The heat and lack of water finally got us, I can’t afford to irrigate and It isn’t helping all that much anyway!

The Spring garden is about done, we have a few cukes left, some watermelons vines and a few sunflowers still kicking but the rest is bone dry!

We did put up a good fight , we got alot of tomatoes , peppers, squash and onions.  The cucumbers didn’t do as well as I hoped, although we did get a couple batches of pickles! So for now mother nature , you win.

This sunflower isn't facing the sun, what the heck?

Bug Update

I found a large grasshopper in the tomatoes, it was black with racing stripes, red and yellow. I thought it was pretty cool looking.  Then I found this one later , it was larger and a whole different color. After a google search I found out this was a lubber grasshopper, they travel in packs and are darn near indestructable.

The adult version!

My knife for scale

If you want to read more see what Wikipedia has to say.

So for now, Im waiting to get the fall garden going, and doin the big rain dance!!

Later

I was Mowing the yard today and as I rode by the garden I noticed the three tomato plants that lived thru the drought had the top 10 inches or so stripped of it’s leaves!

Tomato Plants Stripped of it's leaves

As I Inspected further I found the culprit, Tomato Hornworms , and there was quite a few of them. The more I looked into the plant ,the more catapillars I saw.

Tomato Hornworm on the Vine

Another one on the bush

They are colorful bugs, but they sure can do some damage, I was just looking at the tomatoes day before yesterday and I didn’t have any damage then, They work fast!

I pulled these off the plants, the chickens get them after the photo session.

So now I’m off to the web to find the best way to deal with these green devils, I will fill you in with the research when I find it,  Till then …Good Gardening to ya!