Never saw a hornworm in 26 years growing tomatoes, that is until year 27. Didn't even know what one looked like and had never heard of them before either. Year 27 was last year and anyone who wonders how quickly they can destroy a tomato plant, trust me, it doesn't take very long. This was a tiny tim on Monday. 14 inches tall. It rained all day Tuesday, so was not outside to check anything or even see anything that was going on. Same tiny tim 9AM Wednesday morning. There was nothing but a few stems left and a couple of tomatoes. Luckily though, there was enough left in the season, half of August and all of Sept. for regrowth and toms before the frost set in. regrowing tiny tim This was on the other side of the yard, so none of the other tomato plants where affected, but trust me, i was going through those plants with a flashlight several times a day looking for any sign of them and found none. By the way, those hornworms measured 4 inches long and there where 2 of them on that poor little plant. So far this year no sign of them. A question though. My grandparents had a summer veggie and flower farm and my grandfather always swore by companion planting of marigolds and tomato plants. He always had marigolds surrounding his tom plants. and he had at least 150 tomato plants. I've always done the same thing when I plant them in the ground and when I use pots for the toms, I always plant a small growing marigold in the pot, right at the edge of the plant. I've never had an insect problem before in now 28 years of growing my toms, until last year. That one tiny tim didn't have a marigold in the pot with it, all the others had marigolds surrounding them and in pots with them and they never got any hornworms. Does anyone think that the marigolds help to keep the hornworm away or was last year just a coincidence and I've just been lucky all these years? Fran

So, here's a related question: Has anybody ever had an issue with a mouse or similar rodent killing their just planted seedlings? This spring, I planted my seedlings and within or day or two they started to get cut off at the stem. Since this has NEVER happened to me, and I had cutworm protection on the stems (the seedlings were getting cut off right above the standard 2-3 inch wrapping) so I assumed it was a rabbit. Just to be sure, I later replaced the wrappings with 4 inch lengths of vinyl tubing, which just moved the knawing-off problem higher on the stem. If it had been a groundhog, I would have noticed a large hole in the garden fence, not to mention, groundhogs generally don't eat one or two at a time. So, I wrapped up the cages (I have them in Concrete Wire cages) with a 1 inch plastic rabbit fence two feet up each cage. I kept loosing seedlings. So now I was completely baffled but thought perhaps this small rabbit was able to squeeze under my cages because there was an inch or two of straw mulch that perhaps created a way for them to get in. I sprayed the plants with the absolutely disgusting rabbit/deer spray. The very next morning, two more seedlings were gone, although one was just laying next to where it was cut off. I reapplied, hoping that maybe the animal finally got the idea that the plants were distasteful. The next morning, two more gone, but this time I found something strange. I found that the seedling had been cut off and dragged halfway under the straw mulch next to where it had been cut off. So, whatever it was that was killing my seedlings was actually coming up from under the mulch. When I posted this story earlier this year in the pest forum, it was suggested that it is probably a mouse. Has anybody else ever experienced something like this, and if so, how on earth should I sheild my plants from this problem next year? My dad suggested cutting off soda cans and sticking them into the ground around the seedlings. I think that might work, but I also think the mouse could just go right over it. Then again, the freak mouse that did it this year will almost certainly be dead by this time next year. They just don't live that long.

We are building now, but when we were remodeling our current home we had no kitchen for 6 months. Remodeling was a must as we had just remodeled and just finished our wood floors , we were at home improvement store getting floor grates when ds called shrieking saying the washer pipe had burst and it was flooding everything. Rushed home, everything downstairs wet with massive amounts of water. I was heartsick and devastated. We had been remodeling for about 4 months. Ok, you think thats bad, I was going to hosp. in 2 days to have 11th child by c-section. I was distraught. Insurance adjusters came next day, with large indutsrial fans in tow, and started ripping everything out, floor, carpet, new wainscot, baseboard, appliances etc. Everyone had to live upstairs, which was 2 bathrooms, master bedroom, small family area. Kitchen, the only usable downstairs room, was torn apart, our frig was on back patio. No stove, no nothing except sink and counters. Thats how I came home with new baby. I was just a little hormonal. I cooked in that kitchen for 6 months, May-Dec. Prepared just about anything you could think of with the counter top appliances. Made Thanksgiving dinner with a large roaster (did you know you can make wonderful pies in those things), crockpot, micro, electric skillet and 2 burner portable cook type thing. I definitely couldn't feed my children fast food for that long & really had to maintain some sort of normalcy for them. Am not saying I would do it again, but boy I still appreciate my new kitchen and its been 3 years.

Iceberg or romaine lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, peas, broccoli, carrots, beans, sometimes turkey or chicken, and ocassionally cheese or walnuts are some of the things I add. Top it off with low-fat or no-fat dressing. Had a big salad with dinner tonight with lots of the above stuff in it and low-fat Sweet and Sour Poppyseed dressing. Yum....