Country Lore: Readers’ tips to live by

Image Gallery Dogs can be trained to eat tomato hornworms. BEVERLY BLACK

June/July 2006

Our Dogs Hunt Tomato Hornworms
Trellis Creates Garden Space
Chickens Feast on Japanese Beetles
Bees Increase Fruit Yield
Delicious Hot Peppers
Easy Tomato Watering

Our Dogs Hunt Tomato Hornworms

One day last July, my sister was looking closely at our tomato plants and noticed a great deal of damage due to the large, green larvae of the tomato hornworm moth, which lays its eggs during the wee hours of the night. My sister started searching for the hornworms and picked off at least 15.

Our dogs, Heidi, a yellow lab, and Zorro, a German shepherd, became very interested in what my sister was doing, so she offered a worm to each dog. Heidi and Zorro are always hungry, so why not? As unappetizing as it sounds, the dogs gobbled them up. The scent of the hornworms was with them, so the dogs began nosing around in the plants to find the tasty morsels.

Since then, we have seen the dogs in the tomato patch searching for hornworms on their own initiative. They grab the larvae right off the plants and eat them!

Any time we are in the garden, Heidi and Zorro accompany us and locate hornworms much faster than we can. Who would have guessed? This “organic” form of pest control is one that anyone with a dog can try!

Beverly Black
Auburn, Indiana

Trellis Creates Garden Space

I recently began my own small backyard market garden. Pressed for space, I needed a way to gain more area to produce the vegetables I plan to sell at local farmer’s markets.

I began using a trellis system, which is great for many kinds of vegetables. Pole beans, of course, work on a trellis, but have you tried cucumbers? On a trellis, cucumbers grow long and straight and leave a lot more ground for other plantings. A strong trellis also can be used for some small melon varieties. The melons will maintain their naturally round shape, and keeping them off the ground discourages rot and keeps some critters at bay. Heavy tomato vines also can be trained to grow along a trellis.