Garden Helpers

This morning I was weeding the cantaloupe plants before they spread so that it is impossible to get around without crushing the plants. I know that they are trainable to a neat trellis, but I think they produce more if they get to run amuck. Plus, I like the chaos of never knowing where you might find the next melon.

Anyway, I heard tons of buzzing and there was a bee in almost every single bloom. I yelled for one of the children to get the camera. While I was waiting I noticed something that I had never noticed before. An individual bee does not enter the same flower twice. They move methodically from one flower to the next. If they come back to a flower I guess they can smell themselves because they don't enter - only hover above. Other insects or a different bee might come later, but the same individual does not re-enter. Cool. Think how many weeds I could have pulled while I was watching the bees.

Look what else I found - baby cantaloupe! My bees are obviously doing their job. So much is going on in the garden right now that I can barely keep up. I harvested more tomatoes. Weeded. Picked some yellow wax beans. Weeded. Watered. Weeded. Watered.

I need to stay out there all day, but the heat and humidity make gardening a morning venture.