Animal + vegetable != miracle

My tomatoes are doing beautifully. I have four plants -- two brandywine, one green zebra and one yellow plum -- across two raised beds, and they are now so hearty and vigorous, I've had to stake them to the skeleton of a vandalized "Yes on H" sign someone stuck in our yard.

(Side digression: Alameda's about to vote on Measure H, which would tax homeowners to make up a massive school budget shortfall. People who dig the prop have been putting signs in their yard. However, we can home last Friday and found that someone had stuck a "Yes on H" sign in our yard with a big, black "NO" spray-painted across it. Anyway, I huffily recycled the sign but kept the the metal frame for it. Thank you, vandals, for saving me the cost of a tomato cage.)

Because I had some room left over in the raised beds, I figured I'd do some co-planting. I have some French breakfast radishes coming up in one bed. But alas, in the other ... I have a pile of dirt and a suspicious hollow. There are no green onions coming up, because Zito has apparently been peeing on them. I've scooped out the dirt and have a screen over the bed now to prevent our idiot cat from jumping back in there, but still ... if it's not one thing in the garden, it's another. (At left: the pissy culprit lolls in "his" chair, which is parked in our garage instead of at the dump where it ought to be. He has no reason to look as irritated as he does.)

I can only imagine my headache if I really committed to urban homesteading, like these people:

"Farming the City" (SFChron, Mar 22, 08) -- ""People are asking: In a world where trade is hugely important but where trade embargoes become a weapon of defense, do we want to be dependent upon imported food? And what would it mean for this country to make a policy to be food independent? This is an issue that's bubbling, but my sense is that consumers are ahead of the government on it."

"Out of the Yard and Onto the Fork" (NYT, Apr 17, 08) -- "Roger Doiron, a kitchen gardener in Scarborough, Me., produced so many vegetables last year that there are still a few rutabagas in his root cellar. “Our seed order was $85, and we did not buy a single vegetable from June through January."

"City Farmers' Crops Go from Vacant Lot to Market" (May 7, 08) -- "Growing up in rural Jamaica, the Wilkses helped their families raise crops like sugar cane, coffee and yams, and take them to market. Now, in Brooklyn, they are farmers once again, catering to their neighbors’ tastes: for scallions, for bitter melons like those from the West Indies and East Asia and for cilantro for Latin-American dinner tables."

"Cut the Grass, Plant an 'Edible Estate'" (SFChron, May 10, 08) -- "[Fritz Haeg's] one of a number of artists who enact green ideas in their projects: Amy Franceschini's resurrection of San Francisco's World War II-era Victory Gardens ( www.sfvictorygardens.org); and Oakland's Ted Purves and Susanne Cockrell ( www.amityworks.org), whose projects involve the distribution of neighborhood fruit harvests (particularly lemons), an impulse also enacted in Southern California by Fallen Fruit ( www.fallenfruit.org).

"Dervaes' Farm's Quixotic Ecological Goal" (SFChron, May 17, 08) -- "In a 3,900-square-foot garden, [the Dervaeses] have been growing a whopping 3 tons of organic produce annually and hope to grow 5 tons in 2008. Their highly diverse crop includes more than 350 types of vegetables, herbs, fruits and berries. They also raise goats, chickens and ducks."  

Comments

[Kerry]

Zito! At least he's not digging up the plants and/or large amounts of dirt and depositing it into the pool the way my sister's dog does.

Neighbor Girl is apparently going to tear up the entire front lawn to garden. As she only has tarps out to kill the grass, I don't think this project is going so well. It's only in the 50's most days here, but our growing season is short and lettuce, peas, radishes, and herbs can go in. Unless this will be an installation of Dead Baby Garden II or Monster Penis. I really hope they have a friend who will want to buy my house.

[Polly]

Boy, those articles make me feel lazy! I'm taking out the front lawn one of these days....

So, are the "No" people with the spray cans following around the "Yes" people who stick signs into random people's yards, or are the "No" people taking the signs from the "Yes" people's yards, defacing them, and then sticking them into the yards of random other people?

[Lisa S.]

are the "No" people taking the signs from the "Yes" people's yards, defacing them, and then sticking them into the yards of random other people?

This one. I was walking the other afternoon and found another "NO" sign rammed into a neighbor's formerly pristine yard.

Man, I can see why you'd oppose the measure, but you're not really doing your position any favors with that approach.

*

Kerry, holy cats. I hope your house sells super-fast, before the real horror sets in.

[Kerry]

Oh, I've already called the Fire Prevention Bureau for our town in hopes of the Fire Inspector coming over for a chat. Because in our densely packed inner ring suburb is not the place for a fun campfire in the backyard with friends. Friday night's fire was more of a bonfire to my eyes. I can only hope they burn down my garage.

Next call's to the cops.

I feel bad about the neighbor on the other side though--for the past 7 years, the performance artists have benefited from his arrangement with the previous owner, under which they occasionally buy him beer and he keeps the lawn mowed, which he'd do anyway because he is a lawn freak. This project has cut him off of the joy of mowing!

[Polly]

Man, I can see why you'd oppose the measure, but you're not really doing your position any favors with that approach.

It does seem poorly conceived, as well as overly complex!