I was sipping a nice iced tea today, enjoying the perfect weather and admiring my acreage lawn backyard lanai slab of concrete and crops garden potted plants, consisting of one pot each of a basil, a cherry tomato and a pink geranium. As I checked out the tomato, it seemed some leaves were missing from the top stems. I leaned in for a closer look and came eye to eye with this fella:
He is 3.5" in length
Note the red horn on the rump. Snazzy! Turns out that he is better known as the Tobacco Hornworm rather than in his moth mode, assuming a bird doesn’t discover him first.
So not cute!
I believe my pet slug, Sluggo, invited him over to feast upon the bounty that is my one tomato plant.
Sluggo measured 3" long
Look at what he has done to one innocent cherry tomato! Fortunately, he seems to be leaving the basil plant alone, so more pesto is in my future!
Poor tomato never had a chance
Enough of the wild and not so woolly (why the lack of hair on my patio critters?), on to some pretties. First up, my geranium. My mom gave me this last summer and it spent the winter on my dryer in the basement. Occasionally I would throw a little water on it, then one day in the spring I noticed it was putting out more leaves so I put it outside on my trash can, where it happily resides to this day. I’ll let it vacation again on the dryer this winter and see just how long I can keep it living.
Ah! Summer on the trash can, winter on the dryer!
Next up, my African violets. I’ve managed to keep these alive for over a year now, and they have bloomed constantly since March.
This baby measures 13" across!
The leaves curve down like a waterfall on this pretty.
I know, it’s a quiet drama free life. Exactly how I like it!
But of course! 