[Grovenet] Garden Irrigation In!

[Ayala, Kathy]

Good Morning 

I have a question and am hoping some one can help me with this. I have a
pear tree, it has been giving very little fruit and the fruit it gives
falls from the tree way to soon. Any one know what might be wrong with
my tree?

Thanks and have a good day

Kathy 

-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Walt Wentz
Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 11:48 AM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: [Grovenet] Garden Irrigation In!

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




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