaby)]

@Dave--Despite the constant wildlife all around, I've only had trouble with bugs so far. I plan to fence a bigger vegetable garden next year. In the past, I've used the really icky but effective coyote urine to chase off the deer. It definitely worked, but every little spritz is gross. You can get it at Home Depot or Lowe's or wherever.

[mattieflap]

@Dave - the low cost version of deer repellent is the giant bottle of black pepper you can get at costco. Pepper your plants. I've been doing it because the deer around my house seem to think my plants are the buffet at the Grand Concourse. I didn't think it would work but it does. They stay away and my hostas didn't get eaten to nubbins this year and I actually got my black eyed susans to bloom.

[FireMom]

DUDE. We should go on a photo hunt together sometime.

Anyway, pumpkins? Be right over!

[rebelliousflaw]

I'm always amazed by your photography. You catch the essence of your subject in each photo. I can haz a pikchur buk plz?

[Jenn]

Those hornworms? You gotta squish 'em. (They squish good too!) Skip the hornworm relocation program and put on your best gardening boots and eliminate their gross little selves.