Where it’s at: July 22

I had some unexpected time to spend in the garden today, which meant I got all the weeding done I’d been meaning to do, and noticed some new developments. But before we get to that, let’s start with the weekly photos. Here’s the standard view:

Things don’t seem to be getting substantially taller at this point, but the zucchini plant continues to become more and more jungly, and the cucumber is holding its own.Here’s where things stand from the side:

And here’s the container garden:

The container garden continues to amaze me. Every day, there are more grape tomatoes to pick off the plants, and I find myself eating them, more often than not, out of hand, after a quick rinse in the kitchen sink. I’m probably about a step from just rinsing them off with the hose when I water and eating them then.

Today, when I got close enough to pick random grassy weeds out of the pots, I noticed something exciting: a small bee flitting from flower to flower. There was another one, too, a shiny green bee like nothing I’ve ever seen before, but my pictures didn’t come out as I’d hoped. It was moving so fast that the camera focused somewhere behind it. Even as it ducked in and out of the few cherry tomato blossoms on the plant, its wings beat so fast its entire body shook.

Even I know that pollination is a good sign. First, it means the container garden may be roaring back, post-transplant. But also, it gives me hope that maybe the batch of tomatoes already on the plant might not be it for the year. Maybe we’ll get some continued harvest as August arrives.

I’ve been worried, in particular, that although the Big Beef Siamese twins seem to be holding their own, that I might not see any additional fruit off them. But, there was other exciting news from there. A few brand new suckers, moist and fresh, were growing at the junctures of some of the branches. I picked them off, particularly pleased to see this pair of plants showing signs of life.