Monday, August 25, 2008

I think this may be a sign my fledgling summer tomato adventures are waning



A few leaf-footed stink bug nymphs insist on attacking this group of tomatoes, although I just recently dunked their grandparents in soapy water to their deaths. Also, some woolly aphids are now happily gathering on the middle plant. I feel lucky we harvested our weekly fill of small tomatoes from these plants all summer, so I’m going to trim them back and (while planning the Fall veggie plantings) hope for the best at this point!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Iris! How's the house painting coming?
Robin

Bird said...

Speaking of dunking bugs in water...just now I was loading clothes into the washer when I noticed a small lizard/gecko jumping around in there. What's a girl to do? I'm really squeamish about reaching around in there trying to find it (and then inadvertently releasing it into the laundry room where the cat will play with it)...but starting the washer and spinning him into oblivion (or worse, not oblivion) does not seem any better for him or my clothes. And so the laundry sits...

Annie in Austin said...

I was out with the drowning pail yesterday myself, Iris, and also cut back the few surviving tomato plants and then did a foliar feed. It might work.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

TexasDeb said...

New to your blog - really enjoying it.

At least you had some tomato adventures this summer. I'm afraid we didn't water our tomatoes adequately and we've had hardly any fruit set at all.

Fortunately the tomatillos are more tolerant.

Kudos on your grassless front yard. We just went totally grassless this year and things are still on the sparse side in all this heat. Hopefully next year things will have filled in a little better!

Iris said...

texasdeb,

Congratulations on going grassless!
Yes, it's always a little depressingly sparse in the beginning, but it takes some time & is very rewarding. Hang in there! Glad you're enjoying the blog, too!

Bird said...

Lizard update....I summoned up the courage to remove the clothes from the washer knowing the lizard was hiding within. The lizard made a daring leap into the laundry basket where he was transported to freedom outside. After all that work he did to get INSIDE! Foiled again.

Iris said...

Neleh!

I'm confused, sorry. Did you manage to get the lizard free outside??

Iris said...

Annie,

At least I'm not the only one dunking bugs! Pardon my ignorance, but what's a foliar feed? Thanks.

Annie in Austin said...

Foliar feeding is the application of liquid fertilizer in solution onto the leaves of a plant rather than on the soil. You can mix up your John's Recipe from the Natural Gardener into a watering can but it works better if you use a hose end sprayer to sort of mist it on. Use something like an old nylon to strain the mixture so the sprayer won't clog and don't put it on when the sun's on the plants or in the heat of the day.

Too many years of listening to the radio show! I sound like a commercial.

Annie