[Grovenet] Garden Irrigation In!

[Walt Wentz]

Hello, All!
On Saturday, Steve and Tony Matiaco,  along with Josh, members of  
their Scout troop, some international exchange students and many old  
hands and new volunteers, all showed up at the Forest Grove Community  
Garden site on a beautiful cool morning, as a truckload of plastic  
pipe and  fittings arrived from HPS Pipe and Supply in Cornelius.
While Steve, Josh and Shawn operated the monster trenching machine  
(so called from its behavior, not its size), the rest turned to  
cutting, gluing and assembling the plumbing system, then lowering the  
completed sections to their position at the bottom of those trenches.  
After after six hours of anthill  activity, the field bristled with a  
"crop" of 50 white faucet risers, each with a brass faucet on top.
At that point, Tony's Mom and sisters-- Carole, Annie and Diana--  
called a halt for a delicious home-made lunch, finished off with home- 
made cookies.
Shortly after that, the final line was installed. Standing at one end  
of the field, looking down the long panorama of faucet risers  
projecting 18 inches into the air, the real scale of the project  
becomes obvious. That part of the job is DONE!
Great work, all!
Next we have to test the system for water-tightness, which can't be  
done until the city gets the backflow-preventer installed. We don't  
want any sudden geyser erupting in the middle of the Garden!
Once that's done, we will backfill the trenches-- which will be  
another good team project, and should go quicker with many hands--  
and then it's time for the first cultivation, to turn over the lush  
blanket of weeds that have flourished in that fertile soil.
Holly has set up a ribbon-cutting celebration for 11 a.m. on the  
26th, which will be another workday for Tony and crew, as they  
install the fence around the West end of the field and the raised-bed  
gardens are installed just north of the parking lot.
But-- as they say on TeeVee-- that's not all, folks! A gracious lady,  
Mary Maxon, has offered us a 12-by-12 gazebo, with openwork metal  
sides and fabric roof, which we can set up as a children's area/ 
picnic site/cooling-off spot for hot summer days. The roof frame was  
damaged during last winter's heavy snow, but that's something that  
can be easily replaced with a few 2x4s.

Still to to:
• Pressure-test water system (need to have city connect the system)
• Backfill trenches
* Get first cultivation done.
* Set up donated raised-beds, fill bottoms with spoil dirt from the  
pile just inside the northwest corner of the fence line.

(Official ribbon cutting at 11 on Saturday at about this point, as  
work continues)

•  Build west-side fence, start on east-side fence and main gate.
• Do second cultivation,  stake and string plots (another BIG team  
job) and start letting people plant and cultivate their crops!

Steve Matiaco has suggested a "Garden Barbecue" for some Saturday  
when the Garden is up and running-- for publicity, goodwill and to  
draw in more rentors-- which seems a great idea to me!

We still need fence posts-- Tony has collected 18, I will find some  
more and split 12 cedar posts (for ends and corners), which is a  
definite 30 out of the 40-odd required, so we will need some more.
Any decrepit but usable (or repairable) wheelbarrows will be greatly  
appreciated!
We'll need 30 or 40 2x4s, for faucet support posts in the garden and  
to replace the roof frame on the gazebo.
Thanks to everyone, a great public amenity is approaching completion!

Walt