An ambitious expansion

Okay so this year's garden grew from 4 to 6 to 10 of those 4x4 boxes as the spring planting inspired us. This is on top of a 2 wide foot wrap around the deck that is to the right of this picture. In addition we had two long bean rows out to the left of the square boxes just in the ground. As you see there are now three long boxes....4x12 basically. And you may not see them in the right background, but there are two more 4x4's. That brings us to 12 of the squares. With the wrap around bed it all comes to about 396 square feet. That is really only 20 x 20, but remember we are not doing traditional row gardening with huge walkways between rows of vegetables. To put that in perspective if I planted it all in green beans I would harvest 222lbs (using last year's results). At upwards of 4 dollars a pound at the farmers' market, that would be $888 in produce.

Part of this expansion is because I went bought that extra scoop of compost. With that much, we don't even have to worry about mixing the horrible clay crap in with the good stuff, but we did a bit anyways. Actually the long box to the left there we just put the compost straight on top of the grass. All the boxes are set 2-3 inches into the ground, but with no weed barrier. The other 4 new boxes received the tender loving care of me hacking out clumps of sod, shaking, and removing as much roots and rocks as I could. I guess this will be a bit of an experiment to see how many more dandelions come up through the first long bed.

I should have taken pictures of the dandelions I pulled. The tops were small and puny, but they had roots up to 9 or 10 inches long and some of them I wasn't even getting the whole thing. I always knew dandelions were survivors, but I assume they really dig deep to get through the cherty clay that was used to level the lot 25 years ago.

I don't know how Kyle is going to manage to garden that much garden. He likes the idea of doing a little bit of everything in the garden. That makes for a lot of work with things needing started at different times, different sun and water requirements, confusing crop rotations, and different harvests. I prefer to do fewer items that I like to eat more of or that I had a good harvest of last year. I would love to have extra to give to friends and family.

We have basically done square foot method or variations of it. Kyle suggests he will run long rows in those long boxes, but not give them space between. I am not sure what I think of that. I say if you have a large group you want to plant, do it in a 4x4 block.

Garden Journal #13

First the vegetable update, but then the really exciting news.

Parsnips. Like carrots but white and a stronger flavor. They were gnarly. Could have left them in, but needed to make way for......

THE COMPOST!!! A water bill, a borrowed truck (my dad's), and $20 plus tax bought me 2 cubic yards of the finest compost the City of Fayetteville provides it's citizens. And not knowing that each household is only allowed one scoop, I went back for a second. To give you a sense of how much 2 cubic yards is, my father's Ford F-250 was overflowing with the single scoop. Big thanks to Fillan for helping unload the first scoop and Gayathiri for helping unload the second. If Gayathiri's father knew that she came to the United States only to end up shoveling compost for a gay man I am sure he would reconsider his investment.

Don't you just love the way it crumbles?

Using the crappiest plastic wheelbarrow known to man, much of it ended up in the backyard in the many raised beds. Gentle turning in...not too deep...still leaves a good 8 inches of good soil work with in the spring. After some rain and some settling I filled them even further.

One little problem....some glass pieces in several of the boxes. Oh well..the compost is made from yard waste from citizens and I am sure random bottles end up in their curbside bags. I am still grateful to the City and her citizens who don't compost their crap in their own yard.

What Arkansas voters think about us

No, there wasn’t another chance for our opponents to put our civil rights up for a vote this year in Arkansas. In 2004 government-by-mob resulted in cementing marriage discrimination into the Arkansas Constitution by a vote of 75% to 25%. 2008 saw Arkansas voters vote 57% to 43% to deny parent-less children loving homes and families with Act 1, the foster and adoption ban on unmarried couples. 2010 was free and clear of efforts to put LGBTQ people and their families on the sacrificial altar that is all too often benignly called “politics.”

Where do we stand with voters right now? In an election year dominated by topics like jobs, the economy, and spending we didn’t hear too much about “the gays,” but the yearly Arkansas Poll from the University of Arkansas keeps asking voters and the results are in. The NWA Times reported yesterday in their editorial about the Arkansas Poll and the data was important enough for them to include a mention of marriage equality.

We also note the drop in the percentage of respondents who believe there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple.
The percentage of those polled who think gays should be allowed to marry is still below 20 percent. The number who would allow gay domestic partnerships is also steady at 27 percent, a number consistent with recent years’ findings. However, the number of people who think there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple is below a clear majority at 48 percent. This compares to 54 percent in most recent years.

Let’s work with the relationship recognition numbers first, but please be sure to read all the way down for the numbers on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. They will surprise you! The numbers for relationship recognition support in Arkansas for the past few years:

So for the first time there is NOT a MAJORITY of Arkansans who want to make same sex couples legal strangers. Though full marriage equality is only supported by 19% of Arkansans, the additional 27% of Arkansans that support civil unions or domestic partnerships bring the total percentage of Arkansas voters who support recognizing same sex relationships to 46%. It’s not the magic fifty percent and I wouldn’t take it to the bank (or the ballot box) but it’s worth noting that support for relationship recognition rose 6 points from 2009. Sound odd for Arkansas? Should we just blame it on the economy?

To put this in perspective, both Equality California and Equality Maine have stated that they will not be returning to the ballot box until they see consistent polling for full marriage equality above 50%. Both states briefly had marriage equality and both states lost it at the ballot box, with just under 48% voting NO to repeal. Our number for marriage equality is 19%. We aren’t there. We won’t be there for a long time. But nearly half of Arkansas voters think there should be some kind of legal protections. Keep your chin up.

Now what about the actual pressing legislative issue dealing with the LGBTQ community, DADT? It was polled for, but why did the NWA Times not report the numbers? Perhaps because it’s not newsworthy? 56% of Arkansas voters approve of “homosexual men and women” serving openly in the military. Read it for yourself:

Something to keep in mind: how you ask the question matters. A CBS Poll this spring showed that the number approving increases if those “homosexuals” are referred to as “gay men and lesbians.” The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was held up before the election but the word is that it will be voted on again in a lame-duck session of Congress after the Pentagon reports December 1st on how it will affect the military.