What do you grow in your garden? Do you grow veggies for you and your family? Or maybe you are growing a pollinator garden for the insect friends. Perhaps you do both. Great!
This looks like a bumper crop, eh. Well, it was someone else’s garden that they kindly shared with me. Thank you.
So I have out the back door a five foot trough filled with tomatoes and walking onions, my garden. This was last year end of season bumper crop.
My tomatoes were looking promising for another bumper crop.
These are plants today.
Furthermore I let other plants grow in the garden too; like the smartweed (Persicaria). Small bees will visit the smartweed.
Last year I had a nice crop of Ground-cherry (Physalis) that decided to grow. Bees and Bumble Bees often stopped in.
Here is the reason for my bare tomato plants, Carolina Sphinx (Manduca sexta) caterpillar. Most of you probably already guessed that. LOL. Why do I let them strip the plant bare? Well, I am happy when I get some produce, BUT I really enjoy seeing the cats. Plus they will grow up and then will be much needed food for the bats. Last year there were lots of bees. However not so many this year. 🙁 Additionally I never knew the cats ate the fruit. Always something to learn. 🙂
And then tonight, a female Cardinal decided that one of Carolina Sphinx cats was the perfect to-go meal!
Moreover each year I have been waiting for a Five-spotted Hawk Moth (Manduca quinquemaculatus) cat to show up. Someday I hope. Until then I will continue to happily share my garden with the Carolina Sphinx and all of the other six legged friends.
O those hungry cats and the tomato plants- only time I’ve seen anything stripped so thoroughly was dill and fennel. Totally deluded. Seems like the bare plants are an advertisement to the birds – here I am!
I always enjoyed the Sphinx cats but they never completely stripped my plants. Once again Oregon backyard has some great pics. Loved the crow.
O those hungry cats and the tomato plants- only time I’ve seen anything stripped so thoroughly was dill and fennel. Totally deluded. Seems like the bare plants are an advertisement to the birds – here I am!
Wow, you must have had quite a colony of Manduca living in your tomatoes! Very interesting article about Yellowstone seismic activity.
Sharing my tomatoes – plants and fruit – with the leaf-footed bugs. So far, the bugs are getting the lion’s share of my crop.