The Ill Effects of Beetles and Hail (.... a post long past due.)

Well, it appears I have been delinquent...that is in keeping up this blog page so I will try to remedy that a little today. We will start with my tomatoes. I did so well in starting them and keeping them alive to plant out and then to have them nicely situated in the garden I felt quite pleased ...that was until I went to check on them.

Here is a fine specimen of a Potato Beetle...however it is not welcome in my garden.

And you can see the results of his visit. I must say it was an unfortunate state of affairs. I am not mean and cruel by nature (at least I don't like to think so), but I must admit I squished every one I could find with my bare hands and then sprinkled my plants with Sven, well at least any of them that looked like they had any chance of survival - unlike the one pictured. If I remember correctly they effectively destroyed 7 out of my 12 plants.

Around the same time we had a bout of hail, but truthfully my plants made out much better against the hail than against the beetles. I had only one or two that I remember thinking "what happened to that plant...it doesn't look good...but it doesn't look eaten either..."

Don't worry though I managed to come up with replacement tomato plants ... and they faired much better.