Still finding the tomato hornworms on my tomato plants.  Now I’m killing them by dropping the worms in soapy water.  It seems to kill them – I can watch them die.  With the days changing, and the weather cooling (for Texas that is) my plants are growing gang busters.  The tomato plants have lots of tomatoes ripening.  At least I should say the tomato plants in the square planter have tomatoes ripening.  The tomato plants in the RW planter (retaining wall planter) never got a single tomato.  They also didn’t get any hornworms either.  But this weekend I hacked the RW tomatoes down.   If they are not going to do anything, I’m not going to keep them.  I’ve started getting ruthless with my plants.  If they aren’t doing anything, I’m pulling them out or just dumping the soil in one big pile.  They earn their keep or they are out of here.

The weather has been changing.  We get some occasional hot days but the days/nights are starting to cool.  Not much mind you, but just enough.  The days are still in the 80-90’s, but the nights are low 70’s.  Any seeds I’m putting out are sprouting, the bean seeds and the squash seeds have grown into some nice looking plants.  The squash plant has large flowers and with any luck we might get some squash.  I’m hoping the bean plants continue growing too.  Even the watermelon plant is growing.  I’ve had to put up trellis’ near some of the plants since they are growing.

I’ve been weeding the RW planter.  Its hard work.  I’ve been trying to do it in the morning.  Actually I get up, put yesterdays dirty clothes back on, go weed or work in the garden for a hour or two, then come back in and shower.  Makes much more sense then showering then getting hot and sweaty working in the yard.

I’ve even started using a Miracle Grow watering system.  The jar you attach to the hose, add Miracle Grow packet to the jar and water.  That’s what I’m using.  I started using it in August and I intend to continue using it about every 10 days.  I’m using it mainly on the plants that should become a hedge along the fence, some Texas sage, and the trees in the RW planter.  I figure all these plants could use the food.

I’m also trying to get a better grip on what to grow and when to plant it.  We just got back from Home Depot and they have tomato plants out.  Considering how my tomato plants are due, now I understand why they are still selling them.  I think of tomatoes as a summer plant.  But here the summers get just too hot, and they will grow then, but in the heat of the summer, my tomato plants seemed to just do nothing.  They didn’t die, but they didn’t grow either.  So maybe I need to plant them earlier then I think, or later then I think.  We’ll figure this out.  It may just take some time.

And for reference, check out the link below – Texas A & M Agriculture pages.
 http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/