UNUSUAL THINGS

parasitized tomato hornworm

Well, I found my first tomato hornworm this week!!!!  I love mother nature.  This guy is here to eat my tomato plants.  But,  if you wait long enough and don't spray the bugs, the good guys show up to keep things in check.  The white things are braconid wasp eggs.  These are parasitic wasps that target other bugs, not people.  The female lays her eggs in the worm and when they hatch, the  babies use the worm for food, stopping it from eating my tomato plant.



I also have some interesting plants that I started from seeds I bought at Monticello.  They grow plants and sell the seeds from those plants that Thomas Jefferson grew over 200 years ago.

Love-lies-bleeding.   Amaranthus caudatus.

This plant is HUGE.  About 6 feet tall with long, flowing red flowers. According to the packet, the flowers will grow long enough to touch the ground.  This plant is used as a food source in some countries.

Cockscomb  -  Celosia cristata

Tall - about 2 ft.  large blooms, and very soft to the touch.

African Marigold   -   Tagetes erecta

Very tall - 4  feet.  Smaller blooms than our cultivated varieties.    

Also from Monticello.

Sensitive Plant  -  Mimosa  pudica

Fern like.  Touch the leaves and they fold up quickly before your eyes.

Again it was 102 degrees yesterday with no rain in sight.   Grass is dormant.  Not a problem, it will green up when it starts to rain and starts getting cooler.  The trick is to not water or fertilize.  Shallow watering does more harm than good to the root system.  Deep watering is fine, but I have a well and would never water my lawn.  You never know what is going on 265 feet down.  We need the water for other things, US!

I love summer