A Busy Little Bee

For the past several years we've undertaken to grow tomatoes. Each year, we get fewer, despite moving the garden from place to place, changing varieties, and feeding them routinely. We just never seemed to get many tomatoes. It's because there are fewer bees in the neighborhood to pollinate. Fast forward to this year. We now own an Aerogarden indoor hydroponics system. We started four tomato plants. Of course, there are no bees in the house ... that's be design. Aerogarden says we have to pollinate them ourselves. Now, they have a fancy little device they sell (of course) called Be The Bee that is designed to vibrate each blossom stem and shake loose the pollen. Well, it just so happens that Linda has a cheap Dollar Tree electric toothbrush that does the same thing. When blossoms first appeared, I would vibrate the stems for a few moments. Low and behold, within two days we had mini-matoes on those stems. LIGHT BULB MOMENT!! Why not buzz the blossoms outside. We had lots of blossoms on our plants, so I spent time each day 'buzzing blossoms'. For the first time since 1985 in Mechanicsburg, PA, we are drowning in tomatoes. Fortunately, most are cherry or grape sized. The lesson here for those with tomato plants? Buzz your blossoms and hope that bees come back real soon. Now I have to go find more recipes for tomatoes. See Ya.