Tomatoes

I am very happy to see little tomatoes on many of my plants.  I grew all of my tomatoes from seed (except for three plants from a friend, who also grew them from seed).  The one above is a new variety, Black Beauty.

The old lemon balm patch is now home to several tomatoes, and they seem to really like it.  These plants are thriving in the sunnier location.  I do still have to pull out some poison ivy from time to time, but otherwise, this bed is doing great.  You can also see the potatoes in the bags to the right.  There are some understory plants in with the tomatoes, mainly some greens, and there is a big borage plant to the left (off camera).

One thing that does concern me about the garden is the lack of bees.  Normally, my yard is swarming with honey bees, bumble bees, and the dreaded yellow jackets.  I have not seen hardly any, despite the fact that I have large swathes of clover in bloom as well as many other flowers and flowering plants.  This is not a good sign, and has never happened while we have lived here.

I am glad that Malachi and his best friend are not too old to play.  They were having quite the battle yesterday.  Meanwhile, the younger kids had many adventures, including digging for worms, fishing, chickens, and of course, the trampoline: