Dirt Watch - Attack! Edition

During last week's lunches, I packed a few snap peas picked from my garden. Yum.

Then one evening I went out to water and discovered that the garden was under attack by vicious things. One thing was certain, they loved broccoli, to the tune of completely deforesting one plant, damn near the entirety of a second, and were well on their way to devouring a third. I referred to them as "Broccoli Worms", for lack of any better name, but later found out they're called Cabbage Worms*. Go figure.



Normally, I'd be upset at the carnage, but the broccoli was doing nothing this year. Two of the plants pretty much bolted and went to seed almost immediately and the third was only just beginning to develop the edible head - way late and probably too bitter to eat. So I figured I'd live and let live.

Then this happened.



You can tell how quickly it happened by the blur, he was moving so quickly the camera could barely catch it!

That's right, the little peckerhead attacked me! He went from slow munch-machine on auto-pilot to bloodthirsty and life threatening in the wink of an hourglass.

I pulled the broccoli plants, death spawn and all, and tossed them into the compost heap.

And here's the rest of the garden beds.



In the two bottom left squares you can see the damage those worms did. Those stalky green things are the main stems of all the leaves they ate - overnight! Yowza!

Right above them are parsley and basil, then eight bush bean plants. Those bean seedlings are like two weeks old. I'm not a green bean fan, but the rest of the family loves them, so they're worth planting (have I said that before? Deja vu.) At the top are two green pepper plants. On the right, next to the broc-stalks are two Roma tomato plants. They're doing well and just starting to climb the netting. North of them are my snow peas. This hasn't been a good year for peas, and I'm not sure why. On the other side of the tomatos and peas are some spinach and lettuce, neither of which are doing so hot. I have theories to test.



In the top right sqare of this one are some lettuce, not doing great but getting there. To the left of them are two thriving cucumber plants, next to them are two squares of Swiss Chard I re-planted after the first did nothing. Bad seeds? Bugs? Dunno. Top left are two squares of carrots that are doing well. At the bottom are two squares of radishes that are doing good, and then finally snap peas. They look raggedy but have been producing ok.

Not pictured are two large pots with a cherry tomato plant and a beefsteak tomato. They're doing great, but they're getting more sun where they are.

So now you're caught up on... Dirt Watch, 2011!

* I originally called them Anthonys, because they're camoflaged, vaguely penis-shaped, and no one can identify them with any certitude. Topical! Git yer hot Topical right here!