Wednesday August 24, 2011
We’ve done a fair amount of carrying buckets of water over the years, so we decided to go big in order to keep our native plantings watered. You may know, from our last post (Brute Force!), that the ground at our restoration site on the Stanislaus River has been prepared for planting native trees and shrubs. Once the seedlings are planted, it is critical to keep them well-watered for the first few years while their roots get established. To accomplish a regular watering regime we have installed a 2,500-gallon water tank on site and plumbed it with a drip irrigation system. The tank can then be filled weekly by drawing river water with a gas powered water pump so that water can be gradually delivered by the drip system right to the plants’ root zone, where it is most needed. With the irrigation system complete, the plants are ready to be transplanted to their new locale…