Today I found 7 tobacco hornworms on my six tomato plants, and three very small black worms. So that's a total of 10 tobacco hornworms and 3 unidentified things. I had 3 tomatoes that were eaten before they turned red. I pretty much give up on the tomato plants. I'll try again next year.
I have 2 watermelons and what looks like a very small cucumber. I'll put up pictures of those in the next week or so.

Tobacco Hornworm

I did not take this photo. I am currently without a camera. I did, however, get it from a very helpful site: http://doorgarden.com/07/tobacco-horn-worm

Since I am without a camera, I am just going to talk about these guys. I have one now in a cigar box with some of the less healthy leaves from my tomato plant. I found TWO of these guys tonight. I yelled and screamed at them, but they pretty much ignored me. One I put in the road and later visit. I think these guys are weird. Here are the reasons why:

1. Apparently, there are parasitic wasps that like to make tobacco hornworms the place to lay their eggs.

2. Their poop looks ridiculous. (check the website for photo) I didn't even know they did that!

3. They have to burrow into the ground in order to become a moth. Which brings me to my last point:

4. The moth they become is often mistaken for a humming bird. 

Cotton

Say "hello" to the only surviving cotton plant of the three that I planted this year. I had intended to make something from the cotton produced from the plants, but I'm not sure how much one little guy can give me. We'll just have to see, right? Of the three seeds planted, this guy was in the middle. One seed didn't grow and the other grew very fast. I thought maybe it would be ok to plant the cotton plants in the garden with the rest of the plants, but the very next day I went to water and the large cotton plant had been murdered. There is a photo of all that was left of the poor guy. So, I took this cotton inside. He sits next to the window in my room. I think he's doing fine. 

Tomato Eater

So, I have this little friend. He is about the size of one of my fingers, and he ate a good chunk of the buds off of my tomato plants. My husband tried to kill him, but I got really upset and we settled on putting him in out neighbors yard. He was cute, but way too destructive to let him stay in the garden. On the bright side: I have baby three tomatoes!

Cigar Box Garden

I've become a hoarder of cigar boxes. But recently the thought occurred to me that they are just taking of valuable space. So, I came up with this idea. So far only one type of box seems to work well for herb growing. I think next I'll try my hand at cigar box guitars!

Spearmint

My mom bought this guy for me from a Publix in Birmingham, AL about a year ago. Over the winter I thought a killed it. Now, it is doing better than ever, but I think it's a little too much for the pot. I just really don't want to put it in the ground when I know I'll have to move in a few years. This plant smells amazing. And leaves are great with tea. 

Aloe

This guy isn't really in my garden, but it's still a plant. And a good one at that. I've uprooted this thing at least twice. It's been sunburnt, and neglected. My sister said that it is growing strange because it needs more light, but it had more light and didn't particularly like that. 

Tomato

This will be the first of 3 posts about my tomato plants. I have 6. There are two of each variety: Black Krim, Big Rainbow, and Mortgage Lifter. I'm not sure any more what pair is what. I think I prefer to wait and see. 

A surprise plant!

A few weeks ago I was surprised to find this little guy taking up space with my tiny stevia plant. (Unfortunately, my little herb did not survive. I think I might invest in a grown version instead of trying from seed. You don't really get very many seeds to begin with either.) If you look hard in this picture you can see the stevia. Anyway, I am assuming this guy is either a cucumber plant or a watermelon plant. I had originally planted 5 of each and only had 2 of each survive to be planted in the big garden. I reused the soil left over from the plants that did not make it because I assumed the seeds were bad, but apparently this just happened to be the right setting for this guy. 

I'm not good at telling what a plant is from the way it's leaves look. So, this will just be a surprise! 

Strawberries

I have had this plant for over a year now. It was started from the root in a bag thing. It produced fruit last year, but I never ate any of the strawberries. I didn't want to eat the plant's babies. This year I decided that because it has had so much fruit, I should at least see how they taste. They are tiny, but wonderful. 

Avocado

My grandmother threw 3 avocado seed things into her compost and they all rooted. She put them into pots and gave them to me because I was unsuccessful at rooting some in water. It's possible, my sister did it, but It has never worked for me. Anyway, Of those three I managed to keep one alive. It's not much taller than last year. It had a bit of drama over christmas... leaving it with only a few sections of leaves. I didn't take any photos of that.