Adventures in Gross Gardening

Thursdays are the only day I don't have classes at either school, so even though I still have to go to the construction sites and run errands and the like, they feel like my day off. They are actually even better than the weekends, somehow.

Today I was gearing up to Go Clean!! At K's house, and while I was loading the car I saw my tomato bush. It looked decidedly smaller. What...?

Upon closer inspection, a lot of the branches looked broken, but I couldn't find the missing twigs on the ground.

Meet the Grossness:

Whyyyyy! These things were like 3-4 inches long, so, so gross! Further inspection (and the fact that these were on my tomato plant) got me the culprits' name. Tabacco hornwood caterpillars, from the Catalina Sphinx moth. Nnnghhh. These things ate half the plant overnight, they seriously creeped me out with their tiny yellow eyes camouflage. I picked about 10, but the tomato plant is so unruly (and, I admit, ugly and chaotic, turns out a newborn made gardening a bit more difficult!) that I don't know how many are left.

But! Aren't these cute? Tomatoes! Next spring baby Peanut and I will be ALL ABOUT THE GARDEN.