We May Not Have Tomatoes

Our tomato plants look terrible because we have horn worms. Every time we spray or dust for pests, it rains and washes it off.



The tomatoes have been damaged by a bug. Note the lack of leaves.

It is a good thing we do not garden for a living, for we would surely be failures at it.

We are not that kind of farmer. We grow good grass and have nice cattle, but we are not very good at keeping the vegetable crop going. Either the deer eat it or the beetles get it.

That's why this year we only have tomato plants. But if we don't get the beetles/worms/whatever stopped, we won't even have those.

This year, we are growing leafless tomato stalks in our garden.

A long time ago, when we were young, we had a large garden. We grew cucumbers, squash, and corn. We harvested green beans and peas. It was (and is) backbreaking work that I am no longer able to do, and my husband hasn't the time to do.

Our garden grew smaller as we aged. For a few years, we had no garden at all, but we missed having a few fresh veggies (especially tomatoes). So we planted a small garden around the side of the house where we used to have a C-Band satellite. Its removal left a large space of dirt, which we enlarged a bit and fenced off to keep the deer out.

At various times that small garden has been quite bountiful, offering up squash, beans, peas, tomatoes, and even corn. But in the last few years, squash beetles have killed every plant, seemingly overnight, and this year we just didn't fool with anything but tomatoes.

Now it seems we can't even get those to grow.

But we are excelling at tomato stalks.



In 2008, we grew corn.