Bye bye blossom end rot!!

Besides the yellowing and dying, I was having a moderate problem with blossom end rot. This year I put a 1/2 handful of the below bone meal into the planting hole with the tomato plant and no problems this year with it! A 1/2 handful for me is around 1/4 cup. I think the bag said to use less..

Tomatoes!

All of my tomatoes the past 2 years have had bad problems. They grow beautiful tomatoes. Then when the fruit start to turn red, the leaves turn yellow, the branches die, and the tomatos die, unripened.. I've been unable to figure out the problem. However I've found two tomato varieties that "push through the pain" and continue to produce. I highly recommend them.

Super sweet 100 cherry tomato. It should be called the 10,000 tomato. I got around 100/weekend. These are 6 cup bowls.

San Marzano. It's a paste tomato. Where all of my other large tomatoes died this one died partially then came back with a vengeance. 

Giving me enough tomatoes to can several jars of pasta sauce:

Borrowing Chickens

I haven't posted because quite frankly the garden hasn't been doing well, and I don't have time. I've been adding compost from purchased bags, growing fall cover crops and tilling them in, but I can't seem to stop the decline. I think it's due to soil depletion and lack of crop rotation. Either things become diseased, are decimated by bugs, or both.

This year I borrowed 2 chickens from my friends to help with fall cleanup. I wasn't sure if I was ready for ownership so what better way to find out, right? I'm finding they're cute, sweet, love mixing my home made compost into the raised beds for me, and FRESH EGGS!! We may have to get a couple.

Turning compost into the soil

Eggs!

Begging for treats!