September 12, 2025
On Sunday (September 7), after we got back from breakfast, Bruce and I headed to the garden to see how everything looked.
Oh, the tomato plants were eaten. Tomato Hornworms and Armyworms were munching away.
Some of the other plants didn’t do very well.
Some plants grew well. The basil was spectacular. The sweet potatoes looked beautiful. The okra was full of pods that were too old to eat. The watermelon vines had over taken the globe basil. We found several rotten watermelons.
I went to the barn to get the clippers to trim the tomato plants. I also wanted a 5-gallon bucket to put the okra pods in, the rotten watermelons in, and the sad tomatoes in. When I walked into the barn, this snake skin startled me.
I spent about two hours cleaning up the garden.
As I was dumping the 5-gallon bucket full of plant materials into the compost bin, I stepped into a fire ant bed. They crawled over my shoe and started stinging my ankle. My shoe was covered with fire ants. In brushing them off my ankle, I got stung on my hands and arms. I hate fire ants with a passion!
Bruce spent most of the day mowing. You can see how tall the grass grew in two weeks.
The weeds took over the planned flower gardens out front.
I saw several butterflies on the driveway. I was able to get a picture of this Question Mark butterfly.
I carried my 5-gallon buckets with pepper plants, eggplants, and lemongrass back outside. While all the plants lived, some had been munched on by the dreaded armyworms.
I found a Hornworm on my lemon verbena.
I had never seen a Hornworm with nodules on its skin before. I knew of two types of Hornworms, tomato and tobacco, before finding this Hornworm. In researching this caterpillar, I discovered there are 115 known Sphinx moth species in North America. The Sphinx moth species caterpillars are various types of Hornworms.
Blackberry Homestead 
Did you treat for fire ants while you were gone? I know you had talked about it.
Sorry that the worms got more of your produce than you did. ☹️
Is Bruce’s dad healed and happy now?
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We did treat for fire ants, but instead of killing them, it acted as super food. We’ve got twice as many fire ant nests before when we left.
No, Bruce’s dad still needs help. Bruce’s youngest sister is with him now.
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I hope you have a serious talk with the company that “treated” for those ants! If you’re as dry as we are, you might harass them with some diatomaceous earth around their nests.
I hope Bruce’s dad is getting better each day with his family there to help. ❤️
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When we got back, I did put out diatomaceous earth on and around several nest. Who knows if it will do any good. I also sprinkle it on what was left of the tomato plants. Death to the hornworms!
Bruce’s dad seems to be getting better each day. He says his shoulder already hurts less than his other shoulder.
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Hooray for giving those bugs grief!
Do you think there might be another surgery in the future?
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My FIL would like his other shoulder replaced as it hurts a lot. His surgeon doesn’t think he’ll do any more surgeries on him.
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☹️
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I felt sorry for you with the devastation of your garden. I hope you can quickly get things under control.
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The tomatoes are already looking better. I sprinkled diatomaceous earth on them to kill any insects. I have blooms on the plants, so I am hoping we get more cherry tomatoes.
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It sounds like you have much of it under control now. I’m sorry about those dang fire ants. Hopefully, you’ll have great fall crops!
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Fire ants! I hates them! Thanks, I am getting ready to plant more greens.
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It requires weeding after rainy days. Mike puts salt on the ground which holds back the weeds.
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Julia, I’m sorry to hear that your long stay in Georgia led to so many problems at home. I sounds like 2 weeks away from home was 1 week too many!I really appreciate all the work that you and Bruce did – among others, the shed and driveway were major improvements! The cooking was nothing short of great!!I hope you and Bruce can recover from all the damage.I share your attitude about fire ants – they’re terrible pests! Love, Howard
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Howard,
We knew things would “go wild” while we were gone. It was an easy decision to make; you are more important to us than the garden.
The tomato plants look so much better after all the bare parts were trimmed off. I have no idea why the fire ants spread so badly while we were gone. Bruce put out poison before we left, but it seems to have just made the ants more prolific.
Love,
Julia
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No matter what you do to fire ants, they just move a little and start over. I think there must be thousands of feet of networked ant trails underground! They probably have some kind of system for blocking a tunnel that has been sprayed or poisoned, after evacuating the old nest, but I might be giving them credit for more intelligence than they have.
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That does seem to be the way of it.
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How disappointing! We were also gone for 2 weeks during prime garden season here.
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How did your garden look when you got back?
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Our garden was not too bad when we got back, other than being very weedy. We had some houseguests at our house while we were gone. My sister was there first, and she forgot that I had suggested she check for produce in the garden. The following weekend our son and his wife were there. They found a couple of normal size zucchini, cucumber and tomatoes, and a couple of huge zucchini! The beans were not super productive this year, but a few more are still growing. None of the plants were as productive as some other years, who knows why. I do not put in much effort.
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