Veggies For EcologySaving the World One Backyard Garden at a Time!

In order to save our lawn and garden I had to build a new chicken pen to attach to the chicken coop I built last year. We let our hens run free all Fall and Winter and they practically destroyed the backyard. Once the plants and grass are grown back in this summer we will let them out again. I looked at alot of chicken pens online and decided this was the best design for our hens. We added one a feature to it that I am sure no other chicken pen has. We added a compost screener to the top.


I will create a video shortly to show you how this works but for now I will just explain it. The top of the chicken pen is half inch hardclothe so we built a separate frame around that hardclothe that creates the top of the pen and we can remove to shift our compost.

This past weekend our family picked up 20,000 honey bees in Manhattan and brought them back to our home in Queens to install in two bee hives that Ruth and the kids (and friends) have been getting ready for weeks. The final process of hiving the bees was done by Ruth and you can see it here below. We are all looking forward to the adventures in beekeeping that await us and the honey that will come soon.

Click Here To Watch The Video of The Bee Hiving

Click Here To Watch The Video of The Bee Hiving

Tomato Blight is a spore that infects tomato plants without warning. It is blown by the winds from the southern United States and can travel up to 30 miles per day. Last year 2009 was a very bad year for northeast tomato growers. Most tomatoe plants purchased from the stores and nursery’s were infected and even if you planted your own seeds they became infected from the traveling spores.

Commonly known as late blight this spore was the same as the one that infected the potatoes during the Irish Potato Famine.

The best protection from the tomato blight is prevention. Here are three simple rules to follow that will help.

1. Do not rush to plant your tomatoes early in the season. Wait until the nights are consistently above 50 degrees Faranheit.
2. Plant your tomatoes in a raised bed instead of flat ground allowing for better soil drainage.
3. Use compost as a soil base and nutrient for your tomatoes.

The last of these rules is probably the most important. The fall leaves from your trees possess all the nutrients that your tomatoes need to be healthy and ward off diseases like tomato blight. My wife and I followed these rules in 2009 and had a great tomato crop in 2009. We always compost our fruit and vegetable scraps with our fall leaves and grass clips. It makes a nutrient rich soil that our plants love.