The other day I was in the garden watering it, picking cucumbers and zucchinis, and just general garden stuff when I saw a face looking at me from the tomato bushes. Looking more I made out a small body, legs, and eyes. It was a Hornworm munching on my tomato leaves!

          Ick! What was I going to do? I obviously had to get rid of it or it could ruin my tomato crops. 

          I quickly ran inside and grabbed the grabber, an extendable arm , to pick up the pest. Racing back to the garden I grabbed the first one, plucked him from his perch on the tomato leaf, ran out of the garden and flung him as far away from the garden as possible. I returned to my precious plants and discovered a second one munching away! This one too I grabbed, but he was strong and clung to the plant. I ripped him from the leaf with a mighty pull and flung him as far from the garden as well.

          I breathed a sigh of relief. For now my garden is safe, but for how long will it remain that way?

Click here to find more information on how to get rid of Hornworms on your tomato plants.

A week ago the corn in my garden was doing great! They were not only knee high by the fourth of July…..they were going to be shoulder high!

Then a pop up rain & windstorm came and knocked down eighty percent of my corn right down to the ground.

My first thought was, that’s it!  It’s over! My corn is going to die and all that hard work of planting and weeding was wasted.

My second thought was, I not going to give up that easy!

So, after the rain stopped I went out to my garden and gently picked up the corn. Unfortunately it wouldn’t stay up on its own it kept flopping down.

I decided to run a string line attached from one side of the fence to the other on both sides of the corn. This kept the corn upright but still leaning. Then I went to the garden store and bought a bag of soil to build up the area around the base of the stalk.

 This seems to be working for now. I guess the test will come with the next windstorm.

A reader wrote in with a problem regarding some sort of slippery mold discovered in her yard:

I was walking in the back of my yard today and almost slipped on this slippery mold-like substance. It is spread out over a vast area. It looks like little piles of slimy poop, but no animal could possibly scatter that much in the area without me seeing it! It’s everywhere! Can you help me identify it? It’s black, in piles about 3 or 4 inches around.

Our response, which we hope was helpful:

It seems like this could be a version of Dog Vomit fungus (nice name right?) – in which case you might take a look at this recent post on our blog: I Have Slime Mold In The Mulch In My Garden!

It could also be a mold called Nostoc, which starts out bluish/greenish but can turn black.

All mold/fungus is slimy and slippery, usually popping up after significant rainfall especially if the area never has a chance to dry out.

What can you do?

For long-term, you may want to look at how that part of your yard is draining. If drainage is poor, you may want to get a landscaper in to correct the slope or lay some drainage piping.

Short-term, try these techniques:

Most organic approaches:

• Apple Cider Vinegar – Use 1-2 Tablespoons per gallon of water. This is a good natural herbicide.
• Corn Meal (any kind of corn meal is OK) – Dry Method: Work 2 pounds of cornmeal into the soil for every 100 square feet. Water well, to activate the fungus killing properties. Wet Method: Cornmeal Juice – soak 1 cup of cornmeal in 1 gallon of water overnight. Strain liquid and use as a spray.
• Milk – 3 ounces of any kind of milk in a gallon of water used as a spray.
• Baking Soda – One tablespoon of baking soda per gallon of water, use as a spray. Follow up with compost at 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet to reestablish microbial population, as baking soda is very hard on the soil microbes.

Last resort – non organic:

• Bleaches and Peroxide – great fungicides. 1-2 tblsp per gallon of water.

Good luck!

Joyce & Gayle