Garden plot and APHA

I got a garden! I got a garden!

Ok, so it's really a 100 square foot plot of weeds, but it's got potential. Unfortunately it probably doesn't have durability since this is a temporary community garden site on a vacant lot down the street. The Lutheran church was cool enough to use part of the site for a garden when they tore down their old (and apparently poorly constructed) building. But they will be rebuilding the site as an apartment complex, mixed-use building, and new church so the community garden only lasts until they start construction. Hopefully that won't be until next fall though so I should have at least a year of gardening there.

The soil is not great, but I'm using the rotted bales of straw that are around the place as a soil amendment. That, some purchased [gasp!] manure and a good dose of miracle grow ought to accomplish relatively decent gardening next summer. I know it's not particularly organic or soil-building to use concentrated chemical fertilizers like miracle grow but this is an unusual situation. I don't have time for the long-term soil development that makes for a truly great garden so I'll take the quick response of refined chemicals instead.

Here's a picture of the site. My plot is on the end closest to where I'm standing to photograph it. I just started digging out a bed (look for the red spading fork) and stopped to take the picture.

And here's what it looked like when I finished the day's digging.

Boards and edging really help make it look like a garden. I'm attempting to solarize the weeds in the second bed with plastic bags. I'm not sure it's going to work though because the weather may be too cold and the sun too low in the sky.

The garden was last week. This week, Sunday through Wednesday I attending the APHA Annual Meeting. APHA is the American Public Health Association. It is the group for public health research, practice, and advocacy. It has a HUGE conference though. I heard there were around 12,000 registered attendees. There are so many simultaneous sessions that it is practically impossible to prioritize.

Here's a picture of the closing session of APHA. Not that it is terribly exciting since it looks like every other conference speech, but I'll prove I was there.

Oh here's a niftier picture. The replica tall ship, Pride of Baltimore II, came to visit the DC waterfront a couple of weekends ago. She is as "1812-era topsail schooner privateer." She is a modernized replica which means she looks about the same on the outside but has electronic navigation and a (small) backup diesel engine on the inside. It's hard to imagine, walking around on the deck that over 100 men would have lived on a ship like this in her privateering days. Talk about crowded! Also this ship and lots of other organizations and sites in Baltimore are planning a whole bunch of special events next year for the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. You ought to come visit me and check them out.

Here's the ship: 

I'm working on getting up earlier (I want to try to start work at 7 so I'll have a little daylight left when I get out for the day) so I'd better head to bed. I'll leave you with this link to a news piece about Oregon doctors using electronic health records though. Why? Because, one Go Oregon (also OPB helped on the reporting), and two I keep meaning to share more health policy stuff with my readers. That's part of why I'm here in DC after all.

Have a good night.

-Sarah