PICTURES: Walker Park Community Garden

Today was a great day to get outside and help out with the Walker Park Community Garden. This Fayetteville Community Garden Coalition's brand new garden at the Fayetteville Senior Activity and Wellness Center on South College Ave.

I went today mainly to get some exercise, but also just to give them some much needed help with the labor. I remember how long it took Kyle and I to transport our compost...no one should have to do it alone. Our backyard is plenty big enough for us, so I didn't sign up for a plot. I did want to help though, because this is a perfect example of public-private partnership between the city and a non-profit. Many hands make light work!

Beginning: Due to poor soil, the garden will be in raised beds on top of this cardboard.

The crowd (free labor)

Mayor Jordan talking and turning the first shovel

Lots of high school students helped. Lot's of girl power. They could be a road construction crew, easily!

First layer was "top soil"...NWA top soil, meaning it was hardly better than the clay we were avoiding, but it helps to raise the beds.

Second layer was compost from the City of Fayetteville.

For walkways between the permanent beds, mulch from the City.

Strings outlined the beds. Cardboard, top soil, compost.

Shovels dug, wheel barrows transported, and rakes spread.

Mulched walkways finished off the project.

Though there was a lot of organizing work that went into the project ahead of time, two and a half hours was all it took to make this garden. 4 beds, 4' x 40'. Not sure how big the plots are, but if you want one you better jump on it!

(yes, I know my finger was in some of the pictures. I was trying to hold my shovel, plus my gloves, and sometimes my coffee....yes, I did more watching than work probably. I dug in whenever a spot wasn't occupied, but gave the high schoolers plenty of access to the task at hand.)

Is this healthy for my soil?

Remember the beautiful compost I was so excited about? I commented that I found a few pieces of glass in it, but that I was still happy with it. All it took was a few rains for the truth to come out...our UP rather.

So we spread about 4 cubic yards of this stuff in 400 square feet of raised beds. This much glass has come up so far...and I imagine there is a lot more of it in the soil. The rain will settle it but how much of the soil's rising crap does this represent? Just the first inch or so, right? We put 5-7 inches in most of the boxes. Is there really five or six times as much glass still left in our soil?

I am a little disappointed in the quality of the compost from the City of Fayetteville. I guess we will continue to pull glass piece by piece for years to come. There goes running my hands through soil....without gloves at least.

Benton County OK's HIV Clinic

(cross posted at NWA Center for Equality blog)

Washington County is losing their HIV Clinic…and gaining the Northwest Arkansas Regional HIV Clinic! This is long in the making, but now it is official. The NWA Times reports that the Benton County Quorum Court (it’s like city council but for the entire county) voted yesterday to form an intergovernmental agreement with Washington County and form a board of directors that will govern the newly named clinic.

The Fayetteville clinic has existed for years and has been funded by both counties and Washington Regional Medical Center, though the funding has not been equal to the share of cases. This agreement should lead to greater accountability (with the appointed board) and greater cooperation on a problem that crosses county lines.

A few questions though: Who will populate this new board? HIV/AIDS is still a health concern that disproportionately affects segments of the LGBTQ population. Should we insist that the board has some kind of representation from communities that struggle with this problem?In NWA, target communities for prevention might be Latino/as, especially women, and gay men, but care may be a bit different. Should at least one person on that board be HIV-positive, in order to have personal insight into HIV care experience?

According to an article last summer, the Clinic has 625 patients. Why is thorough treatment important to the larger community? As I reported last World AIDS Day, “treatment on anti-retroviral drugs reduces the total average viral load in a community…lower viral load in community lowers the transmission rate.” So good treatment means a healthier community..and less HIV.

Washington County HIV Clinic 3270 North Wimberly Drive Fayetteville, AR 72703 (501) 973-8450.

Here’s a rough look at the numbers provide in the article.

(Washington County HIV Clinic does treat one or two patients from Madison County)

Northwest Arkansas HIV Clinic
Washington County provides 38 percent of the clinic’s money, Washington Regional Medical Center provides 36 percent and Benton County provides 16 percent. The rest of the clinic’s money is from other sources, such as insurance reimbursements and donations. Benton County’s share in 2010 was $34,000. Benton County residents accounted for 39 percent of the clinic’s caseload, according to a survey.

Graph of the Day - February 24th

Source: Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight

I appreciate this because it attempts to plot these potential candidates on more than one characteristic. If I had to make a bet right now, I would bet on Huntsman. I see the battle of the Republican primary as basically being between the upper left corner and the lower right corner. I think the person in the upper left who best contorts themselves to attract the support of the lower right will be the nominee.

First, the area of each candidate’s circle is proportional to their perceived likelihood of winning the nomination, according to the Intrade betting market.
...

Finally, the color of each circle reflects the region the candidate is from: blue for the Northeast, red for the South, green for the Midwest, and yellow for the West.

**NOTE: "Graph of the Day" is a series that may include graphs, charts, and other visuals that communicate data.

Three motivations that drive me as a "farmer"

These are not all the motivations, but they are contradicting ones that battle for primacy in the hierarchy of vegetable garden planning. I stumbled over three articles in the same online publication and thought it odd that the ideas compete with each other to some degree.

Volume of Calories Grown
Beyond Salads: Planting a Garden to Feed a Family

vs

Most Nutritious Options
Top Ten Most Nutritious Vegetables and How to Grow Them in Your Garden

vs

Quick Growing and Producing
Quick Growing Vegetables for the Impatient Gardner

The first person to say "You don't have to sacrifice those things" will get a boot to the head. If I had one square foot to plant in, I would have to make a decision. One corn plant...one sweet potato slip...two crops of spinach....or early radish and late beets. There are always decisions and they do weigh on people, especially beginning growers.

Identifying your own personal goals is probably more fulfilling than ignoring them. My roommate likes variety. I tend more towards the quick producing and volume. I am far more interested in doing back to back crops of early and late vegetables than growing Mint or Basil.

My green beans are quick, prolific, and voluminous (in fiber, but not calories really). Probably why I like them.

Graph of the Day - February 17th

Long time away from writing, but I certainly have been thinking a lot. More garden related blogs to come in the next few days, but today's is political.

Arkansas Republicans (and a few turncoat Democrats) want to give a massive tax break to wealthy Arkansans while looking into a budget that cuts education and services to children and the poor.

Here is their plan to cut state capital gains taxes. I say if they are looking to cut 55-65 million dollars in taxes this year they should go ahead and completely eliminate the food tax.

For more on this read the press release from Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families. It has a link to their entire report on this issue and how it hands money to the wealthiest Arkansans.