Chicken coop built from salvaged materials. Rhode Island Reds will be very happy!
And they lived happily ever after….
Mother Earth News, can’t live without it! Catch this months articles on canning, lessons from the vegetable garden, and supporting local farmers. Mother Earth News has changed my life, where else can you read about a wood powered truck!!
So it’s been exactly a month since we seeded the garden and LOOK at everything!! It is all doing really well. It has been really tough managing the garden on my own since Nic went away to his summer farm job (you can sometimes catch me weeding fresh off the train from work in my loafers!), but I had some volunteers! After giving my upstairs neighbors a big bag of salad greens and radishes they came out on Sunday to help me weed and oh man am I ever thankful! It was quite the work and I really needed the help-those morning glories are no joke and now it seems grasses are trying to invade. Thank you neighbors!!! I had so many ovation greens and radishes to harvest I ran out of people to give them to. I’m going to have to start bring them to work! ha! Wouldn’t the hedge fund world love that….
I can not thank Marinos enough for lending us the land and letting us plant back there. He gave us a chance not even knowing our skills. I think that’s something you don’t see anymore and maybe even something Jane Jacobs would have been happy to hear. I have to say that of all the many things I do every single day, I am happiest right in that little back yard weeding away with just the sounds of the birds singing to keep me company.
This little garden is just a building away from our apartment. Our windows overlook it. For the two years we’ve lived here, we’ve seen it become overgrown with weeds just sitting there wanting to be planted with something. So, one day on my way home from work I approached the super and told him Nic and I would be happy to take over, clean up and plant some veggies back there. He took down my number and I heard from him about a month ago. Nic and I were super excited! The super helped with clearing and tilling the yard. Nic and I did the rest with the help of our good friend, Thomas. Tom helped prune an overgrown tree next door so we’d get more sunlight and helped with transplanting and seeding. We dug 3 foot beds, 8 of them. In them we planted tomato starts, eggplant starts, cucumbers, mustard greens, ovation greens, squash, carrots, dill, sage, parsley, and mint. The mustard greens and cucumbers are going wild. Currently we’re working on a rain water collection barrel. We’ve also been checking everyday for aphids-we don’t want them to devour our hard work! We are so very excited about this project! We hope to bring in chickens in August after our wedding-oh did I mention WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!!! YAY!!!! SO much good news to share.
The time line for this project: we started a week before Memorial Day and were planting that weekend. We go over everyday (when it hasn’t poured) and water by hand. We also weed everyday. SInce it’s such a small space, we get things done fairly quickly.
Who knows, maybe we’ll be invited to take over another backyard!
This summer, Nic will be working at Hawthorne Valley farm in the Hudson Valley area of New York while I’ll be interning on a rooftop farm on the weekends right here in New York City just blocks away from my apartment. I’m super excited!!!
Rael Clarke, the 24-year-old owner of LOFT LIC, transformed a Long Island City office into a laboratory where organic vegetables and fish are grown using an eco-friendly aquaponics system.
Why is a Monsanto lobbyist serving as the FDA's Food Safety Czar?
Why is the person appointed by President Obama to oversee protection of our food a former lobbyist for Monsanto?
Food Safety Czar Michael Taylor is the second highest ranking official at the FDA and is responsible for implementing the day-to-day policies that govern the food safety laws for the U.S.
Under Taylor, factory farm operators are getting away with serious food safety violations, while raw milk dairy farmers and distributors across the country have been subjected to armed raids and hauled away in handcuffs.
Rather than allowing consumer to know what we are eating, FDA has approved new GMO crops and prevented labeling of GMO foods.
This is no way to keep our food safe.
Please ask President Obama to fire FDA Food Safety Czar and former Monsanto lobbyist Michael Taylor. Click here to sign the petition.
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/fire_michael_taylor/?r_by=-5139020-rqpnV8x&rc=paste1
