A delightful welcome home

August 7, 2013

I anxiously slide open the door to the garden....It had been over three weeks since I was last in my Temecula garden. Before I left for vacation, I discovered the dreaded Tomato Horn Caterpillar on my tomato plants. All through the vacation, I wondered if I had actually got rid of the pest I found; images of total annihilation of my tomato patch and neighboring plants often came to mind. I looked out straight ahead to the pool, took a deep breath before turning my head to the left to look at my planters. A big smile quickly lit up my face!! The tomatoes were thriving with glorious fruits. 

The tomato plants had grown a lot while I was away. They were well branched and heavy with fruits and in need to tying and stalking. 

 The Green Zebra are almost ready to be picked.

Green Zebra tomatoes with cherry tomatoes in background.

A Red Zebra Tomato? Or a result of cross breeding as I only remember planting Green Zebra last year.

I am trying to remember the tomato I planted last year so I can I.D. this tomato.

Luscious sweet cherry tomatoes. I could not stop popping them into my mouth and snacking on them. It was amazing how many bunches of these tasty morsels there were.

It does look the spring clean up I did earlier this year did help cut down on the number of tomato horn caterpillars. I had remove the dead and old tomato plants, remove all dead leaves and rake and turn over the soil in the planter. That appears to have  also distributed the tomato seeds that sprouted into this year's crop of tomato plants.