Pollen Gets in Your Eyes

I had a great time this morning helping beekeeper Stephanie give hive tours at UBC Farm. Here's photographic evidence of how pollen (from a zucchini blossom) sticks to the hairs on a honeybee, even the hairs in her large compound eyes on either side of her head. Sometimes a bee will land on you to take a rest and groom the pollen out of her eyes. It's a great opportunity to get up close and personal with a honeybee without feeling threatened. Face it, she's just not that into you. Bees are into gymnosperms. BTW, did you notice the tiny hairs on the edges of the blossom?

How Big is Your Zucchini?

It's been a pleasure to help look after the school garden this summer. Yesterday I decided it would be fun to measure the zucchinis so the students could keep track of the rate of growth. This one's about twenty one centimeters and the smaller one is thirteen. Wanna lay any bets for how long they'll be in ten days? I guess I should have measure the circumference as well.


One of our sunflowers fell over so I had to cut it up to put it in the compost. I had to bring out the big tools!




We've still got amaranth volunteering from last year. They seem to germinate every week.

The lemon cucumber plant is incredibly prolific.

The tomatoes are going to ripen soon and the basil is ready to be harvested and made into pesto.

These tomatoes are definitely indeterminant and I have begun topping them to contain the growth and trimming branches to give the plants some room and circulation.

We've got a bitter melon plant in here but it was slow to bloom and I haven't seen any fruit.

Here's what these "White Rabbit" tomatoes look like as they ripen. Just in time for school!