Tree Layout and Irrigation System Design

The Garden Committee met last Tuesday to review the updated designs. Here's what the group decided on:

Layout for 30 trees


Irrigation System Layout


Above Ground Sprinkler System


With the key decisions finally made, Helen was able to submit the grant application to Lowe's for the new irrigation system. And MillionTreesNYC should have everything they need to start work on getting the trees planted.

Hopefully we'll get the grant in a few months and then install a new irrigation system. Until then we will just have to keep watering manually. Susan says that the new trees will need consistent and thorough watering, at least once and maybe twice a week if it doesn't rain. We will have to keep doing that through the fall so they are hydrated when the ground freezes in the Winter. Adding mulch will help too.

Garden Plans Moving Forward Fast

I arrived at the garden on Friday at about 2:15pm and found the soil around most of the plants to be pretty darn moist. The curly willow tree that had seemed to be dead or dying on my last visit had about 10 new green leaves on every branch (crisis averted!). Since I was there I watered anyway--but because the plants didn't need as much water as usual I was finished in the record time of 1 and 1/2 hours. It normally takes 3 hours to water the plants.


I was happy to notice that the playground on the west side of the yard had been completely removed. There was a yellow caution ribbon stretched across that side of the yard and two men were filling up the holes in the pavement where the swing sets and jungle gyms had been anchored. I wanted to say, "hey wait, we want to get rid of the asphalt and put in plants", but I guess with holes all over the place the "slip and fall" lawyers might end up having a field day.

Another development is that committee member, and professional landscaper, Susan Welti drew up some gorgeous plans for the New York Restoration Project to follow when they plant the 33 trees which should be happening in the next two months. At last Wednesday's meeting, when the plans were presented, members also discussed drip irrigation systems, the care that the new trees will need (a lot of water for one thing), and the information that Helen will need for the Lowe's grant application she's writing--for an irrigation system.

In addition Rebecca met with the architect in charge of the Bard building expansion to make sure the garden plans did not conflict, and Tim contacted Liz Poreba, the advisor of the BHSEC ECO Club. We now have two student liaisons to help us plan future garden activities and care.

All in all an amazing amount of forward movement has occurred since last spring. The garden was beautiful this summer, and it will go on. I can't wait to see what it looks like next year.

I'll end this post with pictures of the squirrels eating lunch in the yard, the place where the playground used to be, and some early autumn beauty from our asphalt jungle.

The trees are coming!

BHSEC is soon to become the proud recipient of 30 trees from the MillionTreesNYC initiative that is a part of the New York Restoration Project (http://www.nyrp.org ). Here are some photos that they gave us of similar installations they have done in other schools.







Since there are long-term plans to expand the existing BHSEC building, the trees will be located where the old children's playground is today.





All that equipment is going to be removed (that may have already started actually) and then the trees will be planted in their place. Once that is done we hope to apply for a grant to construct an irrigation system to do away with the manual watering. Then the existing container garden will be relocated amongst the trees and in the immediate space in front of it.







Susan Welti has been kind enough to offer to put together a design for the new garden pro bono. So we're all really excited to see what it is going to look like! Stay tuned for more updates after this Wednesday where Susan will be presenting her proposals to Ray Peterson and the BHSEC Garden Committee.

Lunch

Unfortunately I dropped my camera into a mug of hot coffee, so the pictures I took this week are stuck inside my memory card for now. Therefore I'll just report that I arrived during the students' lunch hour and there were 20+ students out in the yard. Some were in the basketball area, but most of them were chatting, eating, and studying in various parts of the garden. One group had notebooks out and seemed to be working together in the shady section of the garden. They had pulled the benches that face each other closer together. The traffic was noisy so I assumed that this was so they could hear each other better. (It will be good to be aware of this when the placement of benches is planned in the future).

Another thing I noticed, after the students left and I had finished watering, was that squirrels were enjoying lunch too--munching unfinished lunches inside of the trash barrel and also food that was forgotten on the benches and tables.


I'll end this post with two pictures I took earlier in September of a sculptures decorating the fence of another garden in the neighborhood--on 9th and B. One reminded me of the red zinnias that are still blooming in the Bard Garden.

Late Summer Blooms

Don't forget to wear your gardening gloves. (This stinging nettle has attacked me twice!)

Dog Days of August

Chyrsanthemums coming

Fountain on Mangin

Hey everybody, this is what the garden looks like now!

(Please feel free to click on any picture. They expand to a much larger size.)

These bikers seem to be admiring it--as did many others who walked by and commented. Last week a woman and her daughter asked me if they could have a barbeque picnic in the yard. I hated to say no.

This is a bloom new to the garden this week. New butterfly too.

A morning glory is making progress in taking over a bench.

I watered with Sonia. She's been bringing in rocks and turned a tree trunk into a planter.

When we put the sprinkler on the trunk we both longed to have some kind of fountain or birdbath in the garden. Forget about the possibility of rats!

I know this sounds crazy, but our "fountain" reminded me of Moby Dick. I'm reading the part (and I haven't gotten very far) where Ismael talks about how people are drawn to water. He describes sailing around Manhattan, "belted round by wharves" and seeing thousands of "landsmen" at the water's edge.

"But Look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seeingly bound for a dive. Strange!"

Not as much water here, but I was contemplating a dive.


Sonia was excited about this rose (only $3.99 at National Wholesale Liquidators). And it's darn healthy.

Today's harvest.

Yes.