Sunday, August 29, 2010

Two New Things


There are two firsts in the garden right now. The first was the tomato hornworm caterpillar. It completely ate one tomato, moved on to a second but ha-ha-ha-ha-ha the garden wasps had laid eggs on it! I left it to die slowly, being eaten alive from the inside out, checking daily on the progress of the parasitic wasp larvae. They did their job masterfully and all hatched within days. The caterpillar carcass remains as a warning to all. Medieval, right?


Number two in the new category are the butternut squashes. They are almost ready and wow are they beautiful. They've taken over one whole corner of the yard vining beyond the garden. Scott has respectfully left them alone not moving them to mow the grass which is going to be hell to cut. Behold.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Cornell Plantations


I guess I was in shock because I did not take a single picture of the tomatoes growing at Cornell Plantations. Really, there were at least twenty varieties of tomatoes all loaded with fruit. Brandeywine, Black Krim, and great big Jersey Giants were thriving and the Swiss Chard was huge! There were beets and turnips, and lettuce and beans, and peas and cabbages, and carrots, and all of it was coming off at once and there was no one there to stop me from picking things, but I didn't, which seemed stupid and so civilized. Maybe it was the sun and the heat. It wasn't a complete wash, I did have the presence of mind to take pictures while in the flower gardens.
Here's the deal with America's world class universities. They have it all. Museums, gardens, beautiful buildings and landscaping, librarians who are happy to help, and it's all free or nearly free. This was the summer of colleges: Duke, Emory and Cornell. Below are photos from Nasher Museum at Duke and Johnson Art Museum at Cornell.